Australia Day Disappointment

Sunday was the big day, and also Australia Day! We woke up at 6 to be ready to get on our 7 o'clock shuttle that would take us to Byron Bay, the location of our big skydive. Rachel walked into me and Maddie's room blasting 'Live Like You Were Dying' to try and pump us up. Rachel, Christy, Caitlin, our new SLU friend Tori and I walked to the bus stop and continued the skydiving themed jams. It was raining and cloudy but we figured it would clear up by midday. We thought that the shuttle was just going to be the five of us so we walked on talking and laughing and were greeted by the glares of at least 15 other people that we had just woken up from their naps. Whoops...

So after the hour car ride, we get to the skydiving place and are told that it could be a few hours as they wait for the wind to die down and the skies to clear. We were taken into town to get some breakfast or shopping while we waited. After 2 hours, we were told it would be another few hours before we knew for sure. At this point all our nerves had died and we were just ready to get it done with. Eventually they called and said they were coming to pick us up to reschedule our dives and take us back to Gold Coast. So now after I was finally more excited than nervous, I was told I had to wait another week. We are officially rescheduled for next Saturday so hopefully the weather is better for the jump!

Once we got back, we took a nap break and then put on our Australia clothes and headed to Surfers Paradise where we assumed something exciting would be happening for the holiday. After being harassed by a couple of 12 year olds on the bus, we made got there and realized there wasn't really anything special happening. We got some dessert, took a few pictures on the beach where we got pelted with sand, and then headed back to campus. Walking to a transfer bus stop, we heard screaming and turned around in time to see someone get either tackled or tazed by the police and then handcuffed and put into a cop car. It was a little frightening!

Last night, we also booked our flights for trips to Sydney, Melbourne and Cairns! Our weekends are filling up so fast! I slept til 11 today and am finally adjusting to the jetlag I think! I wish they had a Starbucks on campus to fuel me up everyday, that'd be nice.

Brisbane

Saturday we took our first trip out of the Gold Coast! So far, everything we've been doing has been inside the Gold Coast region so we decided to take the hour train ride to Brisbane and go explore! Although the morning was pretty rainy, the temperature actually ended up being perfect and no bad weather can stop us! I have become a self-proclaimed master of the Queensland Translink public transportation system, so I successfully navigated all 6 of us from Bond University to the city center of Brisbane, an hour and a half train ride away. With our student bus passes, if you ride nine buses in the week, all your rides after that are free. Since I've had a packed week, I ended up not having to pay for any of my trip to Brisbane or the buses that we took in the city. It was amazing! Even if I had to pay, it was like a $5 trip, which is all the more reason to return! I absolutely loved the city. Everyone had told us that it was 'eh' and nothing too exciting but it reminded me of some of the smaller cities in Ireland that I've been to! When we got there, the first thing on our mind was food so we stopped at this super cute restaurant called JoJo's, which is apparently one of the most iconic places in Brisbane. Right below it was a store having a $2 sale for the holiday weekend so of course we stopped and did some shopping! But for $2, it's hard to not shop! After shopping for a while, we took the bus up to the Mount Coot Tha lookout point. Maddie and Christy were in a shop when the bus came so even though they tried to run, the bus left without them and they had to follow us in a taxi. But once we were all reunited, we went up to the lookout which was over the whole city and took a million pictures, as usual! It was beautiful! Looking down from the lookout began my downward spiral into nervous panic about skydiving. I wasn't even 1/4 of the height I'd be jumping from and looking at how small the city seemed made it really set in.

 Mid afternoon we hopped back on the bus and went to the cultural center of town where there's the giant ferris wheel. We wanted to wait til it was dark to ride the wheel so we wandered around the cute little part of town and stumbled upon yet another outdoor market/craft show. There were all sorts of cute stands, including one where Rachel and Christy got incredibly cute hand-carved wooden phone cases. After eating a nice dinner of Mexican food (again, not hard to find...) with the spiciest salsa of my life, we headed to the giant ferris wheel to take a ride. It was so tall, potentially taller than the one at Navy Pier in Chicago, so we got a great view of the city. This was my second moment of panic about skydiving. Again, nowhere near as high in the air and I was still terrified of the height. Then it was time to head back to Gold Coast, so we hopped on the train and got back to get some sleep before our big Sunday of adventure.

