Stopover in Sydney and Back Home

I know the last post had somewhat of a final feel to it, but I wanted to follow up and let everyone know that I got home alive. I also didn't mean to make it seem like I didn't want to be home - I'm missing Australia (and wish I could just teleport back after a couple weeks) but it is good to be home.

Sadly leaving our apartment completely empty behind us, Katie, Tyler, and me shut the squished into the elevator with all of our jam-packed bags. We were a sight, with both me and Katie toting two big suitcases behind us, and loaded up with carry-ons. We only got around the corner before we gave in and payed for a taxi to take us the rest of the way to the train station. Turns out that the transport website lied to us though, and we ended up having to wait for an hour before clumsily boarding and waving goodbye to Wollongong. We took another taxi once at central and ended up at Sydney Uni Village, where we were shortly met by Priyanka. After dropping off our backs in her room, we decided to go see the Portugal/Brazil game at Darling Harbour, where they have huge screens set up floating on the water. We got there early to get a seat, but not long after it was absolutely stuffed with over 10,000 people (which made for the most difficult bathroom trip I've ever had to make) and got pretty chilly. After the game we caught another cab back, and slept the night with all three of us stuffed onto Pri's full-sized bed until about 8am.

Once at the airport, we all checked in and got through security without any mishaps (I didn't go over my weight allowance!!). Katie and Pri hung out with me for a bit at my terminal since they left after me, but soon I had to say goodbye and board up. I had gotten screwed over, and was stuck in the very middle of the plane, without being able to see out a single window (which made me kind of nauseous later). The flight was about as good as to be expected for being stuck in a horrible position for 14 hours, and was beyond thankful to get out at LAX, where I was made to drag all my crap for what seemed like 5 miles to another terminal. It was weird to be back in the US - besides the whole being summer thing, I almost ran into about 20 people trying to walk on the left side of the walkway, and tried to go up the down escalator a couple times... The next flight was almost less enjoyable. Even though only 4 hours, I managed to be the very last person to choose a seat, and to my dismay the last seat available involved being squished between two large women who had to raise the armrests to fit into the seat. Hello America. Ironically one of them had some sort of attack of claustrophobia... and they were friends so they kept talking across me, which was annoying. Seeing my parents at the airport was a welcome sight after all that traveling. For some reason I forgot it was summer and half expected it to be dark when I landed at 5:30...

So moral of the story is that I'm home alive and well, and while I sorely miss Australia already, I'm kind of super glad I don't have to do that trip again any time soon. I guess this will be the final post for this blog - thanks to anyone out there who was reading! Hopefully I'll find myself in Australia again.

Here's to You Wollongong, Hope We Meet Again

So it's our last day in Wollongong and although it's fairly warm and sunny out, somehow it still feels a bit overcast with the prospect of leaving in a couple hours looming over our heads. We are only headed to Sydney tonight to stay with Priyanka, but it doesn't make it any easier really to have to pack everything up until the place is empty and leave it behind.

We have been pretty busy with last minute things and didn't make it out to the gardens or campus, but we did go get some delicious fish and chips, complete with chicken salt, for our last lunch here. Walking back along the harbour I got my last good look at the beautiful place I've come to know as home. I've spent the last couple days trying to stick memories of the little things in my memory so I won't forget them. The sound of the birds, the way the ocean smells, all the little things that make a place what it really is - the ones that you can't get from pictures or stories. The experiences. That sort of thing makes me want to touch everything - to remind myself that I'm not floating in memories yet, that I really am still here. Sort of like pinching yourself to make sure you're not dreaming I guess. 

Moving out and leaving behind an empty place always brings me back to my arrival - the place looks the same, and just as awkward as it did then. No matter where I'm moving out of, it always reminds me of the first impressions I had, or how I was gearing myself up to try to make somewhere new my 'home'. About four months ago the five of us trooped into our apartment, I went all the way down to the end of the hall and claimed a bed, not sure what I was in for. Looking back, those four months have been the best of my life, no exaggeration. I've done a lot, and pushed myself far - which is what I believe study abroad should be all about. I'm proud of everything I've done, loved every last second of it, and I'll never for one moment forget any of it. 

Last Night in the Gong

Yes, however much I don't want that title to be true, it is. The past couple days have been lazy ones only filled with going out to do small errands that needed to be done, including getting my hair cut yesterday. 

Today we decided to put off our walk to the botanical gardens until tomorrow and to go say one final goodbye to our neighbors. We said we'd be over in the afternoon and went and snagged an apple pie (in true American fashion) at the grocery store for that. We have been trying to finish off all our last dregs of food, so we grabbed a bag of corn chips after we decided to turn a package of cheese slices and leftover salsa into queso too. Shortly after killing the bowl of queso and bag of chips, we went to hang out at City Beach for a bit, watching the surfers catching the waves. It wasn't long though until we had to reluctantly leave the beach in the nice sunny weather to slip the pie into the oven, making our whole apartment smell heavenly. We brought it over next door and spent the next couple hours socializing with Fatema and Rommie (Yahya was away at uni). They have been such great neighbors - they are always so nice and always inundate us with hospitality - it's sad we have to go and leave them. 

Unfortunately, when we returned to the apartment, we really needed to start packing, which is a daunting task. Somehow I seem to have accumulated way more than I thought I had. Being a traveling pack rat doesn't work too well. Thankfully we have most of tomorrow so there's no serious rush, but I am mostly packed already, minus some organization. We decided to go watch the New Zealand world cup game over a beer or two, so we headed to the Steelers Club after seeing the horrendously long line at Illawarra. We hung out a bit more, headed back to Illawarra eventually to use up some free credit Katie had on her member card, and here we are back at home. 

I've honestly been a bit depressed all night about leaving. It's hard to come to terms with the fact that this is really and truly our last night and I very well might never come back. But. I refuse to think about that just now, for now I'm just concentrating on the fact that we still have anther fairly full day here before we head out to Sydney. Goodnight Wollongong. 

Port Kembla, Last Exam, and Coogee to Bondi

Early on Thursday Jason, Ashley, and Amy left, leaving Katie, Tyler, and me left in the PH. Friday I decided to take a study break and go down to Port Kembla, which is just south of Wollongong, with Katie and Tyler. We had read that whales had just been spotted from Hill 60, which is a hill (obviously) right on the coast, so we hopped on the train and took it four stops to the south. The train station dumped us sort of in the middle of nowhere, so we just started walking towards the coast, continuing down south, picking our way past the big factories and plants down there. Eventually we found a beachy area which we climbed down to and followed around, climbing the rocks and skirting around the steep parts to come to Hill 60 a few kilometers away.

The walk was pretty and it was a gorgeous, fairly warm day out. I've mentioned before that there are five islands in this area, and the biggest one is right off of Hill 60.

We hung out a bit and headed back, making it back to Wollongong in time to catch the market still open. Once back in the apartment, it was study time once more for me.

