Not too much here

Yesterday was pretty uneventful for me.  I accidentally missed my 8am Monday morning class but since it was a lecture it was okay that I missed because I watched the video around 10ish.  Its pretty hard to understand this lecturer but hopefully I will get used to him talking soon.  I also have a tutorial for the same class on Monday so I made that, it was from 1-2.  There are only six people in my whole tutorial class.  That has been my only tutorial so far.  I only have a lecture today and then I am done for the day.  After my class yesterday I didn't do too much.  I tried to get a hold of Allis so I could ride her bike to the store to get milk again but I didn't get a hold of her so instead I just walked to the gym and worked out.  I ran for 20 minutes and then I did the workout plan that the guys at the gym made for me and I ended with riding the bike for 15 minutes so at least I got all of my cardio in.  On my walk to the Gym I passed this little family.
They are SOO cute.  You could probably pet them and they would like it but the signs say not too so you just cant.  They are really friendly though and they are everywhere!  After I left the gym I came back home and made dinner and hung out with my roommates for a little bit.  Nothing too exciting happened yesterday.

This morning I met Natalie at the pool and swam some laps with her at 8am.  That was fun, its a good way to wake up because its really refreshing and since its so hot out even at 8am it feels really good to get into the pool.  After we got done swimming, I stayed there and laid out for about 10 minutes just to dry off and then I came home and skyped with ian for a little bit and then took a shower. 

Then I sent out some e-mails, skyped with Shawna and Lilly and now I am here :).  I dont really have too much planned for today but I am going to class soon and then Sebastian is going to meet me at school so we can take the bus to the plaza.  He is going to talk to the STA travel people that are at the plaza and I am going to probably go to Lucy's work (right outside the plaza) and get another work out shirt because I only brought one and it gets stinky, haha!  And then we are going to head to the beach for an hour or so and then I am going to go to the gym and come home and do some reading for my classes.

This weekend I am going to a surf/kayak camp.  I am really going to try and get the hang of surfing.  It is on a private secret island that nobody can go on unless you are going on one of these trips.  I guess it is a really cool place with nice sand and a lot of beach area and there are hostel accommodation but they are actually a lot nicer and better than hostels.  I met a few friends that were on the Fraser Island trip with me last weekend that are also going on this trip so it will be a lot of fun to spend another weekend with them and learn how to surf at the same time.  Kayaking is going to be a lot of fun too because there are going to be a bunch of dolphins around us (hopefully) :). 

I need to go eat something before my class but I will post up pictures this weekend of my surf and kayak camp :).  

 

Paradise

I just got back from my Fraser Island trip!  I signed up for it not really knowing what to expect but I knew it was going to be awesome and a great way to meet new friends.  It was a group trip that was offered to students studying at the University of Sunshine Coast.  I got an e-mail from school giving a little bit of information about the trip and it sounded like a really good opportunity and they were only offering this price one time for students at Uni so I reserved a spot for myself as soon as I could because the spaces were limited.  I talked to a bunch of people that wanted to go but they said that the trip was full and there was a waiting list.  This was the best thing I could have done.  It was by far the most amazing experience I have ever had and it gives me the chills just writing about it.  It was also listed as a world heritage spot in 1992. 

I am going to try and put a lot of photos on this posting but I want to say that these photos do not even come close to giving the areas that we visited justice.  In real life it was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.  I can not believe that we got to see so much in two days and spend a good amount of time at each place.

I will start from the beginning of my trip and try to put a lot of pictures up.  I will put up the important information that I learned about the places that we visited, but I forgot a lot of it.

I woke up at 4:10am on Saturday morning and packed, ate 'breaky' (Aussie term for breakfast), and walked to the bus stop at school to catch the bus at 4:50.  We rode on a greyhound like bus for about 2 hours and then met our tour guide in this little town and transferred buses.  Then we went with him on a little 12 minute ferry ride to the WORLDS largest sand island!  98% of the island is made up of sand and the other 2% is rocks, so all of the vegetation in the rain forests and stuff is all just growing out of sand.  

That's me by the bus

We had to go on a HUGE bus with HUGE tires because we did a ton of driving up and down sand hills that we needed this special bus.  We also did a lot of driving up and down the beach on the sand with the waves coming up to the bus.  There are a lot of other vehicles that can make it on this tour but for our group size (36) we needed a bus.  People do rent jeeps and even bring their own cars over also.  The 75 miles of beach front sand is just used as a road.  There are even cops driving around but no speed limit signs :).  Our bus went FAST and our tour guide Cam put the petal to the metal!  We had a lot of fun with him, he was a great guide.

The first place we went to was called lake Wabby and it was about a 45 minute walk/hike to get there.

A cool tree we passed on our walk to Wabby

This lake is really cool because one side of it is trees and plants and the other side is a huge sand dune that we hiked up.  Once we got to the top there was just so much more sand, and sand, and sand every way you looked.  Walking up the sand dune took about 4 minutes.  It was straight up hill and a really good work out but it wasn't a terribly long hike up.

This lake is special for a few reasons: one being that it is the deepest lake on Fraser Island but it will no longer exist by the time I have grandchildren.  The sand is slowly moving into the lake and eventually it will have fully eating up the whole lake.  The estimated amount of sand that is going into the lake annually is 3 meters. 



You could see BIG fish swimming around in there and the water was really refreshing.  The fish were harmless but really cool to see.  They got pretty close to us at times but if you moved they would quickly swim away.

This lake was a lot of fun to hang out at and we stayed there for about 2 hours (I think).  It was enough time to be able to take it all in and enjoy every second of it.  I went up to the top twice and came back down and both times going up were a lot of fun.    
When it was time to go back down to the bus we all packed up and enjoyed our walk down.  The scenery was beautiful and the weather was awesome.  When we got back down the first thing I did was go to the bathroom and on my way out there was a little guy hanging out on the side of the bathroom.  I didn't name him but here is a quick peek.  ------->>  Nice huh!!! This is the biggest spider that I have ever seen in my life.  Even counting the ones that are stuck in cages.  But if it makes you feel any better, rumor has it that they are nice and great to have around because they just eat all of the bugs.  The only   
time they bite is if they are really mad and they think they are in danger.  But I heard from my Aussie roomie Hayley that they are really handy to have around and they actually get much bigger and they just live in peoples houses (AHHHH)!!  Okay... I will quickly move off of this subject because I know some of you are probably not going to be able to handle this picture (but I am posting one more spider picture up later, a different looking one).

