I can't tell you what I learned in school, but...

I am done with livejournal--or rather I should have been a long time ago--but I am glad I had this to keep track of my abroad trip...and now I am moving to a different location for grown-ups, or so I am told.

Check it out here. http://kellyabarrett.com If that breaks over the years, which it might, if godaddy fails or I forget to pay the bills, then go here.

Cheers, everyone.

That quote is from Definitely, Maybe. A flick that definitely, maybe is up there with my top ten favourite romantic comedies.

Anyhow, tonight, I was reading A Sunburned Country, and I was laughing quite a bit, just in the first chapter, but then I was also getting sad. Because he talks about things I now know first-hand, but in so much more eloquent a manner than I could ever begin to.

And then, a girl from American U. popped up in my Facebook newsfeed, posting pictures from Cairns and Brisbane, and my apartment building. So fresh and new and exciting. And that was me, about 5 months ago. Why are they already there? Isn't it too early? I feel like I just moved.

Well that was when I panicked. I don't know how I will get through this book, with all its Australia love oozing out.

And that's when I decided to open up my Hotmail account from 2003, and that's when I found a handful of what you might call "cartas de corazon"? Or maybe not? My Spanish is atrocious. Anyway, that left me laughing and entertained for well over an hour.

Oh, life. It does go on. And you go somewhere new and you find love all over again, in something, someone, someplace. In yourself.

What a life.

Alright. So it has been ages since I got home (well, eight days), and I still have yet to blog-blog about Fiji. The time has come, mates.
I also have not blog-blogged about the whole last week in Brissie. This is gonna be a long blog-blog. Let's go...

I took my politics final June 19th. Then took my biology final the 24th. Checked my grades for my classes the other day. Got a 4 in Aussie Terrestrial. Got a 5 in Aussie Politics. Got a 6 in Aussie Pop Culture. (Translates to a C, B, and an A, if I had been taking the classes for real grades, which I wasn’t.) I am quite pleased with these grades, trust. Considering I probably attended 25% of my lectures all semester.
In between these times there was lots of hanging out and soaking up some last quality time with friends slash even making new friends who quickly started to feel like friends I had had for years for whatever reason. Which is sad in one respect because it’s never fun to find such great people and then have to say goodbye to them so soon. But mostly I know it’s better to have made the memories. And I am so happy I wasn’t the type of person who studied abroad but then hung out with Americans the whole time, drinking in the apartment, going out to the same bars. Bor-ing. Most of the people in my program were like this. It just wasn’t how I wanted to spend my time. I am so glad I spent my last couple weeks with friends around Brisbane. I love Brisbane. I love the people there. I just…love it all.

Highlights:
Italian night at Brad/Jade/Chris’ house. Delicious food, wine, karaoke on the tele. After we all (Mel, Brad, Dan, Az, etc) went out after to the Chalk Hotel, which was a fun place. I swear it was fun. So what I fell asleep in the footy-watching room…I needed a power nap. One day I will go back there after not having a big meal and wine and see how I go.



State of origin, game 2. This night was funny and due to my just completing my final exam that morning, I had a bit too much wine. And let’s just say there was a mop involved this night. Anddd Queensland won. Heck yeah.

Kirra Beach. Lindsey, Candace, and I pretending we were surf lifesavers (let’s disregard the fact that I’ve misplaced the yellow shirt, because all that matters is that I still have that super cute yellow and red cap that I will obviously wear around everywhere! heh.) and driving around all day and walking down to the beach at night and…I felt like I was in high school again but in a good way, like in a carefree, listening to music and being stupid kind of way…it was just so great.





Byron Bay. Finally went on my last day in Australia. Went with the whole crew, including Mel’s boys who crack me up. I really do love kids. I mean, obviously, since people pay me to watch them all day, but I really find them to be hilarious. Kids keep it real, make you remember what is important. Went to the lighthouse and then picnicked and threw the footy ball around on the beach (aka I made one attempt and then decided to stick with taking pictures). It was good fun. That night amidst my stressed out packing, Mel told me I had to go out on my last night, regardless of my 10am flight. Ugh. But, it was a good decision. The night, although I do remember it all, was a hilarious blur of people, and getting to see people I hadn’t been able to say goodbye to like Jordyn and Warren. It was very good times.



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Waiting for the plane at the airport was weird. I had to fly through Sydney. And it was like a relief, even though it made my travel time longer. It was like an extended goodbye—or rather, ‘see you later’—to Australia.

And then I sat down on my flight to Fiji and the guy next to me, Scott, was headed to the same hostel as me, and had studied at UQ for the past three years, but he was American actually. Anyway, I say this because instead of sitting and stewing in my sadness I had a chatting partner. And this was good. We met up with a couple others on their way back to the States at the hostel and probably ended up staying up too late hanging out, considering I had to be up at 6:30 to catch breakfast and my shuttle to the boat…I woke up at 7am. And the bus came at 7:15. I ran out into the lobby all disoriented and the man is like, “The bus is here, hurry!” Haha so I did. And when you hurry, you forget things ☹. Boo. Hoo. Oh well!

Anyway the way the boat works is you hop on at Port Denarau and it sails all the way up to the tip of the Yasawas, which is Coral View I think. Basically every island has only one resort, and the ones this boat travels to are largely economy type resorts, so lots of backpackers and singles, or just young couples. It was heaps of fun, because mostly everyone was looking to make friends and chat with you. The first island I went to was Waya Lai Lai. I had three nights there. The first few days weren’t the best weather, but. So I was chatting with this girl Sarah the first night I was there and she was reading this thick blue book and I looked and it’s a PADI certification book. So we are chatting and turns out she is doing hers in just a few days. I told her and the instructor, who came over, how I had fractured my sternum in an accident back in April so I had to hold off on diving. Jone, the instructor, said I could put the equipment on in the morning and go into the water and see how I felt and if I felt comfortable breathing, I should go ahead and do the course. So, the next morning, Jack took me out (Jack was such a cutie) and he did the basics with me—clearing the mask and the hand signals, etc. And then we went diving and let me tell you, diving in Fiji was better than the Great Barrier Reef. Just, spectacular. I love how you go down there and you’re just in this whole new world. It just makes all your problems and issues feel so small and insignificant. You know, it’s like, get over it, man. Carry on, make it work--like the fish do. And everything down there runs so smoothly. You don’t see the clownfish at war with the lionfish over oil. Or something. Heh. Although the lionfish definitely would have won, they’re pretty damn big.





So that is basically what I did while I was in Waya Lai Lai. Diving. In the afternoon on Wednesday I ventured the 2-minute walk down the beach into the “village,” which really just consisted of a few dilapidated houses, a church, and a schoolhouse. A couple young boys instantly greeted me. They were delighted when I told them to keep the headband they started trying to grab at that I had wrapped around my wrist. Something so simple. Then, a man named Soro led me into a woman’s home where she and a few other people were sitting. I told her I would love to buy some jewelry from her and she dumped out this huge bag of bracelets and anklets and I picked out a few for me and some friends. Then I told her I’d like a bracelet, and could she make it custom for me? Of course. So I sat and picked out all the beads I wanted, a couple shells, and then some shark teeth and she made me this wonderful Fiji bracelet, complete with a Fiji flag. Soro then insisted that I try their sweet papaya, as I told him I wasn’t too keen on the pawpaw they had at the resort. He was right, their papaya fresh from the tree outside the home was delicious, very sweet. Then he showed me around the rest of the village, which didn’t take very long. We talked about the significance of God and faith to their community, and to most Fijians I suspect. It’s hard to really describe. But you go to a place like that not knowing anything. Can I trust these people? Do they even want me here? Will they understand me? Answers—Yes. Definitely. To a certain extent. They understand the words you speak, but something tells me if you took Soro and plopped him in the middle of America, he wouldn’t understand how Americans can live the way they do. And I’m guilty of every bit of it myself. That’s why talking to him was so eye opening. “That’s why there are so many bad things in this world…people don’t pray to God.” It was really a beautiful moment.





And not that I have become super religious lately, but I do keep having these moments that remind me I need to stay grounded in something bigger than myself, keep the faith a bit better, if you will. I mean, there’s a reason I didn’t leave 1 second earlier than I did the morning of April 7th, and there’s a reason that driver wasn’t in a bigger hurry.  The people from Waya Lai Lai know that reason, just like the people at C3 Indooropilly do. And yeah. So on we go…



Other than diving and village visiting, I made a few lovely friends, some from France, some from America or Canada. The first night, wondering what the deal with kava was, I sat down next to one of the resort staff people watching the footy and asked him about it. “You wanna drink some kava?” He took me outside and we sat down with the rest of the resort people and they showed me the traditional way to accept a cup of kava (shoes off, clap once, say ‘Bula,’ drink it all down, then they all clap three times). Kava basically tastes like dirty water. But trust, it’s pretty awesome.



Leaving Waya Lai Lai was bittersweet. It meant leaving a really beautiful place with really beautiful people. But, I had gotten a lot out of the island for three nights. I had my PADI license, something I had long thought was out of reach for my abroad trip, I had seen a personal side of the natives, had tried kava, had done the Bula dance, had said the word “Bula” at least 300 times, had made loads of friends.

Korovou was my next and last stop, and it was also beautiful. Arguably more beautiful and a “nicer” resort amenities-wise, although I was still in a hostel room so that part didn’t much make a difference to me. I didn’t do much except lay in the sun, around the pool and on the beach, and hang out with a new friend I made Chrissy, who was a young doctor from San Diego and a total sweetheart, and Mandy, a French girl my age who was traveling around for a few months. One day we all went fishing, and caught no fish. But Mandy caught a giant piece of coral. We laughed until my sides hurt. I had a really good time talking with people from England and other countries, talking about differences in words and culture and all that sort of stuff. It’s always funny to hear misconceptions and some true perceptions that other countries have of America. I reveled in these conversations because I knew that was my last chance for such discussions for a while.



There are so many other things that happened in this weeklong stopover, but much of it I have documented in my trusty Moleskine. So I will close the Fiji chapter here. It was in the top three of my favorite places I visited while abroad. New Zealand’s in there too, as is Australia, of course =). Clearly, I will never be able to choose an ultimate favorite.



I am so grateful for it all.

When I first arrived in Brisbane and settled into my new life, it was amazing how well I slept. I wasn’t sleepy during the day, but at the end of the day I was always exhausted. I remember not even going out that much at night the first few weeks because I just didn’t have the energy to stay out until 4am.

Now, I am back home in Florida, and haven’t been able to sleep normally for five days. I arrived home around noon on Sunday and slept for an hour or two in my bed (this was a strange feeling), and woke up thinking it was Monday, but it was really only 3 o’clock and my house was empty, because mum and dad had gone to the store and if there is one thing I’m not used to, it’s an empty house.  A place other than the beach where I am able to actually collect my thoughts, for once. Without the smell of alcohol or the looming reality of the impossible mess in the kitchen that without a doubt I'd end up having to clean. Anyhow, I name these factors which have made being at home quite comfortable and lovely: my mother doing my laundry and making me food and generally keeping the house impeccably clean--not that it isn’t always impeccably clean, my dad not giving me a hard time about taking 3 hour naps every afternoon for the past 5 days, the dogs even seem to be behaving better than usual. I do secretly think they are trying to make my transition as smooth and pain-free as possible, which is very nice. I never even cried. Even while unpacking. It was as if I was numbed by these newfound luxuries.