Saturday brought more study time until about 1pm when I left to take my second and last exam. I haven't really tried to take the bus anywhere on a weekend in quite some time, so I'm glad I had left super early because I had totally forgotten that the buses come half as frequently. I got to my Food Chemistry exam right on time though, after having to trek to the complete other side of campus where I've never even been before. I was thankful that my exam wasn't back in the gym, but I had been nervous about finding the right building and all. The class, which is about 60 students, was split up into a few different rooms and intermixed with other classes. I was put into a large classroom (but not nearly as big as a gym!) which was about half and half my class and an international law class. This time I had desk 19, and I noticed the number on the desk said, "CHEATING LEADS TO EXCLUSION." Little less cheerful than the last one. In all honesty I didn't study for that exam as well as I should of, and because of that it was pretty hard. I'm really counting on the fact that all I have to do is pass though - that exam was 60% of my grade for that class... but yeah, I took 3 hours and 5 minutes to finish my exam out of the allotted 3 hours 15 minutes. Despite the rough time, it felt excellent to walk out and be done. Went home, ate, watched part of a world cup game, and went to sleep.

Sunday morning we headed out to Sydney on the 9:20 train, walking over to the Paddy's Markets from Central to check them out. They were ok, but we bought a couple little things and didn't stay too long. We were hungry, but as we had discovered, all the kebab stands in the market oddly don't actually sell any kebabs. The market is right in chinatown though, and I had gotten a craving for dumplings, so we decided to try a little restaurant on the street, which really didn't turn out to be a good idea. After waiting forever, and being told they didn't have some of their menu items, we were told that we had to spend 5$ for every person we had sitting at the table. Then after suffering through a whole jumble of confusion trying to explain things to the waitress who hardly spoke english and being given something that looked completely unedible, we just got up and left. We didn't actually end up eating until a couple hours later.

We made our way back to Central, picking up a bus to Coogee. Thing is that Katie and Tyler hadn't realized that they had to get their tickets stamped, so when some officers came onto the bus to check everyone's tickets, they were made to get off the bus. I had stamped mine, but I got off with them and waited while they were chastised but not fined. We were put on the next bus which went to Clovelly, just north of Coogee, cutting our walk slightly short. The walk was about 6km I believe, and took us maybe 2-3 hours as we kept stopping for pictures or just to take in the views. The Bondi-Coogee walk is a well-known walk along the coastline from beach to beach. As it was another beautiful day (and really warm!), there were a ton of people out.

The walk was really pretty and we ended up at Bondi, where me and Katie went to find food while Tyler rented a board and went surfing for a couple hours. We grabbed some kebabs for real this time and I bought some sunnies since mine had decided to self-destruct at the beginning of the walk. We hopped on a bus as the sun started to go down, and caught the train all the way back to Wollongong.

Today wasn't nearly as scenic, as we all just bummed around the apartment most of the day and clean a bit. The most I did was go to collect a refund for the time I won't be using my Australian insurance, and decide not to get my hair cut in town after discovering it cost 50$...

Exams

The couple of days after we got back from New Zealand were a hodge podge of things I needed to get done and studying for my first exam which was yesterday. The 14th was Jason's birthday, so we had kangaroo fajitas (which besides the whole 'roo part, had the weirdest toppings for fajitas I've ever seen but they were pretty good). Tim and his friend, Matt, who are both Australian had come over and tried kangaroo for the first time. It always surprises me to learn that most Australians have never even tasted kangaroo, and most of them don't really think much of it. All of us Americans on the other hand all pretty much think it's delicious though... Other than that we made some birthday cake (complete with the same star candle we've used for all three of our birthdays this semester) and played a couple games until everyone was too tired from laughing their stomachs off.

Yahya made another short appearance as he an Rommie brought over a plate of their famous cinnamon rolls and a packet of spices for making Kabsa for each of us to make some when we go home. We have strict orders to make some for our friends and family and report back with how it was :). Hopefully we can get the unmarked super pungent spices through customs though... I can't remember what the US is particular about bringing in, but I definitely have a growing list of things I might possibly have to declare as I come into the country.

Yesterday, as I said, was my first final exam. The actual exam itself was easier than anticipated, and I only took about half an hour to finish it. The exam conditions were intense though. First of all, since there are about 500 students in my class, we were put in the huge gym with a couple other classes. I haven't been to that part of campus since the beginning of the session really, but it wasn't hard to find with the fields in front of it lit up like a huge beacon and massive signs screaming EXAM ENTRANCE .... GOOD LUCK ON YOUR EXAM in oddly unfriendly letters. There were people directing traffic and streams of students into the front doors, past a rambling list of all the student's names taking an exam and their assigned seat. I was I490. Past 4 different people in bright orange jackets who scrutinized my uni ID in comparison with my face, I was allowed into the actual gym, where I was greeted by probably over 1000 desks, most filled with a student waiting for 6:30 to roll around. I did a quick scan of the room, finding section I not too far away, then picking my way through the rows until I found a desk with a piece of paper pasted to it reading, "SEAT: I490. GOOD LUCK ON YOUR EXAM." As I eyed my own little personal good luck wish another woman in bright orange came over and slapped an exam in front of me, motioned to the other two papers already on my desk, mumbled something I didn't understand and left. One of these papers was a scantron-like form that I've seen before, and another one was a form to sign attesting that you are who you claim to be and you won't cheat. These were picked up later during the test, the information being cross-checked with our ID's and faces once more. I appreciate that I don't really get test anxiety, and that due to my watch being behind I had missed all the strict announcements about everything under the sun you're not allowed to do. At 6:30 they announced over loudspeaker that we may all begin, followed by a huge rustling of papers. As I said the exam itself was easy, and I plowed through it as more orange-jacketed proctors patrolled the aisles. Halfway through I glanced up to actually look at the room and realized not only was the entire three basketball fields worth of space filled to the brim with desks, but that the multi-lane track above me had at least 2 more sections on it. I raised my hand when ready, got my papers snipped up by yet another reflective person, and was told to leave. I complied happily, leaving that crazy atmosphere behind for a night of celebration back at the apartment.

Now I just have one more exam, which should actually be tough, but won't be in that same room. Jason, Ashley, and Amy all leave tomorrow morning early for Fiji and won't be back. They are pretty much all packed up, and it really feels like it was just a couple days ago that we were all unpacking and settling in. Katie's friend Tyler has come to visit until me and Katie leave on the 25th, so thankfully it won't be just me and Katie left lonely in the apartment. I'm definitely in denial about leaving and keep avoiding actually thinking about it. Literally every single bus ride I've taken here has involved me thinking to myself about how much I love this place, but today as I went to print something out at uni there was definitely a twinge of something else   behind that thought - of seriously not wanting to leave.

Kiwi Trip was Sweet As, Mate

Apologies in advance for the long-haul post this is bound to be. I'm also having to resist putting in about a million pictures, but I'll be putting them all up on facebook soon if you want to see them. Our trip to the south island of New Zealand made for an amazing 10 days.

The adventure started with me getting a whopping half hour of sleep before we had to get up due to having to write my last paper, but it did get done. Got up at 4am and me and Katie invested in a taxi since it was still a downpour outside. We caught the 5:30 train, groggily transfered an hour and a half later, and reached the airport in good time. Check-in was kind of a pain since we got all the way to the front only to be told that we needed a printout of our return itinerary, which we had to trek across the airport to get, and then come back and wait in a now longer line. Besides that and Katie accidentally leaving something behind at security, the flight to Christchurch was fine. We called up the car rental place as soon as we got past the intense customs procedures (beagle and all) and caught their shuttle to their office.