I know I'm a little behind on the blog but this weekend has totally worn me out so in the morning when I wake up I'll get all caught up with a blog about our skydiving (or lack there of...) and Australia Day adventures! As always, there's a million and ten more pictures in my facebook album 'Aussie Aussie Aussie' from all of my adventures and don't forget you can subscribe to receive an email when I update in the top right corner!

 Mount Coot Tha look out

 In our little pod on the ferris wheel

My friends are so pretty..

Running a 7k With My Arms

I would say that today was the best day I've had since being here. Christy, Alex and I got on the bus and headed to the 7/11 gas station parking lot where we were told to meet Craig, our tour guide, where he picked us up in his sketchy white van. Don't worry, I promise this is the only sketchy part! It was a totally legitimate tour company! Anyway, we went on a kayak and snorkeling island hop tour with about 8 other people, all Aussies that were on holiday. We started out on a beach a ways past where we usually go in Surfers Paradise and got in our kayaks. They were double kayaks so Alex and I teamed up and Christy bravely went with one of the tour guides like a champ. We were in open water ways so there were huge boats passing around us and making big waves. It's really hard to control the movement of the kayaks so there were a few times that I was sure we were going to get run over by a boat or jet ski. After a while of paddling, we stopped at this island and walked through the grassy, sandy area. There were wild wallabies and lots of crabs that we could pick up! We also saw some dead jellyfish that were dried up so we could hold them! The island was honestly one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. Once we'd hiked a little ways, we ended up on a totally empty beach with big sand dunes, which were gorgeous. The guides had some homemade cakes and fruit for us to munch on before we took off and then we were back in the water, kayaking to a place to snorkel! We ended up somewhere that looked a lot like where we snorkeled yesterday, but the weather was much better and we had life jackets on, so we actually were able to see the fish and feed them! I even got to swim next to a jellyfish (don't worry, the small ones here aren't poisonous). I was so sad when they said it was time to finish the last leg of kayaking. In total, we kayaked 7 kilometers, which is close to 4.4 miles! My arms are going to be so sore tomorrow but it was totally worth it!

Tonight we went to dinner in Market Square by campus and then got Nutella pizza again! These are definitely my favorite kind of days. Although I got a little sunburnt, I'm excited for the rest of this weekend's adventures, Brisbane tomorrow and skydiving plus Australia Day on Sunday! It should be great!!

 We managed to kayak away from the nasty clouds behind us and only encountered about 5 minutes of rain!

 It literally does not get any better than this.

 <3

 Our new wallaby friend! It let us get within 10 feet of it and there was a little baby in its pouch!

 Casual snorkeling selfie!

There was lots of stuff floating in the water so it's kind of hard to see but there was all sorts of beautiful fish!

Soggy Snorkeling

I am officially finished with week 2 of classes! We got to actually taste wine in my Wine Studies class this week and I've realized that it's going to be a lot harder than anticipated! I also realized that I have horrible taste in wine because the glass that my professor said was the "cheapest and worst on the market" tasted much better to me than the expensive, finely aged wine. Whoops...

We decided not to take a big trip this weekend and instead have decided to do some smaller excursions. Yesterday was the first of many big plans, and of course on the weekend that we have all sorts of outside things to do, its cold and rainy. We had been wanting to go whale watching since we saw the 1,800 whales sign our first weekend! Our first thought was "Oh my gosh, we want to see that many whales!" Well, it turns out, the Aussie's don't put the dashes in their phone numbers like we do in the states and the sign was actually saying 1-800-WHALES was the phone number to call. Anyway, we booked the afternoon cruise, and again were disappointed to find out it isn't whale season. The boat took us to a nice little island where we could snorkel and feed the fish! It was still super cool even though there weren't whales. I was so mad that my GoPro died as soon as we got there and I didn't get to take pictures. We also got the chance to paddle board, which was kind of tricky in the rough surf that all the wind and rain were causing. I stood up a few times with Alex holding and balancing the board but never for long. Once we got back on the boat, it got a lot colder and a lot more rainy. Of course Alex and Christy brought sweaters and I missed that memo. We did get to see some dolphins though, which was super awesome!