So we got down to the bottom and packed up in the bus and went to have lunch at the resort that we stayed at.  We had about an hour lunch break before we were onto our next journey. 

Where we stayed the night

 The next place that we visited was called Lake McKensie.  This was my absolute favorite!  It was the most beautiful place that I have ever seen in my life and it was completely unreal.  I cant even describe how beautiful it was and it was completely breath taking!  Even paradise isn't a good enough way to explain it...!


This lake is surrounded with beautiful white sand that is made up of three different kinds of minerals.  It is very special sand because some people have used it to make glass, it cleans jewelry, exfoliates your skin and all kinds of cool stuff.  Our tour guide told us to wash our skin with it and lather it into our skin as good as we can because it takes all of the old dead skin off your body so new nice soft skin can start developing.  It is also supposed to make you look 5 years younger, haha!  Some of us girls washed our faces with it and rubbed it all over our face and took a picture (you cant tell in the picture that we have sand all over our faces though).  When we left McKenzie Lake our skin was unbelievably soft from the sand.  People in the old days (and me) brushed their teeth with it.  It made my teeth really white and smooth :), not everybody was brave
 
enough like me to brush their teeth with it but... When will I ever get a chance to get a free whitening again? It made our teeth so smooth!

This lake is made up of 100% rain water.  It is the freshest, cleanest, clearest water that I have ever seen in my life.

We stayed here and swam for a few hours and it was the best (I don't think I have mentioned that).  I swam out pretty far and even though I went that far out I could still see the bottom of the lake.  It was deep and far down but the bottom was in sight because the sand is such a light color (or 'colour' if your an Aussie) and since its so bright you can see the bottom even if you go far out.  Eventually I did reach a point where I could no longer see the bottom but it was really deep there. 

You are not supposed to take any of the sand I don't think but I did end up taking a little pinch :).  I think it just fell into my bag from my towel though ;) (wink, wink).  It was just so soft and pretty that I had to have a little and just in case I ever need to clean any of my jewelery ever.
After a few hours of staying here we packed up and went to the resort to eat dinner.  All food we got was an all you can eat buffet so we never left hungry.

 After dinner we pretty much did whatever we wanted to do.  We ate dinner and then walked around on the beach looking for Dingos (wild dogs) and we spotted one from a distance.  I got a picture of one that was really close to our bus as we were leaving the resort today that I will post up in a few.

So once it got dark we went out to the beach to look at the stars and it was breathtaking!  I cant even describe the view and I obviously could not get any pictures but if you ever think you have seen the Milky Way then you are pretty much wrong because the Milky Way that I have seen in the States compared to the Milky Way that I saw last night was 100% different.  I cant describe it because it is impossible but it is by far the most amazing view I have ever seen (did I already use that line?).  The stars were as bright as you can imagine and more and the Milky Way was pretty much as bright as a moon, it was unbelievable! 

 After we star gazed for awhile we went to check out the Brazilian party at the beach bar because there was a full bus of people from Brazil.  One side of the bar was a live Brazilian band that sang in Spanish, we hung out there for awhile because they were having more fun then the other side of the bar where there was just regular music that is usually in bars.  There English was okay but not the best.  Some of them spoke better English than others but when you talked to some of them you had to talk really slow and explain things to them using words from kindergarten.  Eventually they understood it.  It was nice because they translated the Spanish band words to us when the band told us to do something... Like back up and come back forward and do your salsa and all that fun stuff.

I stayed there until around 11:50 then went to bed because we had an early morning.  Breakfast from 6:30-8:30 but the bus left at 8:30.  He said he would give us a little bit of a leeway because we were a younger crowd :), he wouldn't have left any of us anyway.

I woke up at 6am and could not sleep anymore so I got up and showered and then tried to lay back down and sleep for another 45 minutes but I still could not sleep so I just got up and walked around waiting for people to wake up.  Then I went to breaky and got on the bus to go check out this point that we hiked to.  We got a view of the whole ocean all around us.  Usually from this view we could see sea creatures in the ocean but the sun was at a point where it was making a glare onto the ocean so it was hard to see any creatures.  Some people saw a sea turtle but I couldn't spot him because he kept going back under whenever I was looking in the right location. 

Almost to the top of the point.

I took a 360 degree video of this spot but I do not want to put it on here because I am afraid it will take too long but here are some pix.  It was beautiful and the hike was not too bad either.  It was just a little uphill for a bit but mostly just easy.

 

Scary huh?

  Well, I have like a billion photos of all of this stuff but I can only put up some right now.  There are a few more that would be cool to post up but since I am getting tired, and it is getting late and I have an 8am class in the morning I am just going to try to finish this up and hopefully you will get to see pictures when I get back.  Maybe one day I will have a scrapbook of all these pictures!

After we left here we drove more on the beach front until we reached a sunken ship that floated to the beach and got stuck.  It was from the navy and...  there was a lot information about it and history that if you want to learn about it I could refer you to www.google.com  :).   There was too much information about this for me to type out this late at night.  But anyway, it was really awesome and neat to see in real life.  It is Australia's most photographed piece of rust.  We couldn't go in it because it is far too dangerous and we would have gotten hurt.  It was really long and this is not all of it.  Some of it got washed away so it was a really large ship. 

They almost tried to clean it up but while they were brainstorming ways to get it off of the beach they saw tourists that were really interested in it so they decided to keep it.  I think it has been there for about 67 years but dont quote me on that exactly :).

We were only here for long enough to get pictures of it and then we were on our way for our last stop before lunch.  Elle Creek.

Elle (sp) Creek was really awesome.  It was cold water that you can drink, (but I didn't).  We walked up to the top of the creek and then floated down the the pool area where it opened up.  This water was the coldest but it was only cold for a second.  Some people had tubes that they floated down the creek with but we just floated with our bodies.  It was not a long stretch and did not take very long so I did it a couple times.  The first time I went I didn't bring my camera or anything because I wanted to do the full float and not walk the whole time holding up my camera.  Then I laid out for a little bit and got hot and did it again.  I brought my camera and saw this spider on the walk up.
  He was huge too.  Unfortunately I didn't get many pictures of this area. But here are the few that I got.