However, one thing in particular has been bothering me since I returned, and that is how I lost a sentimental souvenir while in Fiji (I realize I haven’t blogged about Fiji yet, I will backtrack). It was a surf lifesaver shirt Az and Matt gave Lindsey, Candace, and I. I believe I mistakenly left it at the hostel I stayed at in Nadi, and by the time I called a few hours later to inquire about it, I suspect a fellow traveler had already picked it up, as the maids hadn’t put it in the lost and found. Bastards. But my fault ultimately. I am comforted by the fact that I still have the shorts and hat but…maybe one day I’ll get a replacement shirt.

Then last night, I felt miraculously tired at 9pm so I jumped at the opportunity to go to bed early. I woke up around midnight with a Facebook message from Lindsey on my blackberry. Again. Reverse culture shock, usually I would not have read this message until the morning. Technology that is always there. Even in your sleep. I read it obviously, and she basically told me, yeah, it’s disappointing you lost the shirt but don’t worry, it could have been worse (among other words of comfort). Truth. I fell back asleep.

Then, around 3:30am I woke up again. Sweating. I had turned the air conditioning down in my bedroom when I first got home, because though it was at 78 degrees F, that was about 5 degrees colder than our air con-free apartment got, on average (not including the last few weeks when winter set in). So when I woke, it was about 85 degrees in my room, and the ceiling fan was turned off. I jumped up and turned the fan on. Better. Then, Lindsey’s message flashed in my mind. “It could have been worse.”

Shit. I scrambled around through all my drawers tossing t-shirts around. Where was my ‘Sweet As’ shirt the three of us got in New Zealand? Shitshit. Think. Then I thought laundry room. I started digging through a load of wet white’s sitting in the washer. There. I grabbed the damp shirt, so relieved, and then collapsed to the floor, crying, wiping my eyes on the wet fabric. Crying. Over a shirt? Well, no, not really. Just. Over everything.

And that was the first time I cried upon return from studying abroad.

So, everybody that goes to New Zealand comes back with stories about how they skydived or bungy-jumped or white water rafted or participated in some other extreme activity that require you to sign your life away at the beginning. Well, I last week, Lindsey, Candace, and I traveled to the land of the Kiwis, and we returned with none of those stories. But. I am positive our experience was completely original and unlike more other people’s. We only had 6 days to work with to explore the south island, but I think we did a great job.




We arrived in Christchurch Saturday night at 11:30pm, after a 4 hour flight and losing 2 hours. I am going to be honest, when we booked this flight, I still was under the impression that New Zealand was an island directly east of the middle of Australia. Well, it isn’t. It’s very much south of Australia and to the west.  And it is cold there right now, because it is wintertime. And well, I realized it would be cold like a month before we left, and Levon let me boring her mitts and heavy winter coat, so that worked out well, and I certainly needed it. Although when we got off and walked outside at the airport before the hotel shuttle picked us up, the temperature was quite nice, almost refreshing in a way. That didn’t last long, then it just got downright cold. We stayed at a hotel the first night since we got in so late but the next morning at 9am, our Jucy Camper came and picked us up. For those of you that aren’t familiar with how camper vans work, (I certainly wasn’t) you rent them and then you park them at camper van parking lots (“holiday parks”) where you can plug the cord in and get electricity to use the microwave and outlets. Otherwise there is also a gas stove and a pump-sink that you can use at any time. Although we never used the gas stove because Lindsey was afraid. There are bench seats in the back that convert into a double bed if you want to go to sleep. And in the front there were three belts so we could all sit up there while driving. It had heat, but you couldn’t use the heat while you were parked at night because the car was off. So at night we wrapped ourselves in the doona and layered on as much as we could. It was humorous. Did I mention it was cold?



Our first day we drove west toward Fox Glacier. It took us about a day to get there, and we just switched off driving whenever someone got tired or whatever. But generally it was very easy to drive, considering how big it was. And it wasn’t that hard to adjust to driving on the left. Everything is just reversed and you have to remember that as you are driving. The first night we pretty much pulled over in this teensy town named Whataroa, and slept in the parking lot of a general store or something, I think alongside the house of the people the owned it probably. It was actually quite funny. Then the next day we drove toward Franz Josef Glacier, which comes before Fox, and took pictures there and stuff. Then we continued on toward Fox, and got there about 10am or so. We found a cute little café and sipped on tea and cappuccinos and hung out in the heat until it was time for our glacier walk at 1pm. They briefed us at the beginning about safety things and what the day would be like and then we put on our rain jackets and over-trousers and were given our  “crampons” which are like spikes that you attached to the bottom of the boots they give you which help you not slip when you are on the ice.

Then we were off. The first hour or two of the hike was quite wet, as it was drizzling a tad. At the beginning of the walk, I said to our guide Richard, who was an Aussie, “So is there going to be like any stops along the way where we can be under a covering of some sort or…?” and he looked confused like what the hell is this American girl getting on about, when Lindsey chimes in, “Basically what she is trying to say is if we can’t take pictures today there is going to be a problem.” (Lindsey doesn’t sugarcoat.) Richard replies, “Oh right, no I will make the rain stop at some point for us, that OK?” I said that would be perfect. And then about halfway through our exhausting hike up this mountain thing, we must have climbed the steps that are built into the mountain for about 45 minutes, when he actually did make the rain stop and we were basically free to take pictures whenever, except this one section when you have to climb while holding on to a chain and Richard told us we owed him a pint of beer for every time we took our hands off the chain.

Then we finally made it to the ice part of the glacier, and that was when we put on the crampons and got out there to see the real thing. By that time like 3 people in our group had dropped out, which meant that they had to walky-talky down to other guides who came and picked them up, but it didn’t detract from our hike, which was good. Being on the ice was the best part, it was such an awesome view and so much fun to walk around and crawl through ice caves and take photos and it was just a blast. It made the long hike up totally worth it. And all the while Richard talked to us about how the glacier has been slowly receding as the years go on and is like half the size as it used to be not too long ago. It was really quite the informative day. It was definitely a highlight of our week. Once we got back down and started heading across the area on the ground that was all ponds and what not, about 20 minutes before we made it back to the bus, I started getting this awful pain in my left heel like I had a rock in my boot or something. But I stuck it out and once we sat down on the bus, I ripped off the boot and my sock and I had like a hole in my heel basically. But it wasn’t bleeding at all. Richard stick his hand in the boot and is like “Ouch, you had a nail sticking through here!” He was like, how did you possibly deal with this for so long without saying anything?! But I was basically OK, it was just a tad sore. Then, once we got back to lodge, Candace takes her boot off and the heel of her sock is completely drenched in blood. And she doesn’t even feel a thing. She had a nail go through her boot too (they attach the bottom of the boot with nails but sometimes I guess as they get worn the nails can break through inside the bottom.) So they cleaned up our feet and gave Candace a band-aid and stuff and we were alright. We return to the Jucy and hired a holiday park spot for the night, and they had a kitchen as stuff so we cooked up some soup and defrosted.



The next day we headed toward Queenstown, and saw Lake Wanaka on the way which was totally gorgeous. I haven’t quite mentioned that the scenery driving around New Zealand is absolutely fantastic. You will be driving and come across mountains, valleys, lakes, vineyards, gold mines, cow pastures, sheep on hills, the ocean, and maybe a total of 5 cars will pass you the entire time. It is hard to describe just how beautiful it really was. I think everyone should visit New Zealand before they die. It is just a highly underrated country with so much to see. Luckily we had our GPS too, which made it a lot easier. But driving around was quite an adventure. You go zipping around these sharp turns and look down and there's hundreds of meters until a lake or something below you its intense. And really fun to drive,



Queenstown is the “adventure capitol” of New Zealand. However, mostly all we did there was shop and talk to people and hang out in Starbucks and walk around. But it was really beautiful there and we quite enjoyed it. We only stayed one night, parked across the street from a five star hotel. Haha. If you can’t afford to stay in it, you might as well stay across from it I suppose. We woke up to the sun rising over the mountains across from a lake we were parked next to. What more could you ask for really?



Then we headed east again toward Mt. Cook. But this day actually ended up being kind of a waste. Once we got to the observation place for Mt. Cook, it was so foggy that you couldn’t even see the mountain. You could see a mountain range, but not the actual peak of Mt. Cook, which is the tallest of them all. It was also the coldest we were the entire trip, probably because of the high altitude that we were at I am sure. But, on the way back to the main highway to head east, we came across this GIANT flock of sheep that was being herded elsewhere and I had to pretty much park the Jucy in the middle of the road to let them pass. We thought it was hilarious though, we got out and took pictures and everything. Heaps of sheeps. Everywhere you looked.



Our next stop was Hamner Springs. We spent our last day there, and I am so glad we had time to head that way because it was the perfect ending to a week of roughing it. Basically you pay a small fee to enter and get to use their hot spring pools all day. There are like 10 pools there, and they are all different temperatures ranging from like 80 degrees F to 110. It was lovely. The sulphur pools smelled a bit weird at first, and you had to get used to that, but then you barely noticed it. We met some interesting people in those pools too.



One man from Hawaii talked our ears off for about an hour about how we need to be spokespeople for the Earth and how we are the generation that needs to help to turn things around and do things differently to shed things off that aren’t renewable and all that stuff. It was interesting to talk with him, but then I kind of got depressed thinking about it. Sometimes you just feel kind of helpless and overwhelmed. So many people are in “survivor mode” these days, just living from day to day getting by, and it’s too difficult for them to think down the track and about how the way we live today and the little actions that we make (leaving the lights on when we don’t need them, driving instead of public transport, owning an SUV, etc) will effect our children or their children. It doesn’t seem feasible that one day our grandchildren might not have what we have today because we used it all up without thought to renewal. But I suppose that is a possible reality for the future. And I think that’s why the economy is in such ruins, the world is struggling to shed off the industries that are inefficient and bad for the Earth in the long-term, and humans are kind of saying, “No, just let us get by 2 more years and it will be OK.” Well, it can’t work like that. It’s scary, yeah. But at the same time, there is a lot of possibility for things to turn around; it will just take time. We are sort of caught in the crux of what I think historians will look back on as a revolution more monumental than the Industrial Revolution, and it will have to be one where people and the planet both end up winners. It can’t really be any other way. Anyhow, that concludes my philosophical tangent for today.



Out last day was spent in Christchurch. We went to this Antarctic Centre where you get to experience sub-arctic conditions in this special room and there are penguins and it was really cute. Then we had to return the Jucy and head to the airport. The week kind of flew by. Now it is time to face reality: dun dun dun! Exams! I have one Friday and one the 24th. Then I leave the 28th! Yikes.

Mixed emotions all around but I have to kind of put them aside and concentrate on Australian politics for the next four days.

So this has been a good week. Last Thursday, I went to the Australia Zoo with my terrestrial environment class. We saw a lot of animals that aren’t native to Australia like tigers and stuff, so it was different and fun and not just the regular kangaroos and koalas. I fed an elephant, and that felt really weird. There was also a camel, and she was really cute. We all felt like we were in first grade on this field trip but it was fun because we didn’t have an assignment to go with it so we could just enjoy ourselves and take it in. We didn’t get to meet Steve Irwin’s family. But we sure heard his daughter, Bindi, singing throughout the park. She is a local celebrity of the Australia Zoo. A Hannah Montana, if you will.

That night, I stayed up late working on my paper for Australian Popular Culture, which was due the next day. I think it came out good though. I was happy with it. And I learned quite a bit. Beforehand, I went in to the city and talked to a guy at a tattoo parlor, Wild At Heart Tattoo, and he told me where to go to get some tattoo magazines. I bit the bullet and bought a couple to the tune of $20, I really needed them to get enough primary research. You can read it here if you have absolutely no life or are just really bored.