Of course as soon as we got off the boat, the rain was pouring and we had to walk to our bus stop and wait ages for the bus to come. After a cold, soggy bus trip, we finally made it back and decided we deserved a feast, so we ordered an insanely large amount of Dominos pizza and ate almost all of it.

Today, we're off on another grand adventure, kayaking, hiking and some more snorkeling! The GoPro is charged and ready for this one! Although it's supposed to be rainy again all day today, we're hoping it all goes well!

 Lookin good as usual.

 The beach we snorkeled!

Being sassy roos as usual. The Aussies love us. Note that we are rockin some super cute sea bands because the water was so choppy. They work like a charm and no one got sea sick!

'Musement Park Monday

Sunday morning Alex and I got up to go to church. The closest Catholic church is like a 45 minute bus ride that only comes once every hour so we had to leave an hour before mass was even supposed to start. As I've said before, the bus system here is horribly annoying but it's our cheapest option as students. The church was unlike anything I've seen before. The Catholic population in Australia and particularly Gold Coast is very small and I'd say the church was half full at best. Most of the people there were also over the age of at least 55 or 60 as well. Definitely not the masses full of college students or families with little kids that I'm used to at SLU or St. Patrick's. There was a small entry area under an awning basically where we were greeted and then it went straight into the church. The whole back wall was glass sliding doors that were wide open to the outside. The inside was very very simple with a plain altar, plain walls and plain solid wood pews. It was weird to be able to hear everything that was going on outside with the back open because the church is right in the heart of Surfers Paradise, which is a very busy, loud part of town. Also the priest had a very thick Indian accent that had hints of Australian so it was really difficult to understand. After the homily, they took up a collection, said the Apostle's Creed instead of the Nicene Creed, had intercessions and then took up another collection. We were really confused. The mass itself was very short but then we had another hour and a half of bus struggles on our way back to campus. After all the bus trouble, we decided to have an easy day and chill by the pool.

At home or SLU, I usually have a space where I can go and have me time. Being an introvert, it's really important that I get some time to myself and not be social. Here, I don't really have that space. I want to get the most out of my experience here and spend time with my friends and the awesome people I'm meeting but I decided that I needed to figure out a way to get some 'introvert time' as I call it or I knew I would snap at someone and cause a big scene. Since I don't have class on Monday but all my friends do, I figured Mondays could be my 'me day'. Last week I laid out by the pool but there was still a lot of pressure being on campus to go to lunch or do something, so today I tried something different. Gold Coast is the amusement park capital of Australia, with Movie World, Dreamworld, SeaWorld, Wet n' Wild, and White Water World, and I knew I wanted to go to all of them before I left because I'm kind of a roller coaster junkie. Today I started with Movie World. It's owned by Warner Brothers so it reminded me a lot of Six Flags. In fact, there was a roller coaster that was exactly like the Batman ride at the Six Flags at home. There's lots of Looney Toons stuff and there was a Superman roller coaster as well. I got a lot of judging looks for being alone at an amusement park but it was exactly what I needed. I had time to just be by myself and enjoy doing something that I had looked forward to. I got a VIP pass for pretty cheap as a student which means I have unlimited access to Movie World, SeaWorld and Wet n' Wild for the entire time I'm here, which means many more 'musement park Mondays!

