The Gold Coast is slightly gold.

10:32 PM

At least the sand is.

I’m back! Just got back from Gold Coast today and it was a blast. We left on Sunday morning and checked into our hotel, then headed out to walk around. Surfer’s Paradise is spread out along a huge beach with many surf shops, bars and restaurants. Our hotel was right in the middle of things with a view of the huge beach. Sunday we went to the beach, got some drinks and went out for dinner. We were exhausted so we were going to call it an early night, but on the way back to our hotel we got recruited by a promoter to check out a club. We went and got our free drink, then went to bed. Monday we got up and out to head to the beach again and eat lunch out. Funnily enough, we ran in to a boy we knew from Macquarie and his friends, so we hung out with them at their hotel that night and then went to a bar/club for a little bit.

Gold Coast is about 2 hours south of Steve Irwin’s zoo, the Australia Zoo, so Lindsey and I bought tickets to go up there for a day on Tuesday. This zoo is really amazing, the animals have tons of space and are really happy. And there are tons of them! There are huge enclosures where visitors can walk with the animals and feed them, as well as many interactive activities. We finally held a koala and got a picture with it! There’s one in the album (link below) and hopefully the real one that I can scan in. After the long day at the zoo we headed back to the hotel, went out for dinner and then met up with the boys we knew. We all went out together and then went swimming in the ocean at 2am (you only live once...).

Wednesday Lindsey and I slept in a bit more than we anticipated but made it to Brisbane, which is only an hour north by train. We went shopping and explored Queen Street then had some Malaysian for dinner. Took the train back home and hung out in the hotel for a bit, we were tired.

Here comes the really funny part of this blog post: Lindsey and I are idiots. Thursday we both decided to head to the beach for a while until we had to grab our bags and go to airport to fly home. We checked out of the hotel, however the receptionist asked us why we were leaving, they had us written down for another night. We assured her that we were going home today and that they must have made a mistake. Then we were on our way.

The airport took about 2 hours to get to since we had to take 2 buses, but we finally made it, although a little bit late. We ran to the JetStar counter and hurriedly tried to check in, only to have the man look at us and ask, “Really?”. Turns out, our flight home wasn’t until Friday.

...yeah. So after being mortified and leaving the airport as fast a possible, we realized that we would have to go back to the Marriot and check back in for another night, and run into all the staff members we had come to know, and told that we were going home. Talk about embarrassing. We got another room and, hey if we’re still on vacation, let’s go out. Italian dinner and then off to an Irish Pub. It was Thursday so people were out having a good time and we met a couple guys that we hung out with for a bit. We were exhausted from traveling for 4 hours though so we went home and slept (plus we had to travel to the airport again the next day).

Lindsey and I killed time Friday morning by enjoying the weather (we had perfect weather all week by the way, no rain at all) and then again, went to airport. As a side note, our favorite concierge came up to us on our way out the door (again) and asked why we were still here, didn’t he watch us leave for the airport yesterday? We grudgingly told him what we did, and he laughed, gave us chocolate and then said, “Oh and thanks for promoting the American stereotypes.”

Great.

We made it home finally, and had a quick dinner. Cydney was so excited to see us, we missed her so much (she’s making me write this right now). I’ll probably go to sleep early tonight, even though it is ANZAC day, which is a big day here. Tomorrow we’re running errands, heading to the gym to run and swim (yes, me, I know), then going to a rugby game, and then out.

Sorry this is such a long post, I’ve been busy as usual. Here’s the album link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2305031&l=4fa24&id=824622

Love, love, love!

Here, there, everywhere (Wombat!)

5:18pm (no matter what it says at the bottom of the post).

Hi hi! I had a crazy last few days (but I feel like I say that every post). Last we talked...oh, right, I went to the Opera House, but didn’t talk about it because I forgot. My program all went to a symphony plus didgeridoo at the opera house. The first half was a normal orchestra symphony and then the second half was that, accompanied by a didgeridoo and tree branches and huge drums. It was pretty awesome. After that a few of us went out to eat and then to a kid in our program’s house to hang out.

Since then autumn break has finally come, I spent a full week writing papers and once they were done, my Dad came! He’s still here, leaves tomorrow, and we’ve had a busy week. We had three days in Sydney before we went down to Tasmania. We did all the things you have to do in Sydney; the Opera House and Bridge, Paddy’s Market, Darling Harbor etc. Then we caught a flight to see our old friends who live outside of Launceston. Tasmania is beautiful, but if you’re not in a city, it’s really remote. These friends of ours had chickens for eggs, cows for meat, made their own beer and wine, had a full garden and lives pretty much out in the middle of nowhere in this valley. They had 50 acres of gorgeous land, part of which they hadn’t even seen. The three days was spent eating fresh cheese, wine tasting, seeing the wilderness and going to wildlife parks. I pet and fed a kangaroo, held a baby wombat and touched a koala and a tasmanian devil! It was awesome! And there are pictures of it all.