Friday night we went to get dinner in Brisbane and I met up with Megan, the girl who stayed in our hostel when we were in Sydney. She is travelling around and arrived in Brisbane last week. She was only staying one day though, because she had found a cheap flight to Thailand the day before, so we needed to hang out. We walked around shopping a bit, as the stores stay open late here on Fridays. That night, I went out with some friends to the Embassy Hotel, nothing thrilling though. The next morning, I met up with Megan again and showed her around Brisbane since she hadn’t done much walking around. We went to South Bank (my favourite day spot) and did some Queen St. shopping and be the end of the day I was pretty exhausted.

When I got back home, Az, a friend of Brad’s who we have hung out with a couple times, asked Jenny, Lindsey, Candace, and I if we wanted to do dinner. Having spent money on meals out too much the previous days, I hesitated but then we went and I just didn’t order anything and picked at Candace’s chips and Az’s salad. We went to the Beach House restaurant in the Myer Centre in the CBD and it was actually really fun. There was this cute guy singing and playing guitar and it was just generally a really fun, seafood and burgers, laid-back kind of place with an island-y feel to it. After dinner, Az showed us the QUT campus, which is right in the city. We really liked the campus. I kind of wish UQ was right in the city, but I guess since UQ is so big, they can’t really do that. QUT on the other hand has a few different campuses spread around Brissie area.

We decided to see a movie at 9:30 in South Bank, because they do $6 movies. Brad met up with us and we saw, much to my disapproval, Night at the Museum, which I expected to be so boring and for little kids but I will admit it actually was funny. Lindsey, who had been an off-the-wall lunatic all night, must have expended all her energy early, because she fell asleep halfway through the movie. Then, when we left, since there were four of us girls, we split and Jenny and Candace had Brad give them a ride home and Mark and Az gave Lindsey and I a ride home. Well, as Az was just nearing our apartment, after driving about 15 minutes out of the city, he gets a call from Brad. He couldn’t find where he parked his jeep. Of course, Lindsey (who was now awake) and I found this hilarious and pretty much spent the next hour and a half in a hysterical fit. Az had to drive back to South Bank, drive up and down one-way streets (that is where Brad said he thought he had parked) until he found Brad’s jeep on a not one-way street. We pulled up alongside the three of them, Jenny wrapped in Candace’s opp shop bogan multi-colored plaid jumper, (translation: a coat from a thrift store that looks like a total hick used to own it) and I don’t know, I have just never laughed so much in my life. “Excuse me? I seem to have lost my jeep…it’s um, about this big…it looks like a jeep…” Brad won’t ever live that down. Poor Brad. Then we went back home and made scrambled eggs at 2 in the morning. Oh…Saturdays. This story is made all the more hilarious when I remind you that none of us were drinking this night. Ok, maybe this story will only ever be funny to me.

Sunday, I didn’t do much exciting during the day. In the evening though, Lindsey and Candace asked me if I wanted to join them for “Church at the Pub.” They have been going to a church here in Brisbane since we arrived in Australia, and they really love it. So I thought why not, it’s never too late. It was held at the Indooropilly Hotel, and they brought in a few different performers that night that played music and it was just really fun. Everyone was really nice and welcoming and I can see why they both like the church and the people there. Also, only in Australia would a special night with the church be held at the pub. I almost got emotional thinking about all the great people I have met here and things I have done when “Dr. Bob” was singing, “Stand By Me” at the end. I know I am totally lame but whatever, it was just one of those moments. I cannot believe exactly one month from now I will be flying back to the States.

This week was the last week of classes. I picked up my marked paper about the Australian parliament this week, I got a 30/40 (On a scale from “Excellent” to “Unsatisfactory” that puts me at a “Good,” apparently). They grade so sporadically here. Like they don’t give you letter marks, they give you numbers out of a number, and then apparently your GPA at the end is on a scale of 1 to 7, and you only need a 3 to pass. I don’t really get it but whatever. I also picked up my experiment report from Fraser Island, too, and I got a (what translates to) 90%! Woah. That was a relief and a shock. So my mind is eased quite a bit; it looks like unless I sleep through my finals, I will be passing all of my classes. I won’t be sleeping through my finals, promise. I will still need to study heaps though.

Last night was this really huge rugby game, the State of Origin. An interesting note, we were meant to go to Az’s to watch the game and have a barbie and stuff. But last minute, plans kind of changed and it ended up being this sort of eye-opening moment for me. I guess because Az’s mom is from Afghanistan, he reckoned she wouldn’t really be too keen on having 4 Americans over to watch the game. Woah. Not that she ever out and said that to Az or anything. But he wasn’t sure she would appreciate it I guess. And I just find that to be one of those moments where you just sit back and think, “Damn. That sucks.” Maybe I am just naïve. Or maybe this is just the first time I’ve ever felt “prejudiced” against, like, on a more personal level. Anyway, I have nothing against him or his mum, it’s just one of those things you wish could be different.

I feel like I wrote this entire entry and it’s not even that exciting to anyone but me. Well, brace yourself, because Saturday we leave for New Zealand and that is going to be one heck of a trip. I cannot wait. We are going to freeze our bums off. Good thing I am borrowing Levon’s coat (the woman I babysit for).
Stay tuned =)

Yikes. So it has been ages since I last updated. Recap time.

So last weekend, I decided really last minute to join Lindsey, Candace, and Brad on a camping trip to Fraser Island. I hadn’t wanted to go because the weather was going to be bad, and there was going to be, I don’t know, camping, like with tents—and I don’t really do tents. But I figured, perhaps this would be a good experience for me. Plus, I knew if I stayed home I would fail to get any work done and I would just be thinking the whole time how jealous I was that three of them were off on an adventure together!

So we left Friday night for Hervey Bay, which is where Brad comes from and his parents and sister still live there. There are barges that leave for Fraser from Hervey Bay so we figured we would stay there that night and get on the first barge over in the morning. Brad’s family has two carpet snakes that live in this giant glass cage in their house, I know, weird, and totally Australian, but not really, because I have yet to meet another Australian family that owns pet snakes but I assume they must be popular. One of them latched onto his wrist for the entire night until he finally got him/her off. It was kind of funny but not really because his hand turned blue.



Saturday morning we enjoyed our last shower for a while and drove to the bay to see that. Hervey Bay is a small place, so it didn’t take long for Brad to show us around. Then we drove to the barge and sailed over to Fraser, which took like 40 minutes. Once we go there it was actually rather nice, a shiny, sunny day. We walked though Wanggoolba Creek and took photos of all that nature stuff, and then went to Lake MacKenzie, which was good because I never got to see that lake before, and we had about an hour of sunshine, during which time we all fell asleep on the beach. We woke up and it was starting to cloud over so we decided to pack it up and head to the jeep, and then it started to rain. But we made the best of it and 4WD-ed it through the bush to our next spot at Eurong. People there were like, “Oh are you camping? Best get a room for the night, it’s going to be really rough out tonight.” But we just kind of didn’t listen. There were also rumors that they were “evacuating” the island, but Brad said in all the years he lived in Hervey Bay, he has never heard of them doing that. And it wasn’t even like the weather was that bad, it was just drizzling.



So finally we got to our spot along the beach, near Happy Valley, and we set up our camp there. It wasn’t raining when we set up the camp. We went to Eli Creek and then enjoyed the most amazing rainbow I have ever seen in my life. Like, usually, you see a rainbow and it’s just this streak of colored light in the sky.  No, this thing was a full one rainbow from end to end, right over the ocean, it was spectacular. We didn’t end up building a fire because it was too wet. But we laid down and stargazed before bed and ended up seeing the coolest shooting star ever, it was like bright pink, and it fizzled in the atmosphere for about 5 seconds before it disappeared, I have never seen on e that big. Then we went to sleep and about halfway through the night (aka at 11pm but it felt like 3am). At one point we heard this really strange noise coming from outside the tent, and it sounded like a mouse. But it was dingos. Now, dingoes don’t hurt you, but they say that if there is food involved they can be more aggressive. So that was interesting. Eventually, I had to get out and get in the jeep because I was freezing and wet and uncomfortable. All we had were three doonas (comforters) that we were all sharing, and that was so not enough. So I slept a total of maybe one hour all night. But I suppose that is part of the experience, hey? We woke up in the morning to our dingo friends (or it may have just been one of them that kept coming back for more) patrolling around our campsite. They had clearly found the apple cores we had tossed into the grass. Smart fellas they are. We got some pictures with them and such. They look like pet dogs, but you shouldn’t pet them in case they get aggressive. They are wild animals after all.



Sunday morning, while the rest of the gang took a swim in Eli Creek, I laid in the sun because there was no way in hell I was swimming in that freezing water. Then we drove by Maheno, the shipwreck, but it was higher tide than when I went before, and it was quite cloudy and foggy so it had this eeriness to it that was quite interesting actually. It was like this ghostlike ship floating out at sea. Later on in the day after some driving around and a trip to Indian Head, which I couldn’t climb up because at some point in between the swim at Eli and when we got back to pack up the tent, a dingo stole my thong (flip-flop) so I couldn’t walk barefoot since it was really rocky and sharp.  Silly dingo! But oh well, no one wears shoes in Australia anyhow. Then we got to this really pretty creek thing along the ocean where the water was like golden for some reason, we couldn’t figure out why, because when you held it in your hand it wasn’t gold looking…and Candace and I sent a fake message in a bottle out to sea. Then, the highlight of the trip: Brad taught me—finally—how to drive a manual transmission. I have never been able to learn how to drive a stick-shift. And I did quite well. I stalled out probably 3 or 4 times until I was driving great, and even shifted into 3rd gear! Candace also drove for her first time. We were really pumped. Driving along the beach of Fraser Island in the jeep, in a stick shift, for the first time ever. What a high point of the trip. Eventually we found a good spot to set up camp, Brad built a fire while we collected dry firewood, and then we roasted marshmallows and dined on the only food we ate all weekend—biscuits (cookies), rice cakes, peanut butter, apples, and pistachios. What a well-balanced diet. Haha. I slept a bit better this night because it wasn’t so wet, although it did rain off and on throughout the night, but we arranged the doonas differently so I wasn’t as cold or uncomfortable. I think I logged about 5 hours, which was good.



The next day we woke up and hung out for a few hours before the tide was low enough that we could drive along the beach to the barge spot further south on the island. We finally left about 10am and it ended up taking us a couple hours to get there because we got stuck in a deep hole hidden by a misleading puddle and had to get pulled out with a rope but passers-by. It was actually quite hilarious. People are used to it though. That is why everyone had rope in their car, to help other people or use in case they ever get stuck in sand or whatever. Then after we arrived to Rainbow Beach from out 10 minute barge ride, we found out after about a 15 minute drive that the main highway we were going to take down to Brissie had a major accident on it. Brad opted to take the back roads, and let’s just say the directions he got from the woman at a gas station were really bad. We ended up driving along a back country road through endless fields of cows and through random patches of the bush, for about 2 and a half hours. No cell phone service. Middle of nowhere, totally lost. On a road that Brad figures eventually must lead to somewhere, only it didn’t it just lead to more of nothingness. Hahaha but it was funny and scenic and we laughed all the same because really, what else can you do?





We eventually made it home safely, only a couple hours later than we would have before. What a weekend. I am definitely glad I went. Never a dull moment with those three. But oh how good did it feel to shower when we got home, and eat a real meal cooked in a kitchen!

(Cruisy here means like easy, smooth/the opposite of busy).