Most of you probably know that I'm a picky eater, but I assumed that Australia was close enough to America culturally that I wouldn't have too much of a problem. I was wrong, at least for the on campus food. We have one bigger cafeteria and then some coffee shops and one other cafe that I have yet to see open. The main cafeteria has a menu with maybe 25 items and it hasn't changed. There's also a little sandwich bar part that's open during lunch time. None of the food items are just normal though. The first day, I made the mistake of ordering a cheeseburger. One bite and I knew it was not what I wanted. There were all sorts of veggies ground up in it, from carrots to onions to an unidentified green thing. So that was a definite no. Pretty much all of the food is like this with little surprises in them. Kendra I know you're reading this shaking your head at me. Also, EVERYTHING has mayo on it. You order chips (french fries) and there's mayo on it. You order a ceasar salad and the dressing is just straight up mayo. I haven't had nearly as many problems with it when we go out to eat but the food on campus is just not good. I eat chicken burgers (crispy chicken sandwiches) and chocolate chip muffins on a regular basis. They sell Ben and Jerry's in the cafeteria though. One pint for a lovely $12.00! I will never complain about how much it costs at home again. In the stores here, it's even more expensive. Everything here is so expensive!

I don't really have any fun or exciting pictures to put with this blog.... sorry everyone! Happy Forth Day to all my TECites reading this! Let me know if there's something from my adventures or life down under that I'm not talking about that you want to know more about! I'm literally obsessed with talking about all the awesome stuff I'm experiencing!

 

I've had some people wondering where exactly I am, so here's a handy map! Australia is huge so even though it looks like I'm not too far from Sydney, its a 10 hour drive along the coast in between! 

That Bar Crawl Life

Like I said in the last blog, Friday night was the Harry Potter themed bar crawl. We all got t-shirts with our tickets and were on the Slytherin bus, meaning we left at 6:30 instead of 4. It started at the bar on campus and then went to 3 other bars and finished at Club Liv, which is the club Bond basically always sends people to. By the time we got to the second off campus club, we were over it. Drinks were incredibly expensive everywhere and it was literally just everyone standing around doing nothing. The club we were at was right next to a McDonalds so we decided to get some food. We ate and then realized we were right next to the beach, so we went to take a walk there. It was sooooo beautiful. I've said a million times before how gorgeous it is here but the moon was huge and the waves were huge and it was just amazing. We decided to just take a city bus home and, as usual, met some very interesting characters while we waited. As we walked to the bus, Christy, who was wearing tall wedges, totally face planted on the sidewalk. One minute she's walking and then I turn around for one second, hear her go "Ooof" and then I see her lying flat on the ground. Some guys saw and came up and gave her a hug. She survived with nothing but a bruise though... no harm done to her precious leather leggings!

Today we went to another new beach, my favorite so far. There weren't too many people there and it was pretty shallow all the way out to where the waves were breaking so even little me could go out in them. It was a dog friendly beach too so there were dogs everywhere just swimming around! We went to find a Chinese restaurant for dinner and Christy and I needed a bathroom so our crazy search began. Most of the stores around were closed or didn't have bathrooms. We walked around in circles for like 20 minutes before going into a Japanese restaurant and asking if they had one. They gave us a key and said, go out back up the stairs. It was by far the sketchiest bathroom I've ever seen. It was the kind of place where you would find a giant spider under the toilet lid. But we survived, slightly traumatized.

Once we got back to campus, we all showered and put on more comfy clothes to get ready to get some dessert. As they were getting ready, Caitlin and Rachel found a little lizard in their shower! It was kind of alarming though because we live on the fourth floor and there shouldn't really be wildlife getting up here. Then we met up with our BFF Kyle and walked to the little Market Square area to get nutella pizzas. They were stellar. 

We're finally planning our first big trip so we're getting really pumped for that! And I'm finally starting to get a little bit tan!

 Our beach today!

 Harry Potter bar crawl...

 

 Last night at the beautiful beach!

Lookin good as usual.

Fitting In...