After we left here we went and had lunch and then hit the road to our last spot.  The rain forest.  We were all so tired by this time that we weren't that excited about it and just wanted to stay on the bus and sleep but we fought through it and did the last stop of the whole tour.  It was good that we got motivated to do it because it was worth it.

Again I did not take many pictures but I still got some.  This is the only rain forest of its kind (and I forget that kind, haha).  But its the only one.  I hugged a tree that was 1000 years old.  I did it just to show the picture to Marna and John.  PS- if you guys are reading I had to walk an extra 25 minute walk (totally worth it though) to get this photo and before we started this walk he gave us a 'how to be safe talk' since he was not going to go with us.  He gave us some information about the walk to see the tree that was 1000 years old and the first fact he threw at us was, "7 of the 20 most deadliest snakes live on this island".  Umm... I hate snakes more than anything on this earth and they are all pretty much deadly to me.  Even the little water snakes!  But I still did the extra 25 minute walk because seeing a tree that was over 1000 years old was going to be worth it :), plus knowing that this was the last stop of the day was pretty rewarding!

There she is!

   This was another cool looking tree on the walk.    -->
  Since the guide was not with us I am not really sure what is growing around it but it was awesome.  The creek that was flowing through this walk was really clean to and you could drink that water as well.  It was encouraged but I didn't because I didn't walk to walk through the bush since there were so many snakes and since I saw so many huge spiders.  So I just drank out of my nalgene instead.

This picture is a postcard. 

Back in the day women gave birth in or around the creek that we followed to the tree.  It was beautiful as well.  There is a bunch more information about this also so I suppose if you are interested in knowing it google would be your best option again:).  

After this we made a toilet stop for all the people that had to go, of course I was one of them and then we hit the road.  As we were driving on the beach we saw a Dingo close up!  It was pretty cool.  There are about 150 dogs left on this Island and you cannot feed them.  If you got too close to them they might bite.  If they bite you then they are killed.  They have tags on their ears to identify them but the one that we saw did not have a tag so there are probably more than 150 on the island.

They are really skinny and unhealthy because they do not have much to eat.  Their lives pretty much consist of wondering around to try and find food since there is not much on the island for them to eat.  They live off of rubbish (the Aussie word for garbage).

This was the last thing that we saw on the island so it ended off really well.  Some people do not get the opportunity to see a dingo and I saw two while I was there.

Well... It is getting late and I have an 8am class but I just needed to write all of this stuff before I forgot :).  I hope you all enjoyed reading about my FRASER ISLAND ADVENTURE! Because it was such an amazing opportunity!  I would probably have written a lot more if it was not so late.  They're still a lot of photos that I will be getting from friends cameras so I will try and make a 'Fraser Island part 2' blog post so I can post up the rest of the pictures.
Good night!

Surfs up, errrr... Surfs DOWN!

Thursday ended up being pretty fun, like I mentioned I didn't have class because my whole Thursdays are full of tutorials and my classes did not have any since it was the first week and there were lectures only.  So Hayley, Sebastian and I took the bus to the plaza and walked around for a little bit until we got bored.  We were planning on going to the beach after but we were just tired and it was cloudy so that changed our mind so we just took the bus back home.  Hayley and I took long naps and then it cleared up so we decided to go lay by the pool.  While we were laying at the pool reading our books these girls came up to us and had free taco cards that they gave us with a free shuttle there and back.  The free tacos were only from 5-6pm so we decided that we would go change and go.  We went there and it was pretty fun.  We invited our friend Anas from Germany, he just lives about 100 feet away from us.  We stayed there till about 7 or 7:30ish and then took the bus home.  The bus drivers name was Stinky.  When we got home we were tired so we just relaxed at home and then went to bed.  I watched American Idol on my computer and skyped with Ian and Abby for a little bit. 

This morning Natalie, Lavent and I caught the 7:55am bus to Alexander Heads beach and rented two surf boards for the 3 of us and just took turns.  It worked out great except I sucked at surfing.  It was really bad conditions to learn how to surf because the waves were huge and there were so many of them.  It was one after the other after the other and there was no break in between the waves so it was tough.  I am not done trying yet though.  This is just the beginning.  I did get up on my feet once but I fell down right after that.  I know I am going to get the hang of it soon! I am not giving up :).  Here is a little video of the surfing conditions today (don't be scared mom) :).



**I cant get this video to load so I will work on it later when it is not so late:) **


 Lavent and Natalie have been surfing for about a week now.  They took a class last week that was about 40 minutes and it taught them the basics and they just taught me what they learned in that class.  They were good teachers but the conditions were just to rough for a first timer.  Next time I will at least know what to expect and now I have the feel for it.  

I took the 11:33am bus back to Uni and made a quick sandwich and got on my friends sweet bike from probably around the 1930's (not even exaggerating a little bit), its 100% rust and it has a basket on the front.  I rode it about 1.5 miles to my doctor appointment to get checked up to see if my health is to the Australian standards to dive.  My doctor said my lungs are good and my blood pressure is good, and no signs of brain damage, and I am coordinated-- So I guess all that is good news.  Now they will allow me to finish up my certificate.  I am excited for my open water dives here because I get to go to the ship that sank in 2004 and explore around there.

After my apt I stopped at woolworths since it was right next to my doctor office and grabbed some chopped olives, salsa, chips and olive oil and then rode my sweet ride back home.  I was excited cus Hayley was home and I didn't think she was going to be home so she came out and took a picture of me... The bike in this picture does no justice, I'll tell ya that right now!

 

  Here is a picture of Alis, the owner of this beauty! The evening picture gives it a little more justice.

After I got back from the store I had to run to the gym and meet the guy that is doing my workout plan for me and he did a great job.  We went through every thing that I will be doing for the next month and then we will switch my whole routine for another month.  I love this program, its so fun and I learned so much about everything today.  I was excited for it to be done though so I could go home and hang out with Hayley.  I got home and Sebastian, Hayley and I ate dinner and then Hayley and I painted our toes and fingers and gossiped and hung out. 

Now its bed time! I have to be at the bus stop tomorrow morning at 4:50am to go to Fraser Island.  I will take lots of photos and they are going to be awesome! I will post them up as soon as I get back  :)

Goodnight!

First week of class... DONE!