It is getting to the point where all the weekdays and weekends are rolling into one and it’s hard to keep track of which day it is. I sometimes still feel like I am way out of my element. Example: I have managed to miss two dentist appointments in the last two weeks. One because I never wrote it down, the other because I shut off my alarm thinking, “Why on Earth is this going off on a Friday? I don’t have class on Fridays.” I have not missed any such appointment in my life thus far, and now two in two weeks. It’s a tad strange. My mom thinks it’s because I have too much on my mind. I think it’s because I don’t have my Blackberry to keep me organized. Oh well!

So, after returning from Sydney, I signed my life over to a personal injury attorney. The part that took the longest at that little visit was probably when he asked me to spell my name out, and it took him about four tries to get it right. He said it was so hard to understand me with the accent. Hah.

Sunday, when everyone that went on the Fraser Island field trip should have been working on finishing up their report, Stephanie and Kirthika, (two friends of mine that were in my group) and I up and went to Mooloolaba for the day. Just because, why not? It was gorgeous out and as it’s turning to winter, the warm days may be starting to dwindle. Although, mostly it has stayed nice during the day but as soon as the sun goes down the temperature drops into the low 60’s. Anyhow, so we got on the train and headed for the Sunshine coast early Sunday morning. I liked Mooloolaba, and I think I even liked the beach more than Noosa, although the town itself wasn’t as nice. We didn’t have much time to shop around, but I hear there are some great little boutiques there. My bank account was probably thanking me that we didn’t shop there. We got wraps and ate them on the beach and sunbaked and thought about everything besides terrestrial environment.

Monday was a different story altogether. Monday, reality set in. Monday, I nearly had a nervous breakdown when I went to a help session our professor held totally last minute and they started talking about standard deviation and analyzing our data and graphing it with the standard error bars and—ayayay I had no idea what was going on. I almost cried. But I held it together. And somehow, someway, I managed to get my report done by Tuesday night, thank heavens. I passed the thing in on Wednesday, and it won’t be my finest piece of work, but I will pass the class. I think if there is any piece of information I have learned from this experience, it is that I am not meant to do work last minute. I am a plan-it-out person. And that is OK. I thought that coming here I could try to make a new system for myself, but I should just stick with what works for me. Wednesday night we went out and celebrated at the Regatta, where they have uni student night. Ran into some people from my tutes at school that I have never managed to actually socialize with outside of class so that is fun.

Thursday after class I went to South Bank and lounged in the sun all day. Shocker. It’s just so lovely there though. I am getting hooked on the Boost juice here. I blame it on Lindsey. Might end up having to live on the stuff anyhow considering it feels like my temporary crown might be getting loose again for the third time, and my dentist might just have kicked me to the curb since I’ve been a no-show twice already. Yikes. Such is life. Or something.

I have also been babysitting a couple days a week for a couple hours at a time. The other day the kiddies found their way into this closet under the staircase and started pulling out cardboard boxes. I tried to explain to them their mum and dad probably didn’t want their boxes all torn apart and all over the place, but you know how they always say children are more entertained by an empty box than by the toy that came in it. Yeah, it’s no different in the southern hemisphere apparently.

Saturday night, Kirthika, Steph, and I went to the Gabba to see the Brisbane Lions play the Adelaide Crows. The Lions were down the first half, but then came back really strong and ended up actually winning by a landslide, it was 119-83 Brissie in the end. It always helps to make the game more enjoyable when you’re wearing the jersey of the team that wins.





Sunday, I woke up and worked out and spent the day cleaning my room and doing those sorts of Sunday activities. Then, Kirthika, Steph, and I went to Sushi Station because they’d never experienced the sushi on a train thing before and I just had to show them and it was delicious. After we went to see Angels and Demons. Which was good, but it was so long. But the book was so in-depth, the movie had to be long in order to make an ounce of sense. I thought they did a nice job with it though.

Now it’s time for bed. Lecture tomorrow morning, then tute, then babysitting, then working on my paper. This week it’s time to be responsible! The sad thing is I finally am hitting that point where I am finding my jive, and ya know, getting used to how people drive on the left side of the road here, things like that. I’m not afraid to navigate public transport. I don’t feel so much pressure to vacation here and there or go someplace far every single weekend. Like a ton of people are going to the Whitsundays at the end of the month. This would be amazing, but I am finally OK with being like, I don’t have to do every single thing, I just need to get the most out of the things that I am able to do. I probably won’t be able to make it to Melbourne, but that’s OK. It’s almost like that feeling I get when I’m home in DC, but on a larger scale. Like, I don’t jump at every chance to go to all the various museums or see monuments or things back home, because it's like hey, that stuff is always going to be there. I guess it’s different because I won’t always be here, in Australia, but still, Australia will always be here. One day, when I’m rich, I’ll come back and do all the things I didn’t have time or money to do when I was abroad. See, now I have a long-term goal!

So this past weekend was really really fun.

The following is going to have a lot of probably boring stories for anyone else in it so you probably won’t read it but that’s OK because years from now I will.






I flew down to Sydney with Brad on Thursday morning. The flight is only about an hour long. Once we landed we were a bit disappointed to find it was cold and rainy, but we dropped our stuff off at Base, the hostel we stayed in, which was in a perfect location. It was on Kent St, and just a 10-minute walk to Darling Harbour and close to lots of other things. Then we walked around a little although it was raining lightly. We went to Paddy's Market, which is kind of like a big flea market in the city, but its full of things that have been shipped over from some Asian country, it's nothing like the cute, handmade things the Eumundi had to off in Noosa, but it was fun to walk around nonetheless. Then we went to a shopping center where I found a shoe sale to end all show sales at Rubi Shoes, and bought 3 pairs of sandals for $25. It was amazing. I got the kind of sandals everyone wears here, gladiator sandals. They came to America but never really caught on like they have here, not sure why, maybe it's because you can wear sandals year round in Australia.



Anyway, after subjecting Brad to an hour of waiting for me to be done shopping, we walked around, by the Chinese Friendship Garden, which was closed but oh well, because it wasn't nice out anyway, and then took pictures at Darling Harbour and walked around a little bit. Then we went back to the hostel, to find that we now had roommates. One of them, Megan, is from Canada, and she is really nice. She is taking a year off I think and backpacking around, just got back from New Zealand and is heading up the eastern shore of Australia. She plans on getting to Brisbane on Saturday, and wants to stay there for a while, like 6 weeks, so she can work at a hostel and get a free room. So we plan on hanging out more in the future, which is fun. The other roommates included two English girls named Sophie and Sarah, also backpackers. There was another guy too, but he didn't talk much, he was French. He was sick too, I heard him coughing all night below me in the bunk bed. Gross. That night we went to the bar next to our hostel, its called the Scary Canary. It was really random actually, because it was ladies night but it was also the Queen of the Netherland's birthday?...so the theme was wear orange. And basically all the people there were Dutch. It was kind of hilarious. We basically chatted with people from Holland all night. It was great.





Then on Friday, Brad and I got breakfast and walked to Darling Harbour where we bought an all-day hop-on-and-off pass for the Matilda Cruise. It has like 6 or 7 stops all around the Harbour and you can get off, walk around and do stuff, and get back on whenever, the boat comes every 45 minutes. Sidenote: When I went to buy my ticket, I showed her my student ID to get the concession rate, and she is like, “It will be $33” so I hand her a $50 and she hands me back $7. So I am like, “Oh, um excuse me, did you say $33?” And the girl, who was really rude to begin with, was like “Oh, yes, right,” and gives me another $10, like no apologies or anything. I swear these places try to rip of foreigners like we don’t know how to do math in our head.















So our first stop was Circular Quay, which is where you have views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and where the famous Opera House is.  We also went in to this modern art museum, which was fun to walk around in for a while. It had all weird exhibits. My favorite was a room you walked into and the walls were entirely mirrors and on the floor were these red pillow like structures and you felt like you were in Dr. Seuss land or something.  Wanted to take a picture but I had this vision of them catching me and apprehending my camera or something so I didn’t chance it. Then we really wanted to get fish and chips. It just seemed like the perfect day for it. So we went to a fish n chips take away place and I ordered, and you get a salad with it, but that actually meant like choose a salad like they had garden salad or shrimp salad or whatever but I asked for fruit salad, and so the guy was like, “We just throw it on the side, you don’t want that do you?” and of course I didn’t because then my fries would get all soggy and fruity.  So I asked him if I could have it in a separate container. And that seemed problematic for a moment (they find ANY excuse to charge you for extra things, like a little tub of ketchup or tartar sauce was $2) But then the guy is like, “Alright, I’ve got it.” And I’ve got a $10 bill out waiting to see what he charges me since it says $13 on the menu board but he might make me pay extra, but then he goes and grabs the fish and chips and sets it down and hands me back $6 in change. And I didn’t think anything of it at first but as we were walking away, my memory flashes back to handing him a blue $10 bill (5’s are pink, 20’s are red, 50’s are yellow, so it’s always easy to tell and remember what kind of cash you’ve got). And I’m like, “Wait, did he just charge me $4 for my meal?” And by that point it wasn’t even worth it to try and walk back and cut in line to hand the guy more money. Oh well! OK so I am the cheapest person you will ever meet, sue me. Ultimately, my meal cost the same as the condiments alongside it.

OK I promise that’s the last involved and unnecessary story from Sydney I have. The rest of the day was full of:
Enjoying delicious seafood while sitting by the harbour in glorious sunny weather; one-legged seagulls that really weren’t one-legged they were just standing like that, a footless seagull who actually did not have feet—it was creepy; seeing the Pacific Ocean at Watson’s Bay and then turning your head 180 degrees and seeing the Sydney skyline; the world’s dirtiest beach at Watson’s Bay—they really need to clean that up, because it’s revolting; and quite possibly the most spectacular sunset I have ever seen as we were cruising back to Circular Quay.



The next day we had to wake up super early to meet our tour group at 7am. So we get on this bus and the girl driving, her name was Tish, was awesome. She was from Chile but had lived in Australia since she was four so her accent sounded more English since it was her second language and Brad claimed she was English until she explained that to us. Aussies are good at picking up accents. It’s all the same to me. Anyhow, we basically did three wine tours throughout the day, Iron Gate, McGuigan, and Ernest Hill. The first and third were my favourites. I bought a bottle of 2009 Semillon at Ernest Hill. They say the Semillon you get from Hunter Valley is different than Semillon from any other place on Earth. I loved it. It was light and a bit acidic and not real sweet. It was nice.  It cost almost three times as much to mail it though than it did for the actual bottle, so worth it though!  We also did a cheese tasting while we were there, which I wasn’t into as much because I don’t do soft cheeses, they always have a slightly funky smelly thing to them don’t care for. This day was really fun. Once we got back I was pretty sleepy and full from the whole day but we still went out. It was funny though because I got a glass of house wine with my meal at the hostel and it tasted awful after all the real wine I’d been tasting all day.  We went to this place called the Star Bar. It was sort of not my style, but I didn’t care because we made it an early night anyhow. Had to be up at 6am again the next morning.