We loaded our things into a white Nissan that had some years on it and I nervously got behind the wheel... On the right-hand side of the car. I was admittedly anxious about the whole driving on the left side of the road, so I slowly wheeled out of the parking lot and around the corner... proceeding to almost pull in front of a car as I turned onto the main road. Rocky start, but no actual problems, and I'm fairly proud to report that over the next 10 days I only had one other instance where I had another driver angry at me. By the time we checked into our hostel I had tackled right and left turns, roundabouts, and the real kicker, parallel parking.

We wandered around the town as it was getting darker and eventually ate some really good chipotle-like burritos for dinner and ventured out to see if there was any nightlife in Christchurch. Instead since it was so early we mostly just ended up awkwardly sitting around in mostly empty places before heading back due to exhaustion. That said, after a full night's sleep we checked out, grabbed some bagels, a cassette thing for our ipods, typed in Franz Joseph into our GPS, and were on our way. Apparently it had been raining solid for days, but it was gorgeous the day we got in, and in fact for most of our trip except a day or two. The drive was beautiful as well, through fields, to foothills, through Arthur's Pass, and finally to the little blip on the map that is Franz Joseph. We stopped a lot of places along the way for pictures and just to admire the views, as we did for most of the rest of the trip as well. Past Greymouth, we stopped at a little town for a bite to eat and ended up discovering a little black-sand beach, which was pretty cool.

We only had about an hour of light left (the short winter days tried to foil our adventures many times all along the way), so we just took a short hike up to a lookout where we could see the glacier. Even though we didn't end up taking one of the walks on the glacier itself, it was really cool to be able to see a huge glacier. It's sad that it's incredibly tiny compared to what it was just like 50 years ago also, in not too long it might be gone all together.

That night we made ourselves a pasta and garlic bread dinner, complete with classy bottle of wine, played scrabble for a while, and ventured out into the cold to look at the stars. We just walked around the corner, to the end of a cul-de-sac where there weren't many lights, and even there, with ever step we took away from the lighted area, you could see so many more stars. I think that's the first time in my life I've ever really seen the Milky Way. It was amazing. Seeing the stars in the middle of nowhere was actually one of my pseudo personal goals for this semester, and I'm so glad it was clear for us.

The next morning, we decided that instead of taking the long hike out to the face of Franz Joseph glacier, that we would go to Lake Matheson and Fox Glacier, which were on our way to Queenstown, our next destination. I have to admit that we didn't actually plan to go to Lake Matheson, we didn't even really know about it, we were just told that you could see Mt Cook from that part of the town, and realized there was a trail there. It was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been though. Me and Katie agreed that we could have both just sat there all day long.

From there we drove about 5 minutes to Fox Glacier, and hiked up to a little lookout. Obviously the same sort of thing as Franz Joseph, as I'm assuming all glaciers are basically similar, but Fox seemed bigger.

The road took us down to Queenstown from there. Some of our random stops along the way included a beach with a little cove and sand dunes with a path out to a marsh we decided not to follow, a lake or two and some rapids, all with absolutely the bluest water I've ever seen in my life - it looked like it had been dyed blue. Pretty much all of the water we saw in New Zealand was like that - ridiculously clear and blue - pictures don't even do it justice.

We reached our hostel for the night in Queenstown after dark since we had stopped so many times on the way. We walked the short distance to the centre of town and got these ridiculously big burgers. We hadn't realized how valid the note someone had left on the wall was saying, "Next time I'm going to wear my eating pants" haha. From there we wandered around, poking our heads into the clubs around until we finally decided to go to bed.

Katie got up the next morning and went snowboarding for the day. Shortly afterward I got up, and as I got ready to go wander around town realized that it was gross and rainy out. So I donned by raincoat, grabbed my umbrella, and headed out into the freezing downpour. It was snow up in the mountains, so it didn't phase Katie, was I was soaking after a couple hours of wandering, eating, and checking my email quickly. I had planned on doing a couple of different activities there, but none of them would have been any fun in the rain. I headed back to the room, put my shoes to dry over the heater that was thankfully pumping hot air like a hairdryer, and took a nap until Katie got back. We wandered, still through the rain, and found a really good restaurant for dinner. For dessert and to warm up for our walk back, we went around the corner to Starbucks and got some hot chocolate, soaking up the warmth before braving the cold again. Since we didn't really want to be outside again that night, we settled in and watched a movie before going to bed, so it was a pretty quiet night.

Our fifth day found us checking out, grabbing breakfast, and heading out for Milford Sound. It was still rainy and cloudy out for most of the day, so we didn't stop nearly as much on this drive even though the drive into Milford Sound is well known for being beautiful. Because of that, we got in pretty early and realized that there is literally nothing there except for the lodge we were staying at, another small motel, a tiny café that wasn't even really open, two old fashioned gas pumps, and the cruise terminal. If we would have known that beforehand, we would have brought some food in with us, but as it was we bought some ready-meal type things at the shop at our lodge for dinner. Not the most exciting place we went especially those first few hours, but honestly, I'd say that Milford Sound was actually the highlight of my trip. We basically just putzed around that evening, doing little things. After it had been dark for a while, we ventured out to the glow worm walk that was right out the door of the lodge. The thing was that being a glow worm walk, it wasn't lit at all. And we didn't have a flashlight. So I'll just give you a second to imagine bumbling around in the woods (or bush for you Australians) truly in the middle of nowhere, over little plank bridges and washed out tree roots, with only a crappy faint light of one cell phone to guide you...

We saw a couple glow worms - it was kind of weird, like someone had stuck a couple mini glowsticks around in the trees or something. Before long we got spooked by some weird noise in the bush around us and basically ran back out to the road. Comforted by the sight of the lodge and lights again, and since the clouds had cleared again, we decided to try to go up the road a bit away from the lights to look at the stars again. Only a couple steps forward though and we were spooked again into backtracking once more. You're probably thinking we're wusses by now, but you try to be brave in the pitch dark without any light in the middle of nowhere, and let me know how it goes. We did eventually end up up the road in the other direction, at an opening in the trees. We could see even more stars than Franz Joseph, and saw a handful of shooting stars this time. We also realized that there were glow worms all around us in the trees - much more than had been on the walk. It was really cool to just sit there stargazing with the glowworms acting as funny little extensions of the specks of light above.

Another movie and a night's sleep later, we checked out and went to meet our boat for the morning. The cruise terminal is obviously built for a high traffic of tourists, but there were only maybe 15 people there that morning. Probably more like 10. All 10 of us boarded our boat which was small but pretty nice. The cruise around the fiord was one of the things I had really been looking forward to. It was again absolutely beautiful there. Not only did we see massive peaks shooting up from the water with waterfalls pouring off their sides, but we also got to see fur seals and dolphins! I have to admit that I was probably a little unnecessarily excited about the dolphins (since they are sort of rare to see there), but it sort of made my day. Our two hour cruise took us out to the Tasman Sea and back, and right up to the bottom of waterfalls to wet the whole front of the boat. It was definitely worth it, and amazingly it was a beautiful day, contradicting all the weather forecasts for rain that morning.