So I know I just posted this morning and I know that Alex just wrote a post about this if you're keeping up with her blog too but this afternoon we went shopping and I just had to write a post about the fashion here in Australia. If you know me at all you know that I'm always at least a year behind on fashion trends and would much rather wear Nike running shorts and a tshirt than a super cute outfit. Well here in Aussie land, that doesn't fly. Everyone dresses up and looks fashionable at all times. The only people I've seen in yogas or athletic shorts are people going to the gym or Americans. Of course I packed some cute clothes, but even with those, I basically brought jean shorts which are super rare here unless they're high waisted. So we decided to take a trip to the mall today and it was certainly an experience.

The style I was most interested in was of course the loose, flowing, elastic waistband shorts that everyone had. They were easy enough to find and comfy so I'm okay wearing them anytime. Checked it off the list and continued my quest to fit in with the Aussie fashion.

Fitting in is what ultimately ended most of my searching. Australians are skinny. Like, all of them. So naturally their clothes are smaller. That's fine, I'm short and being a size 8 in American is pretty average and I figured even if they'd be on the bigger end of things, I'd find my size. I was wrong. Almost every store we went into either didn't have things my size, usually stopping one size too small, or if it was big enough, it was way too long for my 5 foot stature. Definitely was a shot to my confidence. I kept looking though, hoping to find the other item I was dying to have. A playsuit. In American, we call them rompers, but they're so popular here. During O Week, I had gotten one for the Tight and Bright party that fit me perfectly but it's a little to bright to just wear on any occasion. I figured it couldn't be that hard to find one that fit me. Plus, they come in all styles. Every time you pick something up thinking it's a cute dress, you find out that the bottom is actually shorts. I searched and searched and tried on what felt like hundreds of playsuits. They were almost all made out of a sheer material with a fit definitely not built for my body type. If it didn't have completely open back, it had a neckline that plunged all the way down the front. The Aussie way is to just not wear a bra with it, but I definitely cannot do that and they don't look good with a bandeau under them. It's very discouraging and frustrating watching your friends try on clothes and look great in everything and then struggle with everything you put on.

Anyway, I haven't completely given up hope, but I think I'm just gonna have to accept that Aussie fashion and I don't get along. As much as I want to look like the bleach blonde, tan, surfer girls who can pull off the backless rompers, I'm okay rocking my new comfy shorts and tank top. Sorry for this totally random and somewhat too personal blog. I'll return to normal blogging soon, tomorrow night is the Harry Potter themed 'Bondwarts Bar Crawl'. I'm sure I'll have plenty to talk about after that experience!

 My playsuit from Tight and Bright. It looked so cute on and covered what needed to be covered... but a little too bold for me to rock on a daily basis.

 The norm in women's playsuits. Plunging front and totally backless. I do not and will never have the body for that..

 My new comfy shorts! Obviously I won't be rocking them with a crop top but they're still cute and make me happy!

Week 1 - Check!

I am officially done with my first week of school! I only have class 2 days a week, Tuesday and Wednesday, which gives me a nice long weekend to enjoy this beautiful country! Classes her are structured somewhat differently that at home. Most of my classes meet for a 2 hour lecture once a week and then a 1 hour tutorial with a smaller class size. So far, I'm enjoying most of my classes. Here's what I'm taking:

Australia: Dreamtime to Dust - It's all about the history of the country and the aboriginal people so we talked a lot about the tectonic plates and such in the first class. The teacher seems nice but I'm not really sure how interested I really am in the subject matter.

Minds, Bodies and Machines - I can already tell you this class will be the source of all my angst. It's a philosophy class all about the nature of the mind and thought. It's just a straight 3 hour chunk and I really struggled to stay awake and focused on the lecture. If I zoned out for even 30 seconds I was totally lost and confused. Plus we have two 10 page papers due in the class and I am not about that life at all.

Wine Studies - Definitely my most exciting class. In the first class we just talked about the history of wine in Australia and the industry of it but even that was so interesting to me. Every other week we have a tasting assessment where we learn tasting techniques and such. That should be very exciting too.