I successfully finished my first week of school.  I don't really think you can finish a first week unsuccessfully but if you can then that was not me!  I pretty much like all of my classes except for one, my 8am Monday morning class (go figure).  Maybe I will end up liking it but as for right now it is just a drag.  I really do not normally get done on Wednesday but the first week of school we only have lecture (unless you are one of the unlucky ones who has tutorials) and my Thursday's are full of tutorials.  Thursday is actually my longest day of the week but this week my Thursday is a free day :).  As far as my other classes go- the ones that are not at 8am, I am going to really like.  They might be a little tough but I can definitely scrape by and at least they will be interesting.  I am even taking a science class; that is going to be my favorite one I think.  It is going to be really educational, informational, interesting and fun! What else can I ask for?  The teacher is awesome and the one hour he had us for lecture he sold me into liking his subject.  Give me about a week or two and I'll get back to you on that, haha!

The rest of my week, at least since Monday has been pretty uneventful.  Monday night my sweet tooth got the best of me so Lucy, Hayley and I drove to Woolworths (the local grocery store) and satisfied our needs.  Lucy got some Tim Tams which is an Australian chocolate that all the Aussies eat over here.  Pretty much the most delicious thing ever.  Some locals heat up a glass of milk and bite off each side of the Tim Tam and suck hot milk out of the Tim Tam and all the chocolate melts in your mouth and I guess its really delicious.  It was good without doing that though.  Hayley got some frozen oreo cheese cake and I got some Oreo Ice cream.  We came home had a few bites of each and stayed up for a little longer and gossiped for a few and then we all just went to bed since we had school the next day. 

Tuesday was pretty boring as well.  Nothing excited happened except for school and we went swimming until a huge storm hit and then we had to run back to our apartment.  Then I just watched American Idol online and I went for a little run (I didn't strain myself though) and then I came home and read my book for a little bit and then hit the hay. 

Today I got up early and swam some laps with Natalie at 8am and then I went to my classes (lectures, not tutorials) and then I convinced Hayley to go to this workout class with me at school.  I ran 1.8 Kilometers (a little over a mile) for a warm up and then we did a circuit training class that was awesome!  After that we walked home in the rain and Sebastian had dinner made so we just ate that and ... That's pretty much it.  I took a picture of my walk to school today.  This was on the way to my environment technology class. 

I will work on getting some pictures of my school and my apartments to post on here but... just don't hold me to it :).  I will just work on it (sometime).  It is 10pm here and I am ready for bed now.  Tomorrow I do not really know what is on the agenda besides buying some school books.  If it nice then hopefully the beach and if it isn't then I suppose the plaza or something.  Or maybe just relaxing and watching movies... Who knows! 

I have to try really hard to get to sleep because people stay up really late on Tuesday's, Thursday's, Friday's and Saturday's.  Its really annoying and that is one thing I hate about living here.  Not only do they stay up really late they are loud and scream until all hours of the night.  I have some ear plugs that I use pretty much every night except Monday's and Wednesday's I suppose, but I would like to invest in some more.  They don't sell them at Woolworths though and that is the closest big store.  I just have to close my window and turn on my fan for some cool air.  I probably live about 100 feet from the Pav where everybody stays up and plays so a big chunk of the noise comes from there.  Tonight is not too bad so hopefully I can take out my ear plugs by 2-3am if I happen to wake up. 

Well, wish me luck!
Goodnight :)

Mountain Bike Adventure

I am a little behind but I know this is just the beginning so I will have to get used to it.  I am going to try and write in here a little bit every day rather than one huge one, maybe that will make it easier and less time consuming? Haha!

So Saturday Sebastian and I signed up for a Mountain Bike Adventure in the outback of Australia.  We went on a trail that started about 30 minutes from our apartment.  We were not really sure what to expect out of it but we thought it sounded really fun and plus I needed a good workout.  It ended up being really awesome but by the time we were going back I was 100% ready for it to be all done!  I was SOO tired on the way back I was just hoping that after every hill we would see the van.

Within the first 10 minutes of the ride I fell into a big mud pond and was really muddy for the rest of the way.  I wasn't that embarrassed because I was just happy to get my fall out of the way in the beginning and plus at least I fell on some cushion instead of rocks and sticks.

The whole right side of me was pretty much its own mud puddle, that is our tour guide John to the left of me.

  

I was expecting to get muddy anyway because right in the beginning of the ride John said, "get ready to get really muddy!"  He sure was not kidding!  However, I was not the only one to fall in one of those mud traps.  On the way back Karen, my biking buddy (girls hafta stick together) fell in a mud trap also and she got WAY more muddy than I did so I finally felt some relief knowing that I was not the only one that fell. And also, I witnessed Karen's boyfriend fall.  Everybody fell except the pro, it just took me to break the ice :).

We all got down safely except I got a few cuts and bruises and I am sure everybody else did to.  Karen and I were ready to be done and gave up toward the end and just got off and walked our bikes when we saw a little hill.  The total bike ride ended up being 23K's which is about the same as 14 miles (in the US).  14 miles of pure terrain.  Every muscle in my body was working the whole time, I especially noticed it in my arms when I was going down a hill because I was using all of my arm muscles to have the right amount of weight and breaks throughout my whole bike.  I am glad I got to work out a lot before I got to Aussie though because I wasn't even a little bit sore the next day and everybody else was sore when we got dropped off.  I guess all the running paid off, and P90X legs with Ian (thanks Ian).

The whole group was Sebastian and I and then a couple that was in their late 30's early 40's (I could be off) and then the tour guide.  It ended up being a really great group and we all had a blast.  I was really happy that I was not the tour guide because he ran a half marathon after the bike ride.  He is pure muscle and pretty much did that whole mountain bike ride as a warm up.  He also does kayaking.  He was really nice and just started this business 10 months ago.  He is now working with just this business full-time and quit his job the day before our tour because he is getting a lot of interest in touring and has been staying busy with biking groups.

The bike ride was a little different than anywhere you would bike in Montana because it had different trees and plants but it was really similar to what you would find in Montana.  It was not comparable to biking up the Sun Road in Glacier but the final destination view was still beautiful in the end and made the whole trip worth it.  We did take before and after pictures of us when we were all clean and then our muddy butts but I have not gotten those pictures yet so I might post them up when I receive them but 

most likely I wont :/ haha! By the time we got down John provided us refreshments which were overly needed because I was STARVING so I shoved my face with a banana, granola bar, yogurt and delicious orange juice. 