Sunday we went to the Blue Mountains with another group but the same tour company. The driver/tour guide this time around wasn’t as fun though. But whatever, it was a good trip.  On the way we stopped at the Featherlands Zoo and I took pictures of a koala there up close since I never got to do that in Cairns. And there were heaps of animals all running around everywhere, not in cages or anything, it was a zoo! Emus and wallabies and kangaroos and I held a blue-tongued lizard. It was pretty hilarious. Then we drove about another hour west to get to Katoomba, the town next to the Blue Mountains. It’s sort of a hippie little town. We saw the Blue Mountains and the Three Sisters, a rock formation of three within the mountain range. Lots of pictures. You ride a skyway across the canyon, then we had lunch, and I had this seafood paella that had prawns, mussels, and crocodile! Yes, I ate crocodile.  Then you take this railway down a mountain, it’s the world’s most vertical train or something. Then you follow a walkway for a bit until you get to this cable car like thing and you take that back to the start. It’s sort of fun, although I wish the vertical trainride way longer. Then we went to this spot with a view and had afternoon tea and I played the didgeridoo and I was seriously better than everyone else! Except the tour guide, who went last because he had been saying all day how he was coming down with the swine flu. I think he thought this was a funny joke. That was mostly it for our day. Later on, back at the hostel we ended up playing Uno with our roommates until we were all tired. We had planned on going to see the fireworks show they had for Darling Harbour’s 21st birthday but apparently they do that kind of stuff early here because we heard them start going off at like 7:30 so we reckoned we missed them.



Monday morning we finally got to sleep in past 8am. We had to check out, I exchanged info with Megan, mailed my bottle of wine home, and we got breakfast. I ordered hot chocolate with my breakfast and the powder on top was in the shape of Australia, no lie. Then we left for Bondi, which is a quick train ride and bus ride away. We dropped off our stuff, and headed to the beach because it was a gorgeous day out and I was determined to sunbake on Australia’s most popular and crowded beach. But it wasn’t really all that crowded. I didn’t think Sydney was all that crowded in general. It may be because this is getting to their wintertime and there are less tourists since its cooler, but still. It was really nice though on the beach. Then we got lunch and left to do the walk from Bondi to Coogee beach around 4 o’clock. It took us about 2 and a half hours to complete the walk, but that was because I constantly was stopping to take photos. It should only take about 90 minutes. It was really pretty, we walked by about 4 different beaches and through a really pretty cemetery overlooking the ocean, and then finally got to Coogee where there were lots of people again and shops and things. We got Thai food (there was a lot of eating on this trip) and it was so good, and then we walked around a bit, eventually made it back to Bondi in a cab because the buses were weird. Then we got ice cream at this Swedish ice cream place, and then I was exhausted from all the eating apparently because I was asleep by 9 o’clock that night. And we left for Brisbane the next morning.

Happy ANZAC Day! (Well, it was yesterday). I am currently enjoying an ANZAC Day cookie for breakfast, courtesy of Lindsey. I'll go into what that holiday is all about later.

I have been doing a lot schoolwork lately, since paper due dates and the like are sneaking up on me. I've got a paper about Australian parliament that's due May 6, but I have to have it done by Wednesday since I am going to Sydney Thursday, and I've got a biology paper about Fraser Island due May 13, and a paper for Australian popular culture, which I believe I am going to do on a topic I have devised on my own, tattoo culture. Mom won't be happy I am doing this, but it doesn't mean I am going out to get myself all tattooed up. It is just really common for people here to have them so I thought I would look into why that is and the history and culture surrounding it. I hope I can find enough information. Otherwise, I will go with another topic. Either way, this paper is sure to be a bit lighter and funner to write than the one about politics.

Enough about uni. In other news, I have started a regular, very part-time babysitting gig with a family just a 5-minute walk down the street. Her name is Levon and she and her husband are from Canada and have two sons, one of which was born here in Australia, they are 4 years old (Owen) and 14 months old (Angus). Owen has an Aussie accent which I just think is the cutest thing ever. And they are super well behaved, even though I am the first babysitter they have ever had (don't know how women can go four years without a little help). I will probably just go over there for a couple hours a couple afternoons per week. Every little bit helps though! And it's a nice little break for me, finger painting and reading kids books and stuff.

Also, I met with a personal injury attorney on Wednesday, and pending meeting with another lawyer to get a second opinion, I think I may end up going that route instead of trying to go through my medical and dental insurance. It will be a lengthy process, but the man I saw says if I try to go through the man who hit me's car insurance solo, they'll either say "Piss off, we aren't giving you anything" or they'll give me a tiny amount and make me sign saying I won't ask for more. Both scenarios undesirable. I didn't ever imagine having to deal with this kind of thing over here, but the good news is that if I hand over the case to an attorney I don't much have to think about it anymore, he'll handle the paperwork and the phone calls and all that and I just have to give him the bills and all that. It just isn't something I would be able to do alone. We'll see what happens there. I am confident. Most importantly, my tooth has a temporary crown, and one of my front teeth has just a tiny chip in the corner, which isn't entirely OK with me since I am obsessive about my teeth. But it's temporary and will be fixed soon. And, my chest has felt just fine lately. I went to the gym the other day and aside from being extremely out of breath and out of shape since I haven't worked out in weeks, I was fine. It no longer bothers me when I sleep and only is a very dull pain when I cough or something.



So let's see, that was mostly my whole week, until Thursday, which was my birthday. It just so happens that Brad's birthday is also April 23rd, go figure, so we went out and I brought Lindsey and Candace and he brought his friends Dan, Matt, and Az and we got Thai food at a place in the West End called Huong's. It was really fun. Then we went out to a bar called Friday's on the Riverside, and that was really fun too and met up with a ton more people. Then at one point, it started to get quiet I think, so people wanted to go to another bar called the Stock Exchange, so we went and apparently here in Australia you have to pretend you are dead sober to get into bars because they wouldn't let me in which was annoying because, hey, it's my 21st birthday! Cut me some slack. But, I'd had a good time so decided to call it a night then. That was essentially my 21st birthday, and it was a bit different than I had imagined since I am here and not in America because, well, anyone can drink when they are 18 here. But fun, still.



So, Friday I didn't do much because Brad came to pick me up really early Saturday morning at like 4am so we could partake in the oh-so-Australian ANZAC Day parade down at Surfer's Paradise. They do the parades in mostly every major city and area but we wanted to go to Surfer's I guess because well, A) I have never been there and B) there's a fantastic breakfast buffet at a casino down the street, Conrad Jupiters. So at 5:20am, a parade started right along the main street on the beach there. ANZAC Day is celebrated to honor members of the Australia New Zealand Army Corps who died in WWI fighting at Galipoli in Turkey. I hadn't known anything about the holiday but apparently it is similar to our Veterans's Day. (Places close down in honor of it, no grocery stores or anything were open all day.) So veterans and family members marched in the parade and then a man led the ceremony, just talking about the day and what it means and everything. There was a moment of silence, it was really nice. (But cold--it's starting to get really cold here at night, but still really warm during the day. It is their winter though so it is understandable but it's been such a fast change!) Then once that was over most people sat on the beach to watch the sunrise which was absolutely gorgeous. It was only the second time I have been able to watch the sun rise at the beach since I have been here, and it might have been even more stunning than at Straddie. Tough call, haha. Brad is insane and went swimming and I didn't because I am a baby and it was way too cold. Then we got some coffee and the sun came up so it finally warmed up, and soon it was time to feast at the breakfast, which was totally awesome since by that time we had been up for 6 hours and were starving. All kinds of food, it was delicious. Then we sort of lounged at Broad Beach for a little while, not long, which was lovely.



Then last night, Lindsey had Candace and I join her for a BBQ at a friend of a friend's who lived sort of far out in Petrie. We had to take the train there then they picked us up, they were way out in the 'burbs. It was fun though, we just sat outside and chatted most of the night. Everyone there traveled so much. Brenton, the one who invited us, was on a hockey team in Canada for four years until he was injured, and also played for the Gold Coast Blue Tongues, which is the hockey team for Queensland--I didn't even know they had hockey here in Australia! And others had just traveled all around, one woman had lived in England for a while, another traveled around with his family when he was younger to Russia and all these other places. There was a girl there from Japan (that's not uncommon though around here!) and it was just interesting hearing everyone's little stories. It's fun to hang out with Australians who know what it's like to move around because they are interested in hearing about where you come from but also can tell you about what they've seen and done. Brenton told us that once we get back home, we will miss Australia for about a month, then we will be glad to be home. I don't think it's quite a set formula though, the culture shock and reverse culture shock is different for every individual.

Today I HAVE to get some of this paper knocked down! Check out my pictures from my birthday and Surfer's on my flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/kellyalysia.

Cheers!

Well, I've had quite the eventful past week here in Australia.

Last Tuesday morning (April 7) I had a personal first of getting hit by a car--yes,
sounds very scary and dramatic but I assure you I am fine. Other than
the most painful aspect--a fractured sternum, and the most costly--a
fractured porcelain crown and tooth underneath, I escaped relatively
unharmed. So most of my week is being spent dealing with the
repercussions of that. I am really seeing a new side of the Australian
culture--the medical centers, the prisons, it's all a learning
experience of sorts. I won't bore anyone with the details of that,
just know that I am perfectly fine, and other than the paperwork
headaches and annoying pain in my chest whenever I lay down (or cough,
laugh, hiccup, or breathe deeply), I will only really be missing out
on some of the more physically demanding plans I had made (two of
which happened to be scheduled for this week, which I have to
unfortunately miss out on). I was supposed to skydive in Hervey Bay
and SCUBA dive up in Cairns. Those plans have been postponed or more
likely permanently canceled, barring how I go in the next couple
months. Mom says I could take a year to heal--I am aiming for a month
or two! Not that I have ever had something to this extreme happen to
me before, but I do know that the power of the mind is stronger than
the body so I'll try to stay positive about recovering quickly. But
still, I won't be doing anything my body can't handle, promise! Easy
does it. I wish I could upload the x-ray but it's too big--haha. And you can barely see a fracture.

So, after getting the OK from a doctor here, I decided to go ahead
with my trip to Fraser Island on Thursday. My Australia's Terrestrial
Environment class had a field trip from Thursday to Monday, and it was
an absolute blast! I am really glad I ended up going. We did a lot of
walking, which was fine since my legs work fine, and the only
discomfort was on the 4WD vehicles when we hit lots of bumps. But I
just braced myself with a handle and was totally fine. We stayed in a
little village called Dilli Village, where there is a campsite and
lodges also. Basically, every morning we had breakfast at 7am (we had
our own dedicated chef there, his name was Graham and he cooked all
our meals and packed up morning and afternoon tea, which was basically
a snack and was usually something delicious like homemade scones or
cookies or fresh pineapple--it was amazing, I probably gained 5 kilos
on this trip but I don't even care the food was just that good!) Then
we would go off into either the Eucalypt forest one day and the
rainforest the other, and do our habitat analysis for the assessment
portion of the trip. We have to write a paper that is due in about a
month based on findings during the trip, so we did things like collect
insects (my group never had to do this thank god but I do have about
50 mossy bites on my legs and a couple GIANT red ant bites, I nearly
had a panic attack when I saw those nasty buggers on my legs, they
were about an inch and a half long! YUCK), measure tree heights and
collect leaves and fruits and seeds and things to identify plants
later on. It was all very dorky and the mornings were rather boring.



But then in the afternoon we would do fun stuff. Mostly, we went to
lakes, there are a lot of them on Fraser, and since you can't swim in
the ocean, as it's heavily populated my tiger sharks, we mostly hung
out at the lakes during free time. We went to Lake Boomanjim, Lake
Birrabeen, and Lake Wabby. Lake Birrabeen was the best by far, and it
was really beautiful the day we went, clear skies and perfect
temperature. The lake had crystal clear water and white sand, the
water wasn't too cold either, it felt nice. We just sort of waded
around, played frisbee, sunbaked, relaxed. Unfortunately, Monday it
was rainy and not very nice so after a half hour trek through the bush
and the dunes, we got to Lake Wabby, not as nice of a beach, and it
just started pouring, so there I am, with my umbrella over me in my
bathing suit, watching as everyone is just sort of like, "Well, might
as well go swimming now!" It was still really fun though. I saw my
first dingo! The dingo is the native wild dog of Australia, and he
basically just looks like a dog, and they are super cute, but you
aren't supposed to go up and touch them because I guess they have been
known to be aggressive and it's just not a smart idea, but I got some
pictures of some. The main highway of Fraser is a beach, and there are
not many paved roads on the island, so you are required to drive a 4WD
vehicle at all times, or you'll get stuck in the sand just like we
witnessed many a tourist having to find out the hard way! It was
funny, but we always tried to help them anyway. Seriously, folks, the
all-wheel drive Suzuki thats 10-inches off the ground just ain't gonna
cut it!