Australian Popular Culture - We get to watch movies or TV shows every week in class and then just discuss how they portray the Australian stereotype and culture. I'm really excited for this class too!

I was hoping that my classes would have more Australians in them so I would have the opportunity to meet people but they don't. Even my philosophy class, which I would have assumed would have a lot of Aussies, only had 2 non-Americans, and, with only 12 people in the class, 5 of them are from SLU and 3 of us are in the OT program at SLU. So there's definitely not much diversity there.

Other than classes, I haven't done much this week. This weekend we have some bigger plans so I can't wait to tell you all about them! I'm off to go shopping now, I didn't pack enough tank tops for this extreme heat!

Sorry I don't have any pictures with this post.. there hasn't been much picture worthy happening!

Koalas and Dingos and Wombats, Oh My!

Today we went to the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary! There were about 12 of us who went, mostly SLU kids and it was amazing! It took about 45 minutes to get to by bus but it was totally worth it. There were all sorts of native animals that we could just walk right up to and touch! When we got there, the first thing we did was hold the koalas. It was seriously so cool, but I spent most of the time I held it terrified that it was going to pee on me, thanks Uncle Al. It pooped on my friend Christy who went before me so I figured with my luck, something would happen to me. When the lady handed me the koala, it just sat on down and settled in. According to the handler, it liked me! After we all held the koala, we walked to the kangaroo area. We literally spent at least an hour just chillin with the kangaroos. There were so many just walking/jumping around and you could just walk up to them and pet them and such. It was so cool. We particularly enjoyed taking selfies with them. I also got to feed one which was so bizarre. I could feel its little teeth and tongue and then my hand was covered in kangaroo saliva, which was super lovely. When we had finally had our fill of kangaroo selfies, we just roamed throughout the park and saw all the other animals they had! Lots of big lizards just roaming about and spiders. There were also some cool birds and snakes and other Australian animals! Right as we were leaving, we got to see an Aboriginal dance performance and get pictures with the dancers as well! After a full day, we took the bus back home and now I am totally worn out. Everyone else starts class tomorrow, but I'm rockin a Tuesday/Wednesday only schedule so I'll spend my day by the pool! Here's to hoping my burn miraculously turns into a tan!

Picture with our beautiful campus before our dinner last night.

 Makin friends everywhere I go!

 Alex dropped some chocolate off her ice cream bar and this big lizard just walked right on up and helped himself. I enjoy his chocolate lipstick.

 Have I mentioned that I <3 kangaroos?

How can you not love that face?!

The Rogue Fox and His Friends

This is a post mostly to tell you about our random Friday night, because I don't want to forget and it'll be a little to long to include with anything else.

So Friday we spent most of the day just hanging out and relaxing, catching up on sleep. Then in the evening, we had a Welcome to Res dinner where we got to meet all sorts of awesome Aussies. One of the girls sitting at our table even offered to let us stay in her house when we traveled! It started off with appetizers - crocodile and kangaroo. I tried the crocodile (not a fan...) and the kangaroo looked like a cross between a lil' smokie and dog poop, so I was too afraid to try it. There was also a man there with pythons and crocodiles that we were able to hold and pet. Not gonna lie, the python was absolutely terrifying. It would slither its way around my neck and I am not about that getting choked by a python life. The crocodile had its mouth taped shut so it was significantly less intimidating. Then I had some delicious chicken and potatoes while we learned about surf safety and such. After dinner we were kind of wandering around wondering what to do when we stumbled upon a bar, so we decided to give it a try, except they wouldn't accept our US driver's licenses as ID. A guy sitting on the patio said he'd buy our first round of drinks if we came back so we got our passports and went back immediately! It was kind of surprising when he actually bought all 6 of us drinks. We ended up making friends with the guy, who's name was Chad, his 'brother' Phil, and their friend Brock, who was showing us all his charming dance moves, featuring the rogue fox. Chad and I bonded over being 49ers fans. Apparently even Australians love the best team in American football! It was karaoke night so after a while, we finally forced Chad to sing for us. He got up and sang some song we'd never heard of and then he made the 6 of us get up and sing. Of course we chose Sweet Home Alabama as our song of choice. Typical Americans apparently. Had there been many people at this bar, I'm not sure it would have gone over well but since there were only a few, it was significantly less embarrassing that we didn't actually know all the words. The bar closed at 11 so we called it an early night and came back to sleep.