I was really tired on the way back home that I almost fell asleep in the van and was just ready for bed when I got home even though it was only around 2ish.  I got a text from my friend asking if I wanted to go to the beach and even though I had no interest I thought I should go anyways because it was really hot and humid outside and if I stayed home I would just be sweating my life away.  So we went to the beach for a little bit and cooled off and caught some waves and then I came home and forced myself to stay awake until at least 9:00pm then I hit the hay.  I have to wear ear plugs on the weekends because it is so loud in our complex that it would almost be impossible to sleep if I didn't. 

This picture is right in the middle of two beautiful beaches on each side.  Mooloolaba and Alexander Heads

So that was my Saturday.  Sunday I relaxed, skyped with my Mom, Dad and Chester who was freshly shaved and bathed and just as cute and old as ever and I did laundry, cleaned a little and prepared for my first day of school. Later that day Sebastian and I took the bus to Mooloolaba beach and met Hayley and Nick there and laid out and swam a little and then came home together and made pasta and relaxed for the rest of the evening.  I went to bed early because I had an 8am class this morning. 

My first day of class was pretty easy I just had one lecture to go to this morning, it was almost impossible to stay awake though.  The classes are a lot different here then in America.  For every 1 class you take there are 2 classes that you have to attend, a tutorial and a lecture.  Usually the lecture is 2 hours and the tutorial is 1 hour or visa versa.  So that part kind of sucks but every lecture is video taped and put online for students to access within an hour of the lecture just in case there is ever an accident and students are unable to make it.  I am sure that will not be the case for me on Monday mornings during my 8am lecture ;-).  The tutorial's are not recorded so it is more vital that students attend those.  Sometimes the tutorials and lectures are not on the same day.  Tomorrow I don't have class until noon and I am done at one and then Friday is a free day.  Most students do not have class on Friday's at Uni unless you are really unlucky.  My roommate Hayley only has class Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and my friend Tilly from Saint Norbert only has class Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday so most students only attend 3-4 times a week.  I have four days a week but I am happy to have Friday's off.  Sebastian is one of the unlucky ones who has class on Fridays.  I will let you know how the rest of my classes go as the week goes on. 

One more thing before I am done.  I saw a brown snake close to campus the other day.  Those are the snakes that are really poison and scary.  They used to not be around campus or around where I live but since the floods they washed a whole bunch of them up where I live so I hope they die soon.  Also, there are these cute little gecko's everywhere that are just harmless and sometimes they are really pretty colors (In Australia they spell color like "colour").  Which is wrong because it is underlined in a red squiggly in spell check :).

Also, this is my last picture for today and it is one I took on our bike ride of all of the trees.  These are the trees that the koala's live in but unfortunately we did not get to see any.  They are really hard to spot.  I also learned that the reason why they are always so lazy and tired is because the food that they eat (some kind of plant) have a drug in them that makes them high and lazy so they just always want to sleep.  Weird huh?  I bet you didn't know why Koala's were so lazy!

  Okay, now I am done for today! Good night!

Mooloolaba beach

Today a couple of us went to a beach called Mooloolaba.  It is a little closer to campus than Kings Beach and takes about 18 minutes by bus depending on which bus you take.  The 615 bus can get you there 10 minutes faster but it only comes a couple times a day.  The 616 bus will take a little bit longer but it comes to the Uni about every half hour to hour so we just took that one.  We left the station around 12:20pm and stayed until 3 or 4ish.

It was really hot out today and even though I wore a lot of sunscreen I still got a lot of color.  The sun here is a lot stronger and hotter than anywhere else.  I barely ever wear sunscreen in the US just because I never get burned (I know that's bad) but here it would burn me in a half of a second if I didn't have sunscreen on.  I put spf 15 on every morning after I shower and then I put more on if I am going to be outside for an extended period of time (I hope some of you are proud of me). 

I didn't take any pictures of where we swam and watched the surfers but I took a few that were right next to the beach we were at.  On our walk from the bus stop to Mooloolaba beach we saw a few different creatures.  We saw a few turkeys that just walked around like they owned the place and we saw about 5 bearded dragons.  Sharnie (she is from Australia) said to just keep our distance because they aren't the friendliest little guys, they looked pretty scary to me but I think they are pretty harmless unless they feel that they are in danger (like most creatures). 


Before we got down to the beach I grabbed a coffee at a little shop that we passed and it was delicious.  That has only been my 2nd coffee since I have been here and I think that is why it was so good.  I have not been able to find any coffee creamer in any of the stores that I have been to yet but I am on the search.  The locals here usually do not put any flavored cream in their coffee.  The only flavor you get from coffee here is ice cream or whip cream. 

While we were at the beach I went swimming twice.  'Swimming' at this beach was pretty much the same as Kings beach.  People just go as deep as they can, (usually up to your neck, max) and wait for the big waves to come and either jump over them (depending on how deep you are) or go under them or dive into them and then you just do that over and over again (if you are not surfing or knee boarding).  It is so much fun! The rest of the time I just laid out and relaxed. 

Quick pic on the walk from the bus stop to Mooloolaba Beach

Then we caught the bus back to school I made lunch and figured out my plans for Saturday (tomorrow)!

The other day when Sebastian and I were at Uni (campus) running errands, he had to change a class so while he was doing that I decided that I would grab all of the touristy brochures that caught my eye.  Since I didn't have any plans for tomorrow I thought I would go through them and see if any would be possible for tomorrow.  I called the mobile cell phone that was labeled on the brochure for the bike tours at about 8pm this evening and got details.  I asked Sebastian if he would want to do that with me since it is a pretty inexpensive awesome tour and he said yes, he's pretty much game for anything.  We got to choose between a 'Bush Adventure' or a 'Coastal Cruise' and since we have spent the last two days at the beach we thought we would do the 'Bush Adventure' trip.  The guide just happened to be doing a bush adventure trip tomorrow morning and said that there would be room for two more to come. So we signed up! He will pick us up from our school tomorrow morning at 8am.  It sounds like it is going to be awesome so I will  try and post a lot of pictures up from that :), but for now... GOODNIGHT!

Productivity!