At night, we did little corny activities like trivia and just hung out
and played games and heard about what our tutors do (most of them are
getting or already have their PhD's or just have other interesting
stories to tell). They are all super science geeks but totally smart
and knowledgeable about botany and zoology and just totally fun people
in general. I swear, the tutors seemed to have more fun on the trip
than any of us did! One of the girls, Claire, is an expert on glow
worms (I know, totally random) and she actually was hired by Planet
Earth, that 11-part series that took like 6 years to film and produce.
She was hired to assist in their filming of a glow worm cave in New
Zealand (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBIEmjaoE5w), I have never
seen the whole thing but after watching the one about Caves, I want to
see all the other parts of the series!



I am not going to lie, I am glad to be back in Brisbane now, in a more
comfortable bed, with technology that actually works (no cellphone
reception on Fraser!) and my own bathroom where I can take longer than
a 4 minute shower! But it was nice to be one with nature for a few
days. The rest of the week won't be all that exciting, other than a
lovely salon day I have booked for myself tomorrow (we all need some
pampering now and then!) It's sad I won't be going to swim with the
fishies tomorrow on the great barrier reef, but I am just glad to be
alive and well and walking and talking. Like John Lennon once said,
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."
These things happen and it's all just a part of the ride.

Anyhow, enough with the philosophical stuff--it's time for me to get down to business sorting through insurance crap and doing work for uni. :/

Here's from March 23-April 5th:

This week was rather busy. I’ve got a lot of due dates and an exam coming up (wouldn’t think it was possible to become overwhelmed with work while taking just three classes but it really is!) so I tried to get a lot of it done during the week at night. It didn’t work out all that well so I will probably be up late tonight (and Monday and Tuesday night) doing writing and studying. Oh well, it was worth it for the fun weekend we had.

Last Wednesday was interesting. JACS had an Industry Career Day on campus. It was really well put together; they did a good job, although the turnout was lower than expected. The funny thing I learned about JACS talking to their president, Naomi Lim, is that it was actually started up a few years ago in response to the school newspaper closing up shop, basically. It was sort of in protest to that and then turned into this thing like let’s at least have a journalism/communication society in place of having a newspaper at the very least. Apparently university newspapers in general are not as popular over here like they are in the States. So at this event they basically had five successful people from the communications industry, one from broadcast, one from PR, one in podcasting, another in sports, one in print magazine—and they all talked about what they do and how they got started and advice for people looking to graduate soon. And I of course photographed all of this. One guy in particular, Cameron Reilly, who started up The Podcast Network, got in a mini argument with Chris Jones who is an editor for mX magazine about how print journalism is basically a dead/dying business and how he thinks it is going to be totally gone in less than 10 years. So I think he really scared half the students in the room who were journalism majors. But I don’t think they have anything to be afraid of because the most important thing is nothing you learn at uni is to go to waste, it’s just that you might need to learn more about technical skills, how to edit, how to use a camera, how to speak and have a presence on camera, etc if you expect to make it in journalism in the future because it won’t just be about how well you can write.

Anyway, on Friday, after a week of on and off (mostly on) rainfall, we decided we needed to leave the city, so we got on a train to the Sunshine Coast and stayed in Noosa at quite possibly the shadiest backpackers resort in the area. I kid—it wasn’t that awful. Candace may or may not have bed bug bites on her ankles, that’s still a mystery. Out roommates were three Irish girls who are backpacking their way through the country on a gap year between high school and university, a Dutch guy who thought he was really funny and tried to convince me that the Us Magazine on the floor was his and he liked to read about Lindsey and “Bush” (I am assuming he meant George Bush?) so that was all very interesting. We shared a tiny bathroom with 10 people for two nights and decided we are not the type that could handle backpacking like so many people here tend to do. It’s fun to hear everyone’s stories. I think backpacking abroad is a lot more common for Europeans than Americans, haven’t quite figured out why that is though.



Saturday morning we woke up pretty early and got breakfast in Noosa, where we were staying, along their main street, Hastings St. We ate at this little place that was totally cute and I got toast and grilled tomato and egg whites and Candace got the most amazing blueberry filled pancakes and Lindsey got this heaping fruit salad and it was just so good and fresh tasting and surprising a really good deal. I felt like Racheal Ray on “$40 A Day” actually all weekend (does anyone watch that show?) except for me it was like $40 A Weekend instead. After we got on a bus to Eumundi to go to their market, which is open only Wednesdays and Saturdays and is enormous, has at least 200 little stalls that people have set up, selling all kinds of stuff from jewelry and clothing to furniture and teapots. It was awesome. It took us three hours just to walk around it. All three of us got jewelry from this one lady whose name was Hermione, she makes the beads all by hand, fires them, paints them, designs all the jewelry and assembles it by hand, all by herself. And the jewelry was gorgeous. I got a really simple bracelet with white circular flat beads that sort of reminded me of the islands or something because they looked like flat pebbles you find on the beach. And I got a little pouch made of kangaroo fur and other trinkets to bring home! It was fun. And the weather was just fine, a little drizzly here and there but overall fine.



When we got back to Noosa the sun was out so we lounged on the beach and watched the surfers and it was lovely. Then we got dinner at this cute, fun family-friendly type place over the water. Candace and I split fish and chips because that’s wallet- and waistline-friendly and it was so delicious. Then we thought it was only appropriate after our shopping spree at Eumundi that we go see “Confessions of a Shopaholic” at the ‘cinema’ down the street. It was totally cute and we basically were cracking up the entire time. So that was a really lovely end to the day.



This morning after we checked out, we walked to the Noosa National Park and walked along the coast there, watching the surfers and taking in the nature and all that. We were going to explore the park more but decided since the sun was out we would enjoy it. So instead of laying out on the sand like normal people do we climbed down onto the rocks down where all the surf was and laid our towels out there and soaked up some rays. It was surprisingly nice and not uncomfortable until it actually did start raining a bit heavier and so we sort of scooted off. By that point it was almost time to go so we grabbed a bite to eat, I tried salmon rissole for the first time, and then headed back to the train station to get to Brisbane. It’s really only a 2 hour drive to Noosa from where we live, but with public transport it takes about 4 hours. But it was worth it, the Sunshine Coast is beautiful, a bit more upscale, sort of like the Nantucket of Cape Cod, (not that there are hostels on Nantucket), but not unaffordable and really pretty.



On the train home, we learned an important lesson while watching some man getting “caught” by the security on the train. He had his feet up on the seat! Apparently that is not allowed, and just 20 minutes before they had asked me to put mine down, as I was napping and didn’t realize that was an “offense.” So that poor guy got one warning and then got a $200 fine. I would have cried if that happened to me! OK OK, no seat on the seat, I got it!



This week it’s work work for classes, studying for a biology test Wednesday, and getting ready to leave for Fraser Island on Thursday morning. Never a dull moment!

So the schoolwork is finally beginning to catch up with me. I've got a 500-word essay due for Popular Culture due by Friday, and an essay to begin writing due next month for the Australian Politics class. But all is under control, no worries. I think the Politics class might shape up to be my favorite, just because it's full of Australians and it's nice to have that whole perspective to hear from, whereas the other two are largely Americans taking elective classes.

So Tuesday was St. Patrick's Day, and I wasn't shocked to see that it's just as big of a deal here as it is in America. Basically everyone goes out dressed in green and drinks until they can't see straight. I don't know if I've mentioned this yet, but the government here just taxes the heck out of alcohol, so like a 700mL bottle of middle shelf vodka can run you upwards of $40-50, aka I won't be drinking much alcohol here. I'm not sure why I'm telling you all this, because I'm sure mom, you are about to totally cringe at the thought, but instead of spending money on drinks when we go out, we buy $10 boxed wine, or what the locals call "goon," which I just learned last night how they make the stuff and I think I may just have to splurge on the real stuff in a bottle if I'm drinking and pay a little extra to save myself the added sugar and the "produced with the aid of fish, egg, or milk products" which they openly disclose on the box. Yuck. We ended up going to this bar called the Down Under bar, where they play all American pop songs from the 80's and 90's and everyone gets really into it because it's songs that were popular back when we were kids and we know them all by heart. Think Salt n Peppa and "I Would Walk 500 Miles." That kind of stuff.  We saw some guys running around in their underwear and dancing on top of trashcans in the street and all that usual debauchery.

Then on Thursday I had a Biology class field trip to the Brisbane Forest Park, which was about a half hour drive from the school. We kind of moved around, doing this one section with all animals like snakes and fish and birds and wombats (see photos), and then we went to this other part of the mountains where we walked through the bush and had to fill out our little worksheets while our tutor talked to us about the differences between Eucalypt forest and rainforest. I never knew there were so many different types of ferns or moss! WOW. It was incredibly boring. But it was probably easier than whatever alternative assignment we would have had to do if we missed the trip, so no complaints. And then we walked up this mountain and had a really pretty view, so that was sort of worth it--(although my view of the Glasshouse Mountains a couple weeks back was better! =D )



Friday night, I went with my flatmate Jess to her friends' house, she knows them from a camp she works at back home and then they moved to Brisbane, so now she hangs out with them here. We just sort of hung out, it was fun. Houses here are different. I guess in certain areas it's pretty common for people to live in these big big houses with like seven bedrooms with a bunch of roommates instead of renting an apartment out like most single people will do back in the states.

Then Saturday I went to this place called the Port Office Hotel downtown for a launch party for JACS, which stands for Journalism and Communications Students. It's a group I signed up to join during our Orientation Week at UQ. The girls were super nice and I thought it was a good thing to go to branch out and meet new people, considering there's not a ton of Aussies to meet in my classes. So I suppose I will be going to their little events from now on. I also met some people from Griffith University at the party since they are trying to start their own group at their school. I won't have very long to really get into anything, and it's not like I am using it to find a job or internship here in Australia but I figure it's always good to make connections wherever you go and it was nice to be around people that have similar interests. The food didn't hurt either, it was delish.

This afternoon, Lindsey, Candace and I are going to a BBQ at my new Aussie friend Brad's place, the same people we climbed the mountain with. It will actually be my first BBQ here! I can't believe it's taken me so long to be invited to one! Haha. I think that whole stereotype is a bit overplayed, and also the whole "Throw another shrimp on the barbie" thing, totally false. They don't call them shrimp here, they call them prawns. Haha.

So this weekend was relatively low key in comparison to the rest. A bunch of us went to the Rugby game on Friday night, it was the Brisbane Broncos versus the North Queensland Cowboys, the first game of the season, and there is apparently a big rivalry between the two teams since it's like North vs. South Queensland. So we were obviously cheering for the Broncos. Most of us had no idea how the game was played. Apparently there is Rugby League and Rugby Union, and Rugby League is what this game was. There was a group of Aussies behind us that ended up gladly explaining the game to us as it went along--we knew when to cheer when they cheered, hah. As usual, they were really nice. The game ended up being really exciting actually, and almost looked like it was going to go into overtime when the game was tied 18-18 when the Broncos made a goal in the last minute and the Cowboys didn't stand a chance in catching up. Probably the most exciting moment of the game was in the last couple minutes though when some guy streaked across the field. He actually ran from one goal to the other without being stopped--it was pretty impressive, then security finally grabbed him. Hilarious. Welcome to Australia. Oh and then one of the guys sitting behind us was an Irish step dancer in the running for $250,000 on Australia's Got Talent. So that was pretty funny too.