Today was Bond at the Beach day so we got on big shuttles and headed to a new beach. The waves were bigger than waves I've ever seen and because I'm so short, they pretty much take me under or wash me to shore every time. It's still fun though to lay in the sand and get out in the water a little bit. We're probably going to be taking surfing lessons soon so that should be interesting. The ocean is honestly one of the things I'm most afraid of. It turns out we all spent a little bit too much time in the sun and most of us fried. Luckily, mine is contained to just a few splotches on the backs of my legs and the tops of my hands. Some of the others were not so lucky. Once we realized we were turning into lobsters, we left the beach to get some lunch. Whoever has said there's no fake-ish Mexican food here was lying or misinformed. Maybe not as much as at home, but there was definitely a place to get burritos today. We got back to campus and spent the rest of the afternoon reapplying aloe repeatedly. Tonight then we went back to Surfer's Paradise to have a nice dinner. We ended up at a cute Irish pub and the food was so good. Now it's time to try and sleep off the sickness that the sunburn has brought. Hopefully we'll all be feeling well enough tomorrow to go do something exciting!

Here's some random extra pictures from throughout the week!

At a welcome week barbecue event with the Bond cheerleaders who want me to try out for their team! We'll see what happens with that!

 By popular demand, a toga party picture. Sorry this is literally the only one we have!

 Our struggle waiting for the bus on a regular basis summed up in one picture.

Honestly, so terrifying.

O Week

This week has been kind of crazy so far! We've been in the midst of O Week (orientation for all new students) so there have been lots of activities and things for us to do plus unpacking and getting settled. Until yesterday, the jet lag hadn't been too bad but now that I'm not as busy, it's all catching up with me.

On Tuesday, we bought bus passes and went straight to the beach! It is absolutely beautiful! The sand is white and the waves are absolutely huge. The beach we went to is in a part of town called Surfer's Paradise. There's tons of shops and clubs and restaurants and hotels plus the huge gorgeous beach. The only downside is that the bus ride there has a lot of stops so it takes a while. We laid on the beach and then headed back to get ready for the cocktail party for new students. It was mostly a bunch of mingling and meeting new people, and then they had a few speakers and a digeridoo player, which was cool. Then we came back and got ready for the toga party. Everyone kept saying 'Oh you're Americans and you're in sororities, you should be awesome at tying togas!' except I've never been to a toga party in my life and the sheets they gave us to use were pretty small so it took a lot of effort to figure out. Once we were finally all dressed up, we went to the party, which was held at a bar on campus. It was nothing like we expected and was full of skeezy guys. We ended up coming back early and just going to sleep.

Wednesday, we hung out on campus in the morning and then took the bus to the shopping center to get some much needed items. At the shopping center we realized a few things. 1) All the stores except big grocery stores close by 6 every night. 2) Everything is significantly more expensive than at home, especially alcohol. 3) Grocery stores do not sell alcohol, you have to go specifically to the liquor store. 4) Stores like KMart and Target are very different from the ones we are used to. After shopping, we went to find our bus stop home and ended up walking in the wrong direction. Once we finally found the right bus stop, it took an hour for our bus to even come. The six of us were just sitting on the side of the road basically looking homeless. As soon as we got back, there was a hypnotist show. Earlier that afternoon, an O Week leader had warned us 'Don't volunteer for the hypnotist unless you're comfortable doing some weird stuff.' We were all kind of like 'Okay that's normal, we've seen hypnotists before.' He said to us 'Last year, he made people basically have sex with chairs.' That startled us all quite a bit. We laughed it off but I was a little hesitant about the show. What the O Week leader said was exactly right. It was so raunchy I couldn't believe the school paid this guy to do this. We all kept talking about how back at SLU, that never would have been acceptable. Because we were stuck waiting for the bus for so long, we totally skipped dinner, so after the show, Alex, Rachel, Christy and I walked to a little shopping square by campus and got pizza. It was the first thing I'd eaten here that was really good.