Disembarking from the boat, we headed back out the crazy windy roads we had come in, past Te Anau, and on towards Dunedin. We stopped back at some of the places we had on the way in, specifically the mirror lakes which are obviously supposed to be perfect still mirrors of the mountains behind them. As one might guess, rain isn't really conducive to still lakes, nor as it turned out was the wind of that second day, but it was definitely still a better view with the sun out.

Past the mountains, the driving got a little less exciting, and there wasn't much for me to do as we passed flat farmland for hours on end except for count the obscene amount of rainbows that day. I'm not kidding - I saw no less than 7 rainbows over the course of a few hours, scattered across from East to West. We got into Dunedin as it was just getting dark, and we checked into an eight-bed dorm which ended up being our private room. We wandered a bit as we were prone to do, finding somewhere to eat and killing some time drinking hot chocolate.

The seventh day of our trip started with exploring the Otago Peninsula, which is part of Dunedin. At the tip, there is the world's only mainland Albatross colony, along with seals, sea lions, and a penguin colony of blue penguins and super-rare yellow-eyed penguins. Thing is that they charge big bucks to go see all of them and me and Katie are cheap. So we took a few pictures of the lighthouse at the tip of the peninsula and turned down a different road to take us back, passing by the only castle in New Zealand (but we figured that also cost money, so we didn't even really attempt to go in). Once off the peninsula, we made way for Lake Tekepo. We stopped at the Moeraki Boulders - which are basically just a bunch of bizarrely spherical rocks on the beach there - and at Oamaru to see their blue penguin colony. You really only get to see the penguins at dusk apparently, and it was the afternoon when we were there, but they have a breeding area there that you can tour. So of course we had to, and we got to spy on all the adorable little penguins in their homes.

The closer we got to our destination for the night, the icier and snowier it began to get. Again we got there after dark, and thankfully the roads up to there had been nice and clear, but there was a fair amount of snow on the ground. We grabbed some frozen pizzas from the "wee market around the corner", sat by the fire for a bit in the cozy lounge petting the resident cat, and watched a movie on tv until bedtime. The next morning we checked out, petted the kitty goodbye, and promptly discovered that a) the ice needed to be scraped off the windows, and b) we were stuck on the ice/snow of the unshoveled road in front of the hostel. After some finagling we were out onto the clear roads, just driving to find something interesting. We came across the observatory out there that is run by the University of Canterbury and started driving up what turned out to be a long winding road up Mt John, with only a small single lane's worth shoveled out of the snow, and even then we got stuck in the snow at one point. I made a snow angel and we were treated by some pretty sweet views at the top. Never have I ever quite appreciated my waterproof hiking boots as actual hiking boots as I did that day as impromptu snow boots.

Our journey back down thankfully didn't involve us getting stuck, and we headed out towards Christchurch once again, making our circuit complete. We returned to the original hostel, managed to snag one of their 5 parking spaces that time, and had more or less quiet night involving wandering yet again, eventually eating at this "Irish Pub/Restaurant" that was utterly non-Irish. The next day we went in the cathedral briefly, but mostly spent a few hours hopping from tourist shop to tourist shop and intermittently listening to the live music in the square. With a definite feel of running out of things to do, we eventually visited the art museum which was free and saw one of the creepiest/weirdest exhibitions I've seen before they threw us out as they closed.

Walking back a different way, we happened across a microbrewery and decided to share a tasting board, which turned out to be an excellent way to kill some time. 7 small half-glasses of their beers - one of which was a guest beer apparently. 2 of them were really good, one was horrible, another not so great, and the rest fairly good. Later that night we decided to go on the pubcrawl since it was a Friday, which was fairly fun. Some of the places were really quiet and almost boring, but a couple of the places were pumpin', one with karaoke which was fun.

We were sad when our last day came around, the trip had been incredible. Basically that whole day was crappy as well - filled with obnoxious people. From being woken up at 7am by three roommates doing seemingly everything to try to avoid letting the remaining four sleep, to the man who clearly didn't believe I needed my kneecaps as he enthusiastically repeatedly jammed his seat further and further back, to the bunch of 12-yr-olds on the train who wouldn't get up so that not only did we have to stand for the hour and 45 min train ride, but were massively in the way of everyone with all our luggage. We were surrounded by a minimum of 15 children, all seemingly going crazy, and my ipod was completely dead. That said, I never knew I had so much patience.

In any case, it was good to get back home to the Gong, where I only have a limited amount of time left as well, but I'm so glad we had a chance to go to New Zealand - it was an unforgettable trip.

Wait... What Happened to that Semester Thing?? Where'd it Go?!?!!

In my almighty procrastination skills (I might even call myself a procrastimaster as Anna, I believe it was, put it), I will update all my loverly readers on recent ongoings (all 1.5 of you, I'm sure).

Last week on Wednesday was a glow party at Illawarra with a lineup of good DJ's and partly a birthday party for Jen and some other kid. We went super early to avoid the ridiculous cover charge (we are super cheap), and hung out. It was fun - good music, and the glow theme was cool. They had glow in the dark body paint, so of course I got my arm painted, and with the addition of about 10 glow bracelets/necklace was very colourful.

They also had a promotion going on for Jager, and if you bought a Jagerbomb you got this little scratch-off card where you could win something. Tim bought us each one (which was awesome btw) and won 2 keychains and a t-shirt from his 7 cards. Now, this shirt was awesome. I had to have one. It was black with giant orange lettering spelling out JAGERMEISTER on it. And guess what? I scored one. Makes me look like an alcoholic, perhaps yes, but awesome nonetheless. The best part about it was that I got it without ever actually buying one drink for myself (which gave me a losing scratchoff card), taking that card and putting it on top of 4 of Tim's old cards, telling the lady I had bought 5 drinks and hadn't won anything, and she gave me a pity t-shirt. So pumped ahaha.

Thursday was more or less uneventful except that Matt came down for a coffee break and we went and sat in a coffee shop on Crown Street drinking hot chocolate and eating wedges with sour cream and sweet chili sauce (I'm gunna miss that stuff). I had to leave pretty quickly to go print off my lab and turn it in during my lecture, but it was nice. As it turned out, I had absolutely the most stressful time printing my assignment, walked into class half an hour late, settled in, and the fire alarm went off. So instead of not being able to turn in my assignment for being late it didn't matter anyways... ho hum.

So a bunch of dead glowsticks and a few days later, we had intentions of going back into Sydney for another Extreme Adventures party at the Gaff, but me and Katie weren't really feelin it, so we ended up just hanging out pretty much. The next day we did end up going into Sydney, shopping for some long-sleeve shirts, grabbing dinner, and oggling the opera house which is all lit up with giant projectors for the Vivid Festival here.