The past couple days have just been running around on campus and doing miscellaneous fun stuff .  The orientation we have is all week long but we get to choose what presentations to go to after the first day.  We have just been picking a few each day that we think are important.  I am glad its Friday though and there are no important presentations to go to.  Yesterday Sebastian and I had our last three hour writing class but as we were walking down there we decided to cut that event out of our day.  We talked to a bunch of people that were signed up for the same class as us and they were not going to go to the second session either.  The writing here is a little different; as in they do not use MLA, APA, or Chicago format, they use Harvard style.  So instead of sitting through a boring 3 hour class again we just ran some errands on campus and got other important things done.  One of which included buying a Harvard style handbook for when I am ready to use it as a guide to cite my resources.  That class was mainly for Japanese or French people who are still working on their English.  There are a lot of international students so I think they should have just not invited the Americans to come.  That's okay though at least I still learned a little bit.  

After we got handbooks we went to the bookstore and got supplies for school (just not our school books yet) and then we went to the library and I got my computer hooked up to the WiFi in the library and in some buildings on campus.  The whole campus is not WiFi here but there are some buildings that have it.  Then we went to the International building so Sebastian could change a class while I talked to the STA Travel agent and got information on a weekend trip that I wanted to do.  Then we went back to Uni Central (what our apartment complex is called) and I got my picture taken for my ID card.

On Tuesday there was a toga party at a night club called Fridays that everybody was going to.  I didn't really want to go to the club so instead I just put on a toga and played at the pre-party at the Pavilion right in our apartments until 11pm.  It was a lot of fun I think we went over there around 8 or 9 or something and then the last bus picked everybody up to go to Fridays at 11.  There are always toga parties it seems like but I have never worn a toga at a toga party so that was interesting.  Hayley went to room 90 and helped our friend Sharnie put on her toga and she came back and looked like a big huge knot so we decided that she didn't need to help anybody else with their togas.  We had a pro from Saint Norbert come put ours on.  But then I re did mine and let Hayley help me since she insisted on mastering that task, it turned out good :).

We broke some leaves off and put them on our togas and then I tied mine up with the black and pink ribbon that was on the champagne that Ian got me for V-day.  So we just stayed there for a few hours then came back to the apartment and went to bed pretty early.

Yesterday was a really jam packed fun filled day.  I woke up (with out an alarm again) around 6:40am and I was really bored so I decided that it would be a good idea to go to the beach before Sebastian and I had all of our school stuff on campus at 2pm.  So my idea was go to the beach early, get back early to do some productive stuff on campus, relax a little bit before the South American night with $2 tacos and $3 drinks.  So I woke up and tried to let Hayley sleep in a little bit but I just got too bored so I woke her up at 6:50 and proposed my daily plan to her.  She liked it so we got up, told Sebastian, he was in on it also and we all ate cereal and walked to school to catch the 7:53am bus to Kings beach.  It was really hot out but it rained half of the time we were on the bus so the beach idea wasn't as exciting at that time.  We got off at our stop and walked down to the beach and all of the clouds went away and it was really hot out the whole time we were there.  We laid out in the sun for awhile and then went swimming.  Swimming was awesome, the waves were HUGE and Hayley taught Sebastian and I how to go under the waves if they looked really big.  All of the waves were mostly bigger than us and it was really fun to just go under water when they came.  You have to blow out your nose, lay out flat on the sand with your stomach on the sand and dig your fingers into the sand and kick your feet.  Then you come up and the wave is gone.  We just did that over and over and it was so much fun.  Sometimes you can jump over the waves if they are small enough.  There were like 100 people at the beach and that's what everybody does.  Except the little kids that don't go out that far.  Its hard to actually 'swim' there because of the waves so instead people just surf, and jump over or under the waves.  The water is AMAZING! It is like a luke warm temperature but still really refreshing.

 

When we got home I showered and made a quick veggie sandwich with artichoke hearts, spinach, sprouts, olives, tomato, cucumber, avocado and a little mayo on it with my fresh bread from the bakery right by our house and that was delicious.  There is a bakery where we get our bread and there is a fresh fruit and veggie store by our house also so we can get that stuff pretty easy.  Everything else is pretty much a mile away and its a little adventure to go to the shopping center there but sometimes its necessary.  Then Sebastian and I walked to campus to do our errands there (while skipping our writing class... oops).

Then we came home relaxed a little bit and then went to the store (the one that is a mile away) and got some stuff to get ready for our South American party.  I just wore one of Hayley's dresses and a pair of my shoes but I bought some beads and fiber and made my own South Americany looking necklace.  Nobody could find anything to wear or any other hats or anything so they just got some red and green feathers for their hair.  But when we got there we all got sombreros to wear and I was excited because it matched my necklace that I made.  When we got there we didn't get $2 tacos because I guess they were out which was a joke because it was only around 8ish and we all were starving.  So we skipped dinner, at least we had some chips and salsa at home and Hayley and I shared a thing of ramen because we were starving.  So at least we got to eat something little.  We caught the earlier bus back home because we wanted to get up early today and go to the beach all day since today was the first day that there were no important presentations at school.  When

we got home we made pasties and soup (it wasn't $2 tacos but better than nothing) and then went to bed.  We are planning going to the beach but not till later because there are a few clouds in the sky and at 12 it is going to be all the way blue sky with no clouds :). So we are gonna get ready to go soon.  I will let you know how much fun and awesome it is :).  We are going to a different beach named Mooloolaba.  It is a little closer than Kings beach and I think it might be a lot nicer also.  Kings beach was really nice too but I heard that Mooloolaba is really nice. I'll take pictures so stay tuned :)...

Check and MATE.

As of Sunday (today is Tuesday), I have officially met all of my roommates, officially experienced the shopping cart walk, and officially saw kangaroos.  My last and final MATE is Hayley, she is awesome and fun and I love her too.  My three other roommates are Sebastian, Lucy and Hayley... And me of course.  We are going to have such an awesome time together this semester and we already have.