Thursday we ended up going back to the mall to get things for the Tight and Bright party we had that night and to get Australian phones so we could communicate with each other outside of wifi. Then we headed straight back to the beach. We stopped along the way to get some lunch at a bar where we were carded to even enter the premises. We didn't actually end up staying long at the beach... there was a big storm starting to blow in and we didn't want to get caught in it so Alex, Christy and I headed back to the bus stop, where we proceeded to get on the wrong bus, get off at the wrong stop, sit waiting there for an hour and then almost miss our real bus back to campus. Once we finally got back to campus, we started getting ready for the party. There were a ton more people at this party and it was a lot more enjoyable.

So far today we've just been relaxing and recovering from this crazy busy week! Sorry that this post is super long... There's a lot to write about! Maybe I'll start updating more often so that there's not always such long posts. Anyway, I'm off to take a nap! Livin the dream here down under even though its been cloudy and rainy all but one of the days we've been here...

 Digeridoo player at the cocktail party

 Looking a little rough at the cocktail party after the day at the beach

 Welcome barbecue on Monday night

Ready for the Tight and Bright party!

Finally Here!

After many many many hours on planes and in airports, we are finally here in Gold Coast! The flights themselves were pretty smooth, I slept through 9 hours of the long flight so that helped. We struggled a little bit through customs but our real problems came once we arrived in Gold Coast. At the airport, we were greeted told to get our bags and wait for our driver. After waiting an hour and a half, we started to panic a bit and started really searching for him. Once we found the drivers, we were told there was no room on any bus and they didn't have any of our names down to be picked up, and that it was our fault completely because we had decided to wait outside. I was very surprised at the bluntness of the driver and how, although he was incredibly friendly, he flat out told us this was all our fault and he couldn't do anything about it. It was a little bit off-putting. So while we spent our 3 hours stranded in the airport, we met some other Bond students from different places in Australia and were able to ask them questions and get a feel for the Aussie lifestyle. Once we finally were on the bus, it was pouring rain and our bus driver apparently didn't actually know how to drive as he was swerving all over the road. Then it started to hail and we had to pull over to the side of the road for 5 minutes.

Now we're here though and I'm getting settled into my room. Two of us share the room... my roommate, Maddie, is another SLU student who lived on my floor last year. We each have a bed, dresser, desk and then we have a private bathroom with a toilet and shower! So far everyone I've been has been incredibly nice and laid back. We went to a trivia night tonight and were all a little bit surprised how open they are about partying and sex and making crude/sexual comments. It was just freely flowing! I think that aspect of life here might take a little bit to get used to. Nothing is off limits to say.

Tomorrow we're hoping to finish getting everything in order with the school, go shopping for the essentials and maybe hit the beach! There's a toga party put on by Bond as a part of orientation week in the evening so hopefully the jet lag won't kill me at that point. Hopefully I'll be able to keep you updated on everything but I can tell it's going to be a very busy semester.

Enjoy all that lovely snow and cold weather at home, I'm living in beautiful 85 degrees!

All the bags we had to haul around the airports and campus.

xoxo love and miss you all!

It's Almost Here!

I've been waiting for this for at least 2 years and it's finally almost here. I leave in 4 days to spend a semester in Australia studying at Bond University in Gold Coast with three of my best friends. Until this point, it has seemed a little surreal but now that it's getting closer, the nerves are starting to set in. If you've been to Australia and have any tips or must-see places, please let me know!! Also, I'd love advice on how to survive this looming 15 hour flight... I'm not looking forward to it.

I will be posting pictures and updates to this blog as often as I can tell you all about my adventures!