Priyanka, whom I had met in Melbourne but lives in Sydney, came back to the Gong with us and spent the night. The next morning we walked down to City Beach and were greeted by absolutely MASSIVE waves. The beach was kind of gross actually - the first time I've really ever seen a beach here have junk and trash on it. It had obviously been washed up and since it's been cold and gross, nobody has been at the beach to probably even notice. That day was no exception of course, as it was grey, cloudy, and spitting on us occasionally. There was nobody on the beach, but we noticed a few surfers near the rocks where the waves were particularly huge, and then noticed the huge crowd of people up top near the lighthouse just watching them surf and the big swells. We climbed up to the rest of the people and joined in for a bit. I've never really thought of surfing as a spectator sport but it was one that day haha. As we later found out (and had suspected from the sheer numbers of people there), there was a cyclone/major storm warning in effect, and of course that meant huge waves. Though, we have noticed that in the past two weeks or so the waves have been humungoid on and off; maybe it's just the time of year or something.

I wish that picture did those waves justice. Imagine a tiny surfer in that wave like a fourth its size. In any case, we left the surfers and walked past both lighthouses, and down to North Beach where there were significantly more surfers (and I suspect safer conditions). We contemplated going to the botanic gardens near uni which I haven't explored yet, but we decided gardens are less than fun in the rain and backtracked a bit and headed for a little fish and chips place near the beach. Probably the best fish and chips I've had since I've been in Australia. I don't know if I've mentioned this anomaly before, but I absolutely detest fish. And yet I've had fish and chips here numerous times. Why? Because it's made out of shark and apparently I love shark. Yummm. I've probably gotten more omega-3's in the past 3 months than I have in my whole life! hardy-har. But yes, so shortly after deliciousness Priyanka headed home and we trundled off to work on homework and such, making the rest of that Sunday significantly less fun.

Monday marked the last week of classes, and even then I didn't have a bunch of them. Where did all the time go? I found myself thinking today as I walked to my last class that it literally feels like yesterday that the five of us were bumbling around campus the day before orientation trying to figure out our way around so we wouldn't get lost the next day. Normally I'm so ecstatic for the last day of class, but as I tried to get myself pumped up for it, I just couldn't really muster the gusto. It doesn't feel like it's been a whole semester, and even with that the time that I've been at uni didn't feel like work. I loved every minute of it, even when bored in lecture or dealing with rancid cream in lab (ok, maybe I didn't love that one...). The point is that for once in my life I couldn't manage to be excited for the end of a semester.

Tonight was our farewell dinner, so Matt came down again and took us to Hog's Breath just around the corner per our request. There weren't many people there, and the reservation was definitely unnecessary, but we definitely got treated and the food was delicious. I got garlic mushroom steak which was probably the best steak I've had in a really long time, it was so good. It was a good time and hanging out with Matt is always pretty fun. It turned out to be a real downer though when Matt said goodbye and I realized I'll never see him again. He's the first person I've had to say goodbye to, and it just made me finally really start thinking about the fact that we are leaving really quite soon. I have a feeling that my last couple weeks abroad are going to be sad ones and I have to say goodbye and come to terms with the fact that I do have to go home. I do miss people at home, and I'm excited to see everyone, but I sort of just want to go home for a week and then turn around and come back here. I'll try to put off thoughts of leaving for now though. After all, I'm leaving for New Zealand tomorrow morning (at the buttcrack of dawn for another adventure)... and of course not to mention the paper I have to finish before then...

Happy Birthday to Buddha and Another Footy Game

I've recently realized that I'm now into the penultimate week of classes here at UOW, and for some classes the last lectures are this week, with only quizzes left next week (which shouldn't really be called that since they are cumulative over the whole course...). Where has all the time gone??

This past Saturday Katie and I went to go check out the festival at Crown St for Buddha's birthday. We had noticed paper lanterns go up earlier in the week, and discovered there was a few activities going on that day.

 When we walked up, everyone was standing around, waving these paper flags, singing a song. The lyrics were something along the lines of "we are Australia" and very warm and fuzzy. On the stage were a variety of different people- from cops to monks from the temple we went to a few weeks ago. When they finished, we wandered around a little exploring the stands that were set up, and decided to go into the mall for sushi. I have a hard time explaining to people that I really like sushi, but I really hate fish. I got an avocado California roll (which I believe actually had a little bit of crab in it, but shhh). Definitely very yummy and appropriate for the occasion, we thought.

There is this campaign here, I think it's to bring in tourists and a general positive public view of Wollongong. Its slogan is "We <3 the Gong" and there have been people around town wearing shirts with that on it, along with bumper stickers and balloons. These are highly coveted by me. Problem is, you can't buy any of these things anywhere, no can you really reliably find a stand anywhere. So when we showed up to that Buddha festival and saw a bunch of people walking around with those balloons and stickers, I was pretty determined to find where they were coming from. Our preliminary wander before lunch hadn't yielded any love for the gong apparel, so I went so far as to ask a lady with a balloon attached to a stroller where it had come from haha. Unfortunately, I think it had come from a special van/booth, which must have left by the time we got there, because we continued to search to no avail. On our way out we caught a tiger dance show though - it was really cool. It was like those pictures you always see of Chinese new year's dragons in parades.

Sunday was a late morning for all of us, but just after lunch we went and bought hill tickets for the last home game for the Dragons. We hung out while most people got lunch at Chicko's, a chicken place near there, and then went in to claim a spot. This game was against the Cronulla Raiders. The first half was actually really close - I believe it was only 8 to 6. The end of the game saw the Dragons get pounded by the Raiders though, so it was kind of disappointing. It was fun to go to another game nevertheless though. Got a good laugh when the announcer was reading an ad and said "breast-taking.... breath-taking views" haha. They are about to do some big construction on the stadium and put in a big addition, so it was good we got to go.

That night I went to grab some pizza since I hadn't been grocery shopping in like 2 weeks, and ran into Amy, Jason, Ashley, and Desiree briefly, who we had lost after the footy game. As I walked into the elevator in my apartment building holding my delicious Hawaiian pizza box, another lady walked in with me, holding a pack of cigarettes and two ice cream bars. There was a moment where we both just looked at each other in that "you're having a fat sunday too, huh?" look. Me and Katie also discovered later that night in search of hot chocolate that maccas (mickey d's for anyone speaking american haha) has cheesecake. I wasn't lying about that fat Sunday bit lol. 

I got up early this morning and actually went to my Indigenous Australia class for once, which turned out to be utterly pointless since it was my art class professor basically repeating my first lecture from that class. My real plan had been that going to class would force me to work in the library for 3 hours on my various assignments, but that grand scheme was thwarted once I proudly settled into my little library cubical only to realize I had left my work at home... and of course once back home, I just ended up taking a nap until my next class, so so much for that. I did finally recharge my phone on the way back from that second class though, and then soon after finally go to wooly's or some food. I had 3 huge bags of food, and a bigger bill than normal, and of course my credit card wouldn't work. It's supposed to expire this month, so I don't know if it has something to do with that, but it wasn't so much fun to have to run to Crown St, grab some cash, and come back to pay and apologise to the cashier. Now equipped with supplies, I did make a really good dinner though if I do say so myself. I finally found some normal sausage and made a rendition of a dish Alisa actually showed me last semester with pearl couscous, sausage, spinach, mushrooms, garlic and herbs. yummmm. Actually, I'm kind of amazed that I've done so well cooking almost all of my meals for myself, I'm proud haha.