The rest of the weekend was just mostly shopping in the city. I hit up a few sales at clothing stores and bought a backpack for really cheap since I didn't bring one and I can't really be a backpacker without a backpack, and then some postcards so that my friends and family can get a note from me in, oh a month or two. Hah. It rained all this week, on and off, but on enough that I felt that my tan was fading. So I went to lay out in the sun at the South Bank and do homework for most of Sunday. 'Twas quite relaxing. Could get very used to this.

I am now really beginning to notice some the cultural differences. One being the laid-back mentality of Australians. This is 9 times out of 10 totally fine with me. But when it translates to their customer service it's not very cool with me. We've been experiencing that with our Internet company. Um, the next big difference being what the locals might call the "loose"-ness of the country, I reckon. Case in point: we have 4 TV channels, sometimes 3, here in our apartment. They are all basic news stations, etc. Channel 9 is on right now, and a show was just on at 10pm with very obscene language, like rated R
level for sure--and nudity. Like straight up full frontal. I mean that wouldn't even be aired on a cable channel until like midnight!
Politics are also different here. Their liberal party is more akin to our Republican party, while their Labour Party is like our Democratic party. So, things are more different here than just the side of the road people drive on and the accent people speak with. But I suppose it's nothing drastic or difficult to manage, it's just subtle differences. And some of the things they do and ways they do things here I like a lot more.

My goal for the next week is to make plans for the second half of my semester break--the first part will be Fraser Island for a biology field trip, and I am thinking either Sydney or Melbourne, the Whitsundays, or New Zealand for the second half. Oh, and find a job so I can do all this stuff--that would be another goal too. Or at least some volunteer work so I feel like I have a purpose and am not just having fun the whole time!

So last week was the first week of classes at UQ. I ended up attending two classes that I am no longer planning on taking, and added a new one that my flat mate Lindsey is also taking and will be catching me up on. I just decided I would rather take three classes that interest me and that won’t be really difficult rather than four classes that I’m not really interested in and will likely be overwhelmed by. So I am now enrolled in Australian Political Institutions, Australian Popular Culture, and Australian Terrestrial Environment. I am perfectly fine as far as the credits transferring, and won’t be behind in my senior year and all that. Now, hopefully with a bit of searching I will be able to snag a babysitting job. I applied for what is known as a Blue Card, which is a special permission you need to do any child care work—it’s basically like a background check to make sure you aren’t a pedophile. So that should arrive soon and I can start the job hunt more in-depth. If I don’t have any luck, there’s always other work, or I can find other ways to fill up my time. It would be a good chance to do volunteer work, actually, so that’s always an option. There are really lots of options, so I’m not going to worry about it really.

This weekend was action-packed. Friday afternoon, Lindsey, Candace, and I left for the Gold Coast, which is basically just a train ride and bus ride away, only takes a couple hours to get there. We made some friends while we were on Stradbroke Island that have a place in Coolangatta, which happens to be where the Quicksilver Pro surfing competition was being held from February 27 until March 11. Since every hostel was booked for the weekend of course by the time we checked, they invited us to stay there Friday night so we could watch the show. And actually, their flat was within eyeshot of a nearby hostel where some other Australearn people were staying, and like a 15-minute walk to the beach where the Quicksilver Pro was held on a beach called Snapper Rocks. It was really perfect and lucky that we met them. We went out to a place that night where our new friend Lee’s flat mate worked as a DJ, so we got in for free. Having connections is great. The people here are so nice, I just can’t get over it.



The next morning we woke up fairly early and grabbed breakfast, and even though it was delicious, we were still were hungry after. This is because we have decided that here in Australia the portions are normal-sized, and we are Americans so we are just not used to this.  But we have also decided it’s a good thing, and hopefully we will be healthier because of it. Anyhow, so still hungry, we stopped at this adorable little fruit/veggie/juice shop and had just the most fantastic drink I have ever tasted in my life. It had like mango, oranges, pineapple, dragon fruit, and banana I think, I don’t even know, but it was amazing. We took pictures. Delicious. That was when we decided we could live in Coolangatta for the rest of our life and be content.



Then we walked to the beach, took a billion photos, and settled on a spot in the wonderful white sand. I went swimming, and Lindsey took a ten-hour nap. The water was a little chilly, but it felt really nice, and you got used to the temperature in a couple minutes anyhow. The waves were fabulous also. Eventually, people had to get out of the water because the announcers were saying how the surf competition was about to start. That’s when I realized how crowded the beach had gotten, so it was good we had gotten there so early. It was jam-packed. Like Old Silver Beach on a Saturday in the middle of July. Worse than that, perhaps. And a whole lot of foreigners, too, probably because people travel pretty far from different places to go to this show. Basically they give two surfers 30 minutes, and they have like 16 heats, and it gets narrowed down after each round, eliminating the surfers with the lowest score. The coolest part was when Dane Reynolds, a surfer from California, got a perfect 10 score, and after he got out of the water he walked up the beach and right past us on our towels! It was pretty sweet, even if I had never heard of him before that day. Other more famous surfers like Kelly Slater were there too, although I suppose if you follow surfing then most of the guys there were famous. We didn’t really follow what was going on, but it was exciting nonetheless. After that day, we travelled back to our apartment sunburnt and totally exhausted. We thought about staying another night on the Gold Coast, but had some plans for the morning we thought required a good nights sleep.



It was good we were well rested, because Sunday morning, a couple friends of a girl I go to AU with, Bradly and Duncan, came and picked us up and we drove to the Glass House Mountains, about 45 minutes north of us. The plan was to climb Mount Beerwah, which is the tallest peak of the ten mountains, which all used to be volcanoes like a million years ago. Now, me being me, I am imagining the whole time that “mountain climbing” really just means walking up a mountain, like on paths and stuff. Well, no. Not at all, actually. When we first drove up, I thought it had to be some kind of joke because the sides of the mountain really looked like they were totally vertical. And most of them were. But as we walked to the base of the mountain and Candace and Lindsey were just like totally fine, even excited, about the idea of us rock climbing, without a harness, up 556 meters, I decided I wasn’t going to be able to sit this one out. I mean, if they could do it, so could I.



I have never rock climbed before in my life, not even on one of those pretend walls that they have at places, so I was concerned I wasn’t going to be as strong as we needed to be. But they reassured us that the hardest part was the first 100 or so meters, and then after that, “there is a path.” So we took their word for it, because they had climbed Beerwah a few times before. So, I’m not trying to be dramatic, but there were a couple times I envisioned myself slipping and falling to my death and/or a broken ankle/rib/neck a couple times during the first 20 minutes of the climb. I mean, I was terrified, because I am a big baby and I’m quite scared of heights. I remember thinking, “Did that adventure sports travel insurance I bought include mountain climbing?” Also, apparently the mountain had been closed recently to climbers because of a rock fall. So that thought was not comforting! But after that first climb, it actually did get easier, and I got the hang of the movements, which also made it easier. We found out that when they said, “path,” what they really meant was “route to take where there are some spots available for you to grab onto and pull yourself up.” There was really no easy part to the climb.



Once we got to the summit, however, it just made it all so worth it. And I made it there unharmed, minus a barely noticeable scratch on my knee, hah. Then we got to take in one of the most amazing views of my life. It was just so cool to look around and see all the other little mountains, which Candace pointed out, looked like they were out of a Dr. Seuss book, all strangely shaped and crooked and random looking. It was just too cool. We could see the Sunshine Coast from up there, and all these little plantations and just land and hills and mountains forever. They also pointed out that you could tell we were the tallest point, because all the mountains we could see were below the horizon line, which I thought was an interesting tidbit.



Then, after a bunch of pictures, we slid back down the mountain. It was funny, because as we were climbing up I remember saying, “This isn’t too bad, but yikes I do not want to have to get back down this thing!” and on the way down I remember saying, “How the heck did we get up this, it’s so steep!” But getting down I reckon was a lot easier, still. It was just like sliding down a slide at most points. The only part of the day that seemed to make Lindsey the slightest bit upset for a moment was kind of hilarious. We heard her yell out and at first it sounded like something was wrong, but really, she just realized she had rubbed a big whole in the butt of her shorts from all the sliding. And then eventually we reached the base again. In total, it was about a 2.6 kilometer climb there and back, I believe. After a delicious pasta dinner with all this shellfish like mussels and prawn (what they call shrimp) and something I had never had before called Moreton Bay bug, which is kind of like the native lobster here, I am exhausted, again, and feel like I could sleep for a day. Too bad I have class at 10am, and haven’t done my reading yet for my tutorial at 1pm. Guess I can wake up early and do it—don’t want to get behind in my second week of class…

By the way, check out my flickr photostream to see pictures. I won't be posting them in this journal because it takes too long. but check there. http://flickr.com/photos/kellyalysia

If anyone thought I was crazy playing around with a water python up in Cairns, no worries, that was nothing.

So on Friday, a few of my flatmates, Lindsey, Candace, and Brandon, and I woke up and thought we should go somewhere for the weekend. Lindsey has this book about places to visit in Queensland and one of the places she had marked off was Stradbroke Island, which an island off the east coast of Queensland, just to the east of Brisbane. We read that people camp out a lot there on the beach, so we figured what better way to save money by not having to book a hostel. So we packed up some oranges, peanut butter, bread, and Tim Tams, threw on our bathing suits, and headed for the train station. It ended up taking us about three hours and a bus ride, train, transfer, train, bus to ferry, ferry ride, and shuttle to the beach, but finally we arrived at one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen in my life. It was one of those beaches you can just look both ways for miles and not see a soul. Actually, when we first arrived, there were four little dogs off playing in the ocean, and a few minutes later, their owner emerged, sans swim suit, from the water. We were warned by Australearn that most of the beaches in the area are clothing-optional, but it was still a little shocking/funny to see her. We arrived around 5pm, took pictures of the sunset and all that (I somehow ended up with three flatmates that like to take pictures just as much as I do, if not more), and then headed to the nearby backpackers resort to ask if there was anywhere to get dinner. They said there wasn't much--there isn't much of anything on this island-- but there was an Italian restaurant about 10 minutes down the road. We walked there, had some dinner, and then headed back.



Immediately, we were shocked at how dark it had gotten. Yeah, we're pretty new to this. We brought flashlights, but the thing about places like this is there are hardly any streetlights and the buildings that are there close up really early, so really the only light we had was our little flashlights. Brandon started to freak the other girls out by talking about how snakes come up on to the beach, and there might be giant birds that would attack us, and what if crazy people came in the night and tried to murder us like in movies--he was really paranoid. But we talked to someone at the hotel nearby and they said sleeping on the beach was totally safe and people do it sometimes. We ended up setting up "camp" aka a towel and a blanket for each person, and laid down and then realized the best part of sleeping on this beach at night--the view. I don't remember a time in my life I have seen so many stars. And the stars here are different from back home. There's the Southern Cross here, and zodiac constellations that we don't have in the North. We actually learned all about them in the middle of the night when a group of locals stumbled onto the beach, and one of them decided to explain to us all about them. The thing about Australians is they love to hear themselves talk. Endlessly. Oh, and also, sometime around midnight another group showed up and started tossing around a glowing frisbee. And they were naked. So our quote of the trip was likely one of their girlfriends yelling, "It's not cool to play frisbee naked with your mates!" Say it out loud with an Aussie accent. Hilarious. Oh, and it was also freezing, so we never ended up sleeping. Not the most comfortable sleeping situation, but it was all right. I think by the end of the night I had seen about seven shooting stars. We'll see if any wishes come true.