Sunday, after me and Sebastian went on a little tour with Ryan around Sippy Downs and Mooloolaba we decided that we had to go get groceries.  THAT was a real treat! The grocery store is about a 20 minute walk and all of the international students usually just bring the cart back and then the store comes and picks up all of their carts that we take from them about once a week (I think).  Well, the carts here go forward and sideways, its really weird and hard to explain but one thing is, is that its a pain in the @$$.  And the grocery stores are 100% different! Fun, but different.  It was kind of hard. We definitely spent a lot of time there because we had to pick up every little thing to figure out if it was at least kind of what we were looking for.  Cereal, chips, granola bars, and everything is just so different.  It will be hard to get used to and I am sure I will fall in love with new things. 

After we finally made it home we relaxed at home for a little and talked about going swimming and made lunch.  I had a half of a veggie sandwich and I made smoothies.  Right when we got done eating lunch I met Hayley.  Sebastian had already met her briefly before but I still hadn't.  We all decided to go on a walk around campus because there is a lot of beautiful trails with kangaroos hiding all around, mom's, babies and we saw a BIG male.

 After a little while we were all sweaty and hot from the humidity and decided to go to the pool for a little while and cool off.  We came back, made a delicious fish salad and pasties and went to the pavillion for a little bit and said hi to all of the people that were there. 

Monday was the first day of orientation.  I woke up on my own without an alarm clock at 6:30 and skyped with Ian for a little bit before I showered and got ready for orientation.  It was late lunch there and early morning here.  I had to be to school by 8:30am.  That was pretty long and uneventful.  We pretty much just waited in line a lot so that we could learn some important stuff and some not important stuff.   Then me and Hayley met up at the book store for the BBQ, by that time I was starving and didn't want to wait in line anymore but I did and finally got my sandwich.  I gave half to Sebastian because I felt bad that he got there late and the line was a billion people long and we were leaving so I just gave him half and we were gonna make more food at home but we just went to the Plaza instead.  That is a big shopping mall with a river and a lot of fun stuff around it.  I found that the shopping prices are not as high as I expected.  I thought that everything was going to be really expensive like gas, groceries and alcohol but the shopping mall was about the same as the US.  I got a giant beach towel, a little thin dress, and a swimsuit at Target.  I think that's all.  When we got back I made steamed broccoli for a snack and waited till everybody else was hungry then we all had a veggie stir fry that was really good :). 

Right before dinner I got my first phone call from the office in my apartment complex (uni central) and they said I got a valentine treat (V-day was yesterday for us in Aussie).  Ian got me beautiful mini pink roses and a bottle of Champagne, we talked about it and decided that it was okay that we didn't do anything for V-day and it wasn't a big deal and not to do anything because we weren't going to be together anyways but I guess that was just part of his surprise.  So it was hard to be mad when I got them because it was such a surprise and everything was so pretty :).

Ryan came over and brought the game Scategories and we just had a drink and played that for a while and headed over to the pavilion for company.  We only stayed there for about 20 minutes then we got tired and decided to get to bed, its really nice that the Pav is really close and in our apartment complex. Its like a mini bar with a pool and no bar tender and if you just want company its nice to go there because you can play ping pong, watch TV or listen to music or whatever you want.  Its awesome.  And if it doesn't hit the spot and you want to do something bigger and better you can take a bus from Uni central and go to anywhere you want (almost). 

Today, I had orientation again, I went to a boring library presentation that was really bad.  They didn't do a good job on that.  It was kind of funny how bad of a job she did.  Embarrassing for her.  The school had like 100 informational booths outside surrounding the school with a ton of information that is really useful.  I got a ton of free stuff.  Probably 10 reusable bags in all sizes, pens, stickers, information, chocolate, food, and much more! 

I signed up for the gym at school finally, it is small but it will be good to have and if I want I can get a personal trainer (included) that will make my work out schedule for me and I just have to follow it and we just check up on it every 3 weeks.  I also got a bank account finally but I cant put money into it until after 2pm today.  Hopefully I can make it down there.  I have a 3 hour writing tutorial that I have to go to today because it is recommended for all international students since there are so many different words and writing techniques that are important to know if you want to pass your classes.  Its too bad it is so long but it will be very informational.  Plus, its been kind of rainy today and yesterday so its not like I can go to the beach or anything.  Even though its really rainy its still so hot and humid.  Everybody wears tanks and shorts or dresses and flip flops.  When it rains it usually only comes down for like 5 minutes really hard and then it clears up for about an hour and does some kind of unexpected weird schedule like that. 

Well, I guess I better get ready for my 3 hour writing class! WOO HOO!

Still Truckin'

Well, I made it!  It was a long journey but I am finally here.  Remember when I said I hope that packing was the hardest part?  PFFFF, I wayy off by that little statement.  Traveling across the world was definitely a lot harder than packing -- duh, I don't know who I was kidding.

I'll start from the beginning:  First I got dropped off in Chicago and checked in my luggage (luckily didn't have to deal with it in LA and didn't see it until Brisbane).  I met up with Tilly in Chicago and we traveled together until we got here.  She is the only other student that is studying at Uni from Saint Norbert, so it was nice to stick together.  We didn't really know each other until now but it made the traveling a lot less boring to be with somebody, even though our seats were not by each other on either flight. 

We got on our plane that was about 10 minutes late and almost everybody had just sat down and got settled in.  I was about 6 seats away until I got to sit down when the pilot said we cannot take this plane to LA because something was wrong with it.  Luckily there was another one, similar in size that we all had to transfer to which delayed our flight about an hour and a half, which was 100% okay because we had a 5 hour layover in LA anyway.

Our plane from Chicago landed in LA around 6:45pm, so basically just waiting around until 11:50 when we had take off.  That part was pretty uneventful, we didn't see any famous people or anything exciting. We ate at a South American place and I pretty much just read a book and hung out with Tilly and a new friend Jed that I met.  I had no cell phone service inside there and no internet, unless I wanted to pay a lot which was pointless because I was only going to be there for a few hours.

Finally, we got on our plane at 11:50pm and it was HUGE.  There were seats A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I and J. I sat in seat 75G, so I was the last seat all the way in the back, but that was the best thing for me and my bladder because I was RIGHT next to a bathroom.  In the morning when we were still flying it was like a half hour wait for the bathroom so its not like it was quick and easy access the whole time.  We were on this plane for 14 hours.  It was really, really long but it was not as bad as I thought it was going to be.  We each had our own TV which had on demand, games, tv shows, and lots of other stuff.  I only watched one movie though because I just tried to sleep the whole time (I was a failure at that though).  The TV's also told us where we were, how fast we were going, how long till we get there, the temp etc.