PJ's, Steak, and Now I'm an UOW Alumni

I felt overdue for a blog post. I haven't really been up to too much though. I've been working on more schoolwork lately as the end of the semester is in sight (ahhhhh!). We hosted a pajama party this past weekend, which was kind of quiet but fun and obviously very relaxed. I don't know if I mentioned before that we've moved the extra double mattress from the garage up to our living room for extra lounging as of the past few weeks, ashley, jason, and amy added their 4 singles also, so it was like one huge bed on the floor of our living room. We even had feathers and most of us had funny pj's (though I was cheap and just bought some slippers).

Katie's birthday was yesterday as well, so we went out to dinner at one of the places across the street from us. There are a bunch of restaurants practically out our front door, but we really haven't gone to any of them since we would all rather save money on food and spend it on travel. Going out was nice though - we splurged since it was such a rare occasion and I got a steak with mashed sweet potatoes and green beans. yumm! Right after dinner, we picked up the banana bread muffins we had made (because Katie had said she didn't want cake or anything, but she's always talking about how much she loves banana bread, so I couldn't help it) and headed up the hill to Desperate Mondays. Apparently, as we found out at the end of the night, they aren't actually doing that promotion anymore - lame! We still got our automatic discount though since Matt didn't even know and I feel like at this point the manager/owners pretty much know us. Yet another delicious cocktail (passionfruit!), tv drama, and a couple muffins later, we said goodnight and headed home. Come to think of it, we never properly sang to Katie or had her blow out a candle... hmmm.

Today was a "farewell ceremony" through the school, which kind of made me panic a little because while we still have some time, we are only a month away from being done with everything school-related, and being home isn't too far removed from that. I'm pretty good about living in denial about that sort of thing though, so no worries. It was pretty simple - some people talked, they gave us a photo, certificate, and alumni card (who knows what it does for me), and of course some free food.

Cinco de Mayo and Another Trip to Sydney

Apparently cinco de mayo isn't celebrated in Australia. But it fell on a Wednesday, so none of the Americans could seem to resist educating the Australians lol. I hadn't had my full Wednesday schedule for over a month for various reasons, so I was beat by the time I got home, unenthoused by the concept of noodles for dinner. But wonder of wonders, when I walked in the door, the apartment smelled amazing! Ashley, Jason, Amy, and Heather had all made tacos, and had extra for me and Katie who also got home super late. So I got to have appropriately delicious tacos for dinner, and then we made some margaritas - made with tequila complete with the worm. Jason ate one of them - it was so gross! We hung out for a bit and then went out, where I actually spent most of the night just talking to people. Had a long conversation with some aussies about how I saw 'phone' funny and that one of their other American friends can't get over their pronunciation of it haha.

Friday I did some work and went to the beach briefly since it was a little warmer than it has been. It was midday on a Friday, but nobody was out - maybe 3 other people. I guess it's gotten cold enough (the water is freeeeezing now) that the lifeguards aren't watching the beach anymore, so nobody was in the water except a few surfers. When I got back, I shoved some stuff into my backpack and took the familiar trek to the train station. They are still doing track work, so I had to take a bus to Waterfall, then a train that luckily went all the way through to Bondi Junction. Marshal had said that I could sleep on their couch that night, but I couldn't get ahold of him. Luckily Justin was there to let me in so I didn't have to stand awkwardly in the lobby with the receptionists staring at me haha. I had gone to go to this party that the group that lead my spring break trip was throwing at a local bar, so we got ready to go once everyone woke up (that was why I couldn't reach anyone before). Turns out the place was on the same road we had been on for Mardi Gras - it's weird to randomly recognize parts of Sydney, plus that seems like so long ago now! The party was a lot of fun - I saw my two tour guides, and we got free dinner, a couple free drinks, and discounts. It was funny to see a bunch of the people from my trip, it seemed out of context now. There were a ton of people there though - because it was from all of their trips, and you could bring guests, so I think upwards of 400 people rsvp'd. One of the coolest things about going though is that I got to see Maricarmen, who I went to St Agnes with! It was kind of bizarre - I havent seen her in about 4 years now, as she had moved to Mexico the same time I had moved to Holland. She is also studying abroad in Sydney for the semester, which I didn't know until after I got here, but I haven't managed to meet up with her.

The next morning everyone got up and went to the BBQ which had been rescheduled for that day. Convenient for me haha. It was good food - burgers and sausages, salad, fruit, chips, and cookies. I snagged a couple of the leftover fruit as well - one of the bananas just became my breakfast today. Me and Jen were talking about going to see Alice in Wonderland 3D in the giant IMAX like I've been trying to do ever since it came out, but it was only playing at 10am, so we didn't end up going. Instead, Jayme and me decided we would go to the aquarium after lunch, which I had also really wanted to do. It was kind of funny, last week I had been talking about how I really wanted to see a Platypus and I haven't seen any at any of the places we've been to. So I looked it up and found out that there was one in the Sydney Zoo. Thing is about the zoo though is that you have to take a ferry to get to it, and that's after changing trains from central, so it's kind of a pain to get to. Turns out though that the aquarium also has a platypus, so I was doubly excited to go haha. We did indeed get to see one - they are smaller than I thought they would be. Saw a dugong as well, which was cool.

The aquarium was really big - I'm glad we went, it made for a good day trip. I had been thinking of staying an extra night, but I didn't have extra clothes, so I left at 5:30, and because of the trackwork didn't get home for another 3 hours. I think it's warm again today, so I might make another beach trip... maybe, maybe not.

Footy, followed by a short walk around Asia, and dinner in Saudi Arabia

Saturday we hung out, being mildly productive until about 4pm. Marshal, one of our friends who lives in Sydney through Study Australia had come down the night before and stayed over so her could go to the footy game with us also. At 4:30ish we donned our red attire in support of the St George Illawarra Dragons, and headed to the Five Islands Brewery for a drink while we waited for Matt to get in from Sydney. He and his friend go in at about 6 and we went to go stake out a place on the hill. The game was a lot of fun - it was the Illawarra Dragons vs the Cronulla Sharks, and we whooped their asses. Like, the end score was 38 to 0. Yet to score, is how the commentator kept putting it haha. Matt treated us to meat pies, as is necessary to have at the footy game :). While it wasn't a very close game, it was fun to be on the inside of the stadium when we can always see it from the outside in our apartment. The stadium was so much smaller than the Melbourne stadium that I was at a couple weeks ago (though that seated 100,000...).

This morning we hopped on the bus since the train wasn't running to the south, and made our way down to Unanderra. The largest Buddhist Temple in the southern hemisphere, Nan Tien Temple, is a short walk away from there, so off we went. Amy and Jason had been there before, but none of the rest of us had. It was really cool - it was like taking a short trip to Asia haha. There were indeed a bunch of monks walking around, complete with shaved heads and long brown robes. We went to the tea house and got lunch - I decided to forgo the tea as it was pretty warm today, but I had pretty good dumplings. When we got home Marshal left to go back to Sydney and we hung out until 6, at which point we headed next door.