So since we never ended up being able to sleep, we got to watch the sun rise, which was amazing. I've never watched the sun rise over the ocean before quite like that. We had been hoping for it to warm up all night, and then as soon as the sun came up all the way, we started sweating.. By 8am, it was almost as hot as it was going to get, which was like 32 degrees C (90 deg). So we lathered on the sun cream, as they call it, and went for a swim. The water was cooler than I thought it would be, but it felt really nice and it was so clear and blue and sandy, no rocks like on the Cape. I realized it was the first time I had swam at a beach along the Pacific Ocean. And the best part was that there was hardly anyone there. It felt like our own little private island. We saw some dolphins way out in the water too, and we could have kayaked out to see them better, but it was a little expensive so we just stuck to the beach.



We stayed there until about 2pm, when we realized we were roasting, despite constantly reapplying SPF 30, so we headed out. Others back here at the apartment went to Surfer's Paradise for the weekend down along the Gold Coast and their stories were more about the crowded beaches and night life. But I think Straddie was nice and relaxing, kind of like going back in time for a day.

The city of Brisbane is absolutely beautiful. I was a bit worried, because I had heard from some Aussies and other Americans that it wasn’t one of the most exciting areas of Australia, but if it isn’t, then I really can’t wait to see some of those other nicer parts on holidays over the next few months.  My schedule has me with classes only Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday at this point, so if nothing changes there it appears I will have four day weekends for the duration of the semester. What a life, eh? Hah. No, I will probably end up getting a part-time job. We’ll see.



So over the weekend, some of my roommates and I explored the South Bank of Brisbane on the CityCat, which is like the ferry form of public transport here. There is a stop that it lets on and off about a 5-minute walk from the apartment, and it takes about 15 minutes to ferry to that area from here. It has been pretty gorgeous here, with a few bouts of rain shower and thunderstorm, but never for long. And the ferry ride is so gorgeous on nice days, with a perfect breeze and fantastic view of the city. The Brisbane River runs all through the city, and the ferry just travels along the river from Apollo to the university.  There’s also a bus and train system, but the ferry is really cute for nice days.



The South Bank has this cute little artisan type market with little stands set up with hand-made jewellery and clothing and bags and all sorts of things. It is really beautiful. There are all sorts of flowers and all these gorgeous palm trees everywhere, it’s great. There is this man-made lagoon, also, so it’s like a tropical resort in the middle of a city, with the river behind it. It is so cool.  I got a suntan slash sort of burn the other day, regardless of applying sunscreen. Although, I should probably up it from 15 SPF to 30 SPF. The sun is seriously way stronger here than I am used to.



This weekend also just included a lot of buying things for the apartment and all that sort of stuff, nothing too interesting. Today we had our first orientation sessions and I got to check out the campus for the first time, it is very pretty. I opened an ANZ bank account and found out some information about buying a gym membership and all that sort of stuff. The library, where I am now, is very nice too. It’s a very modern campus, and some of the buildings have a modern look to them, but all the buildings surrounding the Great Court, which is sort of like the quad, I suppose, have a nice traditional look to them with really interesting architecture.

We still don’t have Internet at the apartment, so it’s making it a bit difficult to get online when I need to, preferably at night, because the library closes at 8pm here. But I’ll make it work. It’s all about slow adjustments, I suppose. I do have a cell phone now, however, which is good. I believe it was designed and manufactured circa 2002, give or take a year, so again, adjustments.

I have lots of pictures but haven’t had time to upload them yet, but they are coming. They will speak volumes more than I can.

This morning (at 7:45am, even though I could have slept in as last as I want...) I woke up to this really strange tweet-tweeting and it was rather pretty, but in my half-awake state, the first thing that came to my mind was, "Would someone turn off their cell phone alarm already?" Then I woke up more and realized that sound was actual wildlife outside my window, these are the sounds I have to look forward to for the next four and a half months of my life. And this strange sense of calm came over me. Because the truth is, the last 24 hours have not been all that calm.

But let me back track, because Thursday was absolutely in the Top Three Best Days of My Life, and off-hand I can't really think of which others are in that list so it may in fact just be #1. So on Thursday, we woke up quite early, for a 6:15am brekkie and walked about a mile (or should I say, a little over a kilo? I'll get the hang of it soon...) and then once we got there and signed off on some papers we set out to sea on this big SCUBA diving boat with a company called Passions of Paradise (little plug for them, they are totally amazing, if you are ever in Cairns and want to go snorkeling or diving, they are your guys).

So the weather was absolutely amazing, sunny and about 28 degrees C. It took about an hour for us to get out to the Great Barrier Reef, in which time we sort of relaxed and sunbathed on the front of the boat. I took pictures. They went over the scuba-training course, how to breathe underwater, how to clear our mask, how to clear our mouthpiece if it fills with water, and all the hand signals. Anyone without a SCUBA license was required to go diving in a group of four other beginners and one instructor. So once we got there, we suited up in these stinger suits because jelly fish are fairly common and well that would just suck. So once we sat down in the seat where they strap on your oxygen tank, I started to get a little bit nervous. Like, holy crap I have to walk with this thing on? In flippers, no less? And then swim in it? With this uncomfortable mask on? Yikes. But I just figured that was normal first-timer stress so once we hopped in the water I was like, OK I can do this, no problem. You hold on to a rope as the instructor goes one by one over the various things with you and goes underwater to make sure you can handle it and don’t freak out. So I did that and I was fine and off we went. I rented out this underwater digital camera to take with me down there, so as soon as we started going down, I was all about the picture-taking. But the problem was I was totally not at all used to this feeling of breathing through my mouth only underwater. I haven’t really ever snorkeled, unless you count those kiddie snorkels you wear in the pool when you are 7 years old. So I’m snapping away, oh my gosh, how cool, and then BAM, I start breathing through my nose and my mask starts flooding with water and I do the little trick to get the water out by looking up and pushing on the top of my mask, and then I forget about my mouthpiece and that goes floating into the water. So I am a mess, so I rush to the surface like a big baby. And Glenn, the instructor, comes to help and I’m good, and then I do the exact same thing again two more times. So he sends me back to the boat and I feel like a total failure.







Then I went snorkeling, and that was when I started to get the hang of breathing underwater, through my mouth only. Even though it’s a lot different because you are so close to the surface and there is that comfort that you can come up for air at any moment, it still helped me to get the hang of the breathing. So I got back on the boat as we left for our second location, and that was when this other instructor Simon, or “Darling” as I was asked to call him (these Ozzies crack me up), told me to give it go in the afternoon, and he would take me and make sure my mask fit better and everything would be right. So I took his word for it, and tried at the second spot we got to, which was right near this tiny island with all these birds. And my second attempt went totally smoothly, I didn’t feel the urge to return to the surface at all, and I took some fantastic pictures. It was just this really indescribably wonderful thing to be down there. It was like, you do all this stuff in a regular day, go to the bank, go to work, drive a car, blah blah blah—and here is just this beautiful little world underwater where life goes on in this totally perfect way. It’s like when you think about the fact that the Earth is just this tiny speck in an endless universe, how trivial all our little problems are, only this is a whole other precious world within our world that most of us never take a second to consider in our daily lives. We saw sting rays and giant clams and some clownfish and various other colorful fish I didn’t even know what they were. And I took pictures and didn’t get all distracted and forget how to breathe, which was good. After about a 25-minute dive, we got back to the boat and then it was time to start heading home. Glenn asked me to help him steer the boat, because he was having a little trouble, so I did, and we ended up making pretty good time. Heh. 



So that was basically the most exciting part of the trip. Friday we got on a 12:30pm flight to Brisbane, which was fine, and then landed, and took a bus to where I am living along with a bunch of other Australearn students in Sir Fred Schonell. The whole process of moving in was a tad annoying, since there is one elevator, 40 of us, and 100 or more of our enormous suitcases. Oh, and no one was there to let us in to the building, give us our room number, or our keys. That was problematic. However, eventually they came, sorted us out, and everything was right and we moved in. I have my own bedroom, which is really exciting because I have never had my own bedroom during the school year. There are seven of us living here within six bedrooms, and two bathrooms to share. The apartment is about a 15-minute walk to town, and 20-minute walk to campus, so they say, although we haven’t down the latter walk yet. Walking outside isn’t bad in the evening, but at this time of year, if you are lugging a few grocery bags, it could get pretty darn sweaty, but there’s also a pretty great public transit system in this city. The buses tend to fill up quickly at certain busier times of the day, but again, these will be little quirks we should get the hang of within the next month or so, just like any new place.



It rained a whole lot yesterday. Like between 3-4pm and then again for a couple hours at night. But I guess it’s a good thing since there’s such a water shortage in this country. People don’t really wear rain boots here. In fact, they don’t wear often wear shoes. Yeah. And by “not often” I mean like every 20 people or so you see on the street. Well maybe even that is an exaggeration, but there are quite a few people that go barefoot, and I'm talking like walking around in town, not just at the beach. We went to Subway yesterday and saw two barefooters in the span of about 10 minutes. Also another mind-boggler is how early shops close up. Like grocery stores and things like that. The grocery stores close about 9pm during the week and 5pm on the weekends. But, I must say, the locals thus far have been absolutely some of the friendliest people I have met in a city. Most people speak English, with the only exceptions being some Asians who are likely tourists. And people are just really open to talking to you, especially when you are in a small group of about three people. Otherwise, Australians will tend to avoid you, which is understandable.



Today is going to be all about getting unpacked and getting random things for the apartment. Like paper towels and dish soap and, oh maybe some laundry detergent so I can wash my only towel and maybe take a shower? And a cell phone perhaps? Monday is our first orientation meeting at UQ, and that will begin our journey as students in Australia. 

Tonight was Christmas Eve.
We drank and watched Step Brothers and laughed and laughed
and Katie yelled at John and I because he was on his computer with I don't know
and I was on my blackberry with Dave who was stuck in Reagan airport
waiting for a flight to Boston. And I wanted so badly for the first time in I don't know
how long to be in the Logan Airport, sitting for him at the arrival's gate,
because just wouldn't it be so wonderful to see the look of shock and happiness on his face?
Actually, he'd probably just be creeped out. I don't know.
I probably would be in that situation.

Then we ate lots of delicious food like risotto, shrimp, vegetables, and I don't know
what was in the salad but that was good too, mom made it.
Then we walked (stumbled)--or in my mother's case "power-walked"
around the neighborhood and three-quarters of the drinks of those 25-and-under
got spilled. Or...maybe it was less than that. I don't know.

Then we opened our pajamas, aka the only present Katie and I are allowed to open
on Christmas day (aka, the only present we will be receiving this Christmas, period)
And for some reason later on I looked more closely at the clothing (tags) and started bawling
and I don't know why, well I do know exactly why--but that's not important right now.

And I think I heard someone vomiting in the bathroom a little while ago.
That's supposed to be my tradition
At least for the past three years I have.
I am glad it has been passed on because I don't know, that was gettin' pretty tiring.
And I don't know if I could handle upset stomach at the moment.

I don't know if Santa will come tomorrow. He might just stuff my stockings and that's it.
(Maybe I'll get a lucky scratch ticket?)
Mom says that's all he's gonna bring, at least, and mom always somehow predicts what I get for Christmas.
How does she do that?


Merry Christmas, loves.