 
 
    


14 hours later we finally arrive in Brisbane at 7:30am.  I am so tired and sweaty and all I want is a cold shower and a toothbrush.  I had to wait about another 5 hours before that was going to happen because I had to get through the scanning of the suitcases and the dogs and wait for my three suitcases.  That process was pretty easy and went smoothly, "between me and you, popcorn that isn't popped is not allowed".  That was my lesson learned for international flying.  He was so nice about it though and there were no problems.  Its funny that popcorn isn't allowed but my coffee and tea is.  Oh well.

So me and Tilly hop in with the shuttle Allen (taxi driver).  He was really nice and friendly.  He loves Americans.  He talked about a lot of history with the Americans and went on and on and on about lots of fun history stuff.  He always said "without Americans..." and then continue the sentence, haha.  He was so friendly and he was just excited to have us.  He tried to do his American accent a lot.  Only his redneck accent was a success for him though, haha.

He had a talking bird and lots of horses and was friends with Steve Irwin.  He has land that he has owned for 18 years that is close to a house that the Irwin's own so he has a life pass to the Steve Irwin Zoo.  He showed us all his passes and they were really cool.  Then he was like, "since its Saturday and you don't have school I will take you guys 10 minutes out of the way and show you some stuff".  I was really mad at first because I was just so tired from that flight and nothing would be fun at that point.  So I just kept my mouth shut and was scared out of my life when we went down this dirt road.  I probably wouldn't have been scared but all I could think about was the time that Laurie and her girlfriends got mugged by their cab driver in Panama.  But we didn't get mugged and he brought us to his farm to show us his talking bird that is friends with all of the horses.  There were like 20 people outside playing with the horses and his wife teaches horse lessons so there were kids riding and it was a really fun environment and it really was only 10 minutes out of the way.  The bird loves all of the horses and the taxi driver (Allen) and his wife.  It didn't like me that much.  I wanted it to get on my shoulder but he didn't feel like it.  The wife said that he got in trouble a few minutes before we got there so that was why he was being so attached to them.  The bird was funny and plucked out hairs on the horses nose, haha.   They just told us about that but we didn't see it.  It was funny though, the bird just did its own thing and hung out all around the horses.

That horse was named Jimmy, he was really friendly.  If you cant tell he is smiling :).  We stayed there for only 10 minutes then were about 15 minutes away from the school.  He said if we ever wanted to go to the zoo then he would take us for free.  He has been there 100 times so he had no interest in going with us but he said give him a call a few days before hand and he can give us a ride and get us in free! That was a nice offer, especially since the Steve Irwin Zoo is pretty expensive.  I gave him 3 American dollars because he was so nice and went out of his way to show us around.  3 American dollars doesn't really sound like much because normally for an hour long commute you would tip a driver probably $20 depending on how nice he was but nobody gets tipped here, not even waitresses.  He thought that was the nicest thing ever and he said he was going to keep it to show everybody.

We finally made it safe and sound to our apartments.  UniCentral.  They are awesome and so nice and everybody is unbelievably nice.  I love it!  We got here and it was still hours before we got to check into our rooms.  We had to go over a bunch of papers and then we got keys to our rooms.  It took forever.  Plus it even took longer because I was starving and tired.  It was probably around noon when I finally got into my apartment but it seemed like it was 4 and I was up for days straight.

I had no interest in taking a nap and wanted to stay awake until around 10pm so that I could be on a normal sleeping schedule right away.  Right when I got here I met my first roommate Lucy.  Her parents were in town also and they are so nice and fun.  She is from Australia, about 6 hours away.  They invited me to go to lunch with them right away so that was really nice because I was starving and they told me to go take a shower first and they will wait for me.  I took a quick REFRESHING shower and felt 100 million times better.  We all went to lunch and talked about everything and I learned so much!  It was great.  They showed me around and it was just awesome.  We ate and then drove around for a little bit and I just kept on learning and learning more and more every second.  It was a lot of fun and I have a lot to look forward too.  I am glad that I have great roommates so far.  We came home and I unpacked more and they left and I unpacked more and more and I met my other roommate Sebastian.  He is so nice also.  He is from Michigan and has been here for four days.  He is all unpacked and helped me with stupid little stuff that I needed help with.

Little toad we found on our walk, they're  everywhere

I started to feel a little tired so me and Sebastian went on a little walk around and he showed me more.  My little town is SO awesome!  Everywhere you go there are just friendly people all the time.  We have a swimming pool in our apartment complex, lots of cool wildlife , an awesome "Pavilion" where people go to drink, play pool, ping pong, music all the time, couches and lots of other things.  You can drink if you bring your own drinks but no glass.  That's the rule.  The Pavilion is right by my apartment.  There are also tennis courts and cool walks everywhere and again fun nice people.  There is lots to do here and it is just like one big friendly community.  We walked around for awhile and then it started getting dark so we were on our way back to the apartment when I ran into two German boys that I met earlier in the day.  They invited us to their friends house at Varsity Apartments which is across the street from Uni Central where I live.  We stayed there for a little bit but then I got starving and had to go home to eat the rest of my sandwich I got in the afternoon.

"Dinner stalker" outside our back patio

I have met so many people already.  I have met people from Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, America and.... I think that's all so far.  It is also really nice here because I don't feel so old still being in undergrad and being 24.  There are other people that are 23, 24, 25 that are from other countries still working on their undergrad also.

Today I get to meet my last roommate.  She is a girl and we are not sure where she is from yet.  They mix boys and girls in their apartments.  We all have our own bathroom, full size bed, desk and two closets.  They are really nice. Poor Sebastian, it sounds like he will be the only boy.  Luckily he has 3 older sisters (I think 3) so I am pretty sure he is really used to it.

I woke up at 5:20am this morning and I am not even tired at all.  Today I am going to try to sign up for a gym membership and go to the grocery store to get food.  This morning I am going to eat Sebastian's cereal and milk (upon approval).  I am also going to hang out with Ryan who is an Australian that graduated from Uni and went to Saint Norbert to study for a semester.  We have never met but it seems like we know each other because we have been talking on Facebook and Skype.  He is going back to the US in April to spend a few months there.

Sorry this post is SOOO long but my day was SOOO long and never ending and I wanted to write about it all :).  Hope everybody has a good day!