Fatima had told us a few times before that she would teach us how to cook the kabsa that she cooked for us, so I texted her last week asking her if she was free to teach us this weekend. Tonight, obviously, was the night we went over to see how she cooks it. It was actually pretty simple - moreso than I thought it would be anyway. It's just remembering everything that will be hard - we will have to get a written out recipe from her I think. Some of the spices were different as well, but mostly pretty straightforward. We watched as she made the meal, and then ate it of course. Delicious as always. I'm just always amazed by the feast they give us when we go over there - we had coffee and dates before cooking, and then the kabsa, salad, fish, and these calzone-type things, followed by cupcakes and the little cinnamon roles she always makes (my kryptonite lol), accompanied by more coffee, followed by tea.... sooo much food. And sooo yummy. So yes, hopefully some time in the future I'll be able to cook my very own kabsa :D.

Sydney

This past Friday me and Katie got up early and caught the train into Sydney. Some of the Earlham students that were studying in New Zealand this semester were headed home and had a 10-hour layover in Sydney on the way. I had told them I would meet up with them and show them around the city for the day before they had to go. Unfortunately when I got into Sydney I got a call from Alli saying that it cost too much for them to store their bags, so they were staying at the airport. It actually wasn't all that bad because it was awful weather that day - rainy and cold, so not so great for walking around in all day.

Instead, I just went with Katie to the Study Australia BBQ that was being hosted in Bondi Junction. Except that once we got there, there was nobody around for said BBQ... so I called around and found out that it had been canceled due to the weather. Luckily Matt, who was organizing the whole thing, said that he would still treat us to lunch since we had come all the way from Wollongong. So after meeting up with him for some awesome sandwiches, we headed over to the mall in search of something red for Saturday's footy game. We spent a good chunk of time wandering around that mall - it's absolutely massive. I also never cease to be amazed at the number of American stores that are here. I ended up getting a red hoodie at Target, which is apparently not affiliated with the US Target, despite the fact that the logo and ads are practically identical. But anyhow, we decided we didn't want to trek all the way over to the aquarium like we had originally planned, so we sat in a chocolate bar for a while to kill time and then headed back.

It's my fucking birthday!!

That's right, I turned 21 last Tuesday. It wasn't too shabby of a birthday either :). I woke up and was surprised when one of my roommates told me happy birthday- I had forgotten already haha. I didn't have anything to do until 4:30, and it was gorgeous outside, so I decided to hi the beach for a few hours. Katie joined me, and we both talked a little about our rough life haha. I wasn't really hungry at all even though I hadn't eaten yet, but it was past lunch time and I had decided yesterday I wanted to get fish and chips at the little place near City Beach, so I did, and ended up giving most of it to Katie.

Went home, showered, decided it was within my 21st birthday rights to skip my tutorial (honestly, I didn't miss a thing). In my defense though I spent the time being pretty productive. It also turned out to be a good thing since I was the only person home when flowers from my parents came :). They were gorgeous native Australian flowers that I've never seen anything like before. Some of them were so soft and fuzzy they almost felt like stuffed animals! For dinner we went out to the Outback Steakhouse. It just cracks me up that they exist here, especially since they were started by two Americans from Florida... I ordered the Wallaby Darned cocktail, because honestly, who can not have a drink on their 21st, even if they are in a foreign country? I weirdly still wasn't hungry at all, which was a bummer since I was all psyched about splurging on a really good meal. I still ordered a salad and brought it home for later. It was the five of us from the PH, plus Heather and one of Ashley's friends who I can't remember the name of :/. Jason had given me this ribbon thing to wear that said "It's my fucking birthday" that I was proudly sporting all night haha. They also ordered me a delicious brownie/ice cream dessert (that yes, I did find a little bit of space for a few bites haha). When we got home I discovered the cake they had made for me earlier too. I admittedly knew they were up to something in the kitchen, but I like surprises so I hadn't investigated until we came back lol. It was simple but yummy :) I just wish I had been hungry that day...

So I had a quiet but pretty good birthday, I felt loved :D. I found out why I hadn't been hungry all day though - that night when I went to bed I came down with a super random high fever until early morning. I thought it was just a freak thing and tried to go to my classes the next morning, but ended up coming home early when it came back. I took it as a bad sign that everyone in the class was sweating in the room as I chattered my teeth in jeans and a hoodie clutched around me. I slept for like 4 hours that day and just generally felt awful. That kept up for another 2 days, and Friday I spent almost all of in bed. Finally Saturday I felt a little better and actually had a late lunch - I had been going on 5 days of not eating by then. Since then I've felt a bit off, but that was really all it was - fever and lack of appetite. Really weird.

Monday was a national holiday so we had no classes, which was nice. Other than that the week has been pretty normal. yay for finally catching this blog up with real life! lol

Melbourne Weekend

Righto, so after a whirlwind 4 days of class after getting back from Cairns, I grabbed my things after class on Thursday and walked to catch my train to the airport. I was headed to Melbourne, which is to the south, in Victoria. I was sick, and it was no fun flying congested :(. By the time my plane landed it was pretty late. I took a shuttle to Southern Cross Station, but the free bus that normally would have taken me to my hostel wasn't running anymore, so I grabbed a taxi rather than wandering around by myself at 11pm. Ashley had gone the day before, so I met her at the hostel and managed to get put in her room for the night, where we hit the sack pretty quickly.

The next morning we didn't have to meet our group until 3pm, but me and Ashley grabbed breakfast and went to check out the aquarium. When we got there we realized there was a shark and fish feeding, so we weedled our way down to the very end area to watch it - where we were greeted by a couple divers with the MASSIVE stingrays. After watching them feed the sharks, we spent the next hour or so trying to make our way through the aquarium backwards, which proved to be impossible in the end (we had to go out and back in the front). We had incentive to get back to the beginning though because they had Australia's only Antarctic penguins :D.

After the aquarium we went to check into our new room since we were staying with Study Australia and meet up with them. Surprisingly there was only about 20 people on our trip - normally there is more like 50 I think, but that made it nice that we weren't a massive group. That day started out with a tour around the city. Melboune is a really cool super artsy place. It's a big city but it's not clausterphobic like a lot of other cities are. They also have tons of public transit, including a free tram and free tourist bus that makes a huge loop around the city. It has a huge shopping culture and has everything between super expensive boutiques to little cool shops and a massive market that we explored later in the weekend. Our tour lead us to this awesome little place called Mme Brussels which was set up like an old lady tea party on a terrace and all the waiters were dressed as pool boys. Lauren our tour guide ordered us some mocktails and we hung out until it was dinner time. Dinner was in chinatown at this restaurant with the best dumplings, it was so good. The only thing better was our dessert, which we went to a chocolate bar for. Also soooo good. We've decided chocolate bars definitely need to become a new trend in the US. Someone get on that :D.

After dessert we headed to our comedy show for the night. Melbourne has an annual comedy festival that lasts a number of weekends, and we caught the end of it. We saw Charlie Pickering, who was hilarious actually. I was kind of skeptical since the comedian we had seen during orientation at school was supposed to be really well-known, but I hadn't thought he was funny at all. But I was so glad we went to this show, definitely had us all belly-laughing more than once.

After the show a bunch of us headed for this science-themed bar we had been told about along the tour. There are a ton of really neat little bars and restaurants that are hidden away down smelly sketchy alleys. I definitely would have never gone by myself, or probably even with a couple people, but we had a fairly large group, and we all realllly wanted to go check out this science bar, called the Croft Institute. The ground floor was set up like a science lab, complete with bartenders dressed in labcoats. We couldn't resist getting some syringe shots either lol. The upstairs was set up like an old school gym, complete with risers on one side. Im glad we went- it was a lot of fun and a cool little place.

The next day was mostly free, and me and Ashley spent most of it in the Queen Victoria Markets that are these huge basically permanent markets right out back of our hostel. I bought a scarf for the aussie rules footy game we were going to that night, and we bought an apple while marveling at all the shouting going on in the produce section. DOLLA FOURTY BANAANA! lol. I briefly said hi to Jess from spring break who lives there and was doing some shopping there, but we were headed in the other direction so we didn't hang out for very long. We killed some more time by grabbing lunch and finding a gelato place that was really yummy. We did a lot of eating on this trip in case you haven't noticed. It's probably better I don't live there because they are all about the experiences- eating being right at the top. That's also why they have like 4 stadiums and tons of sports. That night we got to see one of them, as we went to see Collingwood vs. Hawthorne play in Aussie Rules Football (AFL). I actually really liked the game - it was pretty easy to understand and interesting to watch. We also creamed Hawthorne, so that was a plus too :).

The next morning we got up super early and met our bus for the day (yeah, another bus). We spent the day driving the Great Ocean Road, which has been voted one of the best drives in the world. Our first stop was Bells Beach, a famous surfing beach. It was kind of funny to me because I had just watched Breaking Point back in Cairns with Kazu when I was killing time after the trip, and it's based in Bells Beach. There's an annual surfing competition there that had just finished a few days before we got there, and there were still some stands up and stuff from it. The waves were massive as well, I can never get over how huge waves are here, but especially there.

We stopped for lunch at this sort of random place, but we walked up the road from there, and in someone's front yard was a wild koala! We found another one a little farther down the way as well- it was really cool to see them just chillin, outside of a zoo. There's just a bunch of koalas in the area apparently and they eat all the leaves off these poor particular eucalypts. Turned out the food was really good as well. 

Other than a lookout point along the road, our only other stop we made was our main stop at the Twelve Apostles. We didn't really stop anywhere else, but just the drive itself was gorgeous, as it's right along the beach and mountains - a very windy road. The Twelve Apostles is basically huuuuge rocks shooting out of the sea. One would presume that there used to be twelve, but there isn't anymore since they are constantly being eroded by the sea. It was really pretty and we went to a number of different lookouts to see them. One of the things we did in the area was walk down to this beach area that had these cave-ish areas. It's hard to explain, but it was really pretty.

From there we headed back, which was quicker now that we weren't following the road along the ocean anymore, but it was still a few hours. We stopped by the airport to drop off the people who had flights out that night, and then we got dropped back off a the hostel. Me, Ashley, and Joey stayed that extra night since Monday morning flights had been less than half of the price of sunday night flights. It was nice because we just stayed in the same room as before and it was just the three of us. We went to bed early and got up before 5am Monday morning to begin the trek back to Wollongong. Thankfully I was feeling better and wasn't really congested anymore lol. I'm really glad I went- Melbourne was the last major place I really wanted to go in Australia before I left. If I had endless money and time I would go a million other places, but Melbourne and the Twelve Apostles made my majors list. Fun fun fun.

One Fish Two Fish, day 9, 10, and more

DAY NINE:
The last day of our trip had a nice late start. We grabbed some lunch and met up, hopping on that same open-top bus to head out towards the rainforest. While it was a really nice ride and you could see all the scenery really well, being on top of an open double-decker in the rainforest really isn't all that pleasant. Definitely got owned by a tree or two on the way. It got really interesting when we parked IN a tree practically, not to mention when we left we had to do a however many point turn to get out of the parking lot, which meant the giant tree branches were being swept back and forth across the top haha.

Anywho, we actually stopped at this beach first, although I have no idea where it was and I had no idea we were going to the beach previous to getting there. It was one of the many beaches that has a small swimming area with a big net around it to keep out jellies and sharks and whatever else is in the aussie waters that can hurt you.

From there we drove to an area with an opening to a trail for Cascade Falls. It was concerning because we were greeted at the front by a sign for a stinging tree. Basically everything in Australia is out to get you. So I was paranoid about said tree for about the first quarter of our walk, but then the trail became much less of a tame hiking trail and much more intense as we had to climb over and around wet rocks along the river, in and out of the water, straddle over or crawl under fallen trees, etc. The struggle was worth it though, as we ended at the falls, where we jumped off the rocks into the pool beneath the waterfall and swam a bit.

By the time we got out we were all nice and muddy. I booked it from the bus when we got back and snagged first shower for once haha. Not long later we met up again and headed back to the Woolshed for our final party. We had an area set aside just for us and it was really nice, with name plates and drinks sitting out when we got there. It was kind of crazy to be on the last night after doing SO much. Kazu and Doggie had put together a bunch of their pictures and videos on a DVD that went back over the past 9 days. It was really nice - I could hardly think back to what we had done the first few days - it felt like months before practically! After that they brought out the food, which everyone pounced on as we were starving and it was delicious haha. We spend the night saying bye to a bunch of people who were leaving early the next morning.

DAY TEN AND AFTER:
I had to get up the next morning, pack, and checkout even though I was actually staying an extra night. I had booked my extra night at a different hostel that was around the corner and couldn't check in for a few hours, so we killed some time at the lagoon there and ate some lunch.

I moved in to my new hostel when I could, and when it was dinner time I headed to this bar that I got a free dinner from through my night's stay. It was a pretty good BBQ actually and I ended up meeting a few people there who had just gotten there. My original plan was to go out and meet some people right after that, but I went back to lay down for a couple minutes because I was exhausted. What I had meant to be a 10 minute nap accidentally turned into an hour nap, and I woke up in panic in my lit room thinking it was 11am and I had missed checkout and my shuttle. When I realized it was still dark outside and it was actually only 11pm, I ended up going back to bed shortly after.

The next morning I checked out, and killed time hanging out with people a bit until I had to catch my shuttle to the airport. Thankfully my flight home wasn't nearly as eventful and the way in, and in fact they didn't even check my ID at check in! Overall the trip was an amazing experience. As I'm sure you would agree, we did a crazy amount of stuff, and I'll never soon forget any of it. I feel like studying abroad is all about pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. A lot of people do this already by going to a new culture or language, but I feel like since I've lived abroad before, the change of Australian culture been amazing, but well within my comfort zone. This spring break trip definitely managed to pushed me out of my comfort zone- I was really apprehensive about all the crazy activities when I signed up for it, but I ended up loving it.