Once we got back to Sydney we threw a small dinner party on Thursday, and today, Friday we went to the Sydney Tower. It’s raining and is pretty gross here, but it’s his last day so we made and are making the best of it. Tonight I think we’ll head over to Kings Cross so he can see the hookers and seedier side of this lovely city.

After he leaves tomorrow I have a day to organize myself, maybe go out to dinner and then Lindsey and I leave for 4 days in Gold Coast on Sunday. I just learned it’s supposed to rain all 4 days we’re there but hopefully we’ll still get to parasail, jungle surf, hold koalas and all the stuff we want to do. I’ll be busy, I get home next Thursday and then have 3 days to “relax” (there’s already talk of a rugby game and more) before classes start again.

Things are great, minus the rain. I think my Dad had a great time (right, Dad?).

Here’s the link for my (and Dad’s) new album, enjoy!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2302487&l=3cd86&id=824622

A little R&R (sort of...)

Hello all! Haven’t written because (finally) there’s not much to report. My weekend was spent in North Ryde and downtown with friends. We went out to new places both Friday and Saturday. Friday we went to a place called The Argyle in the The Rocks. It was a cool louge/bar with 2 stories and a huge courtyard with big red lamps. It was all wooden and glass with iron chandeliers, very medieval and very fun. Satuday I finally explored King’s Cross (the cross, aka the red light district). Not as seedy as I had heard, but it was a Saturday night so there were a lot of young kids. We started at a really fancy piano bar, the kind with celebrities (but we don’t know any Australian ones, minus the obvious Nicole Kidman, Russel Crowe, Hugh Jackman etc). The drinks must have been $30 each, luckily we were with some of Lindsey’s family friends, so they paid. After, we were supposed to go to our friend’s birthday party, but even on the guest list, the line for that club was too long so we tried another place. Hugo’s Lounge was really swanky and nice (the kind of place where drinks are $10, as opposed to $30 or $5) and we met some really nice and fun people. Cyd and I made one of the last buses home and went straight to bed.

Sunday morning the Red Bull Flugtag came to Sydney! (for those of you that don’t know what that is; 1) I’m really disappointed in you 2) look it up...now) We got up early, 8:30, which is early when you got home at 3:30 in the morning, and headed downtown again. The four of is, Cyd, Joanne, Ashley and I walked through the Royal Botanic Gardens (a must if you ever come here. Dad, we’re doing it) and as close to the ramp as we could get. We stayed for about 3 or 4 flying machines, but got bored and tired so went home and relaxed.

It’s been midterms for the last week or so, I had a couple papers to write but those are done so after I hand them in tomorrow, I will officially be on ‘autumn’ break (which is 2 weeks here, hah you guys in the States!).

Going to bed soon, but Cyd wants to do some painting now so I suppose I’ll join her. We bought little canvases and paints to decorate our sterile rooms. So far I have a fish scene, a unicorn and some boomerangs. Now I’m making a sea horse.

Things are great, my Dad gets here Friday. Send me some love anyway!

Australia is my favorite place in the world.

4/2/08

 Ok, I found 10 spare minutes to write about the last week. As I left off earlier, I had the winery and brewery tours on Friday. One of our surf instructors, Jai, from our surf trip came to stay with us for a week (he was the younger one, so 18) and we had him around which was very fun. I only got an hour of sleep on Thursday because we were up all night hanging out with everyone in our building. We had to get to the bus for the winery at 8am on Friday so we could make our first wine tour at 10:30 am at Lindeman’s. We had cheese and crackers, lunch and hit three wineries before 2 pm. We must have tried about 20 different wines and we also took a tour of how wine is made. Hunter Valley is absolutely gorgeous, they’ll be a link for pictures at the end of this. After the wineries we were all pretty tired and dehydrated, but little did we know that the best was yet to come. The brewery was Blue Tongue (as in skink), a brand of beer here that makes delicious beers. We all get out of the bus and walk into this patio area with tables and chairs set up. On all the tables there were bowls and bowls of potato wedges and sweet chili sauce (it’s an Australian thing, delicious) and sour cream. On another table was paper with a run through of their 6 best beers and next to that, about 400 shot glasses filled with all their beer. “Take as many as you want, eat and relax.” Exactly what we wanted to hear. Everyone went to town on the beer and wedges, it was incredible. Blue Tongue makes this ginger beer that is so good, we bought a 6 pack and regret buying more.

After we got home that night around 6, we were all pretty much dead, but we made dinner, hung out a bit and then went to sleep since we were leaving for the Blue Mountains at 8:30 on Saturday morning. Everyone in my program (plus a few, Jai, Cydney and a couple other non-CEAers) met at a bus stop and headed off. We got to Katoomba around 10:30, dropped our stuff at the hostel and headed off to do the Great Staircase and the Three Sisters. The Great Staircase is exactly what is says it is, a huge staircase/trail about 5 miles long that goes down a cliff into a valley around the Three Sisters and then leads you to the railway, the steepest train in the world. Once you get there, this train takes you up the cliff on other side, so you basically go in a big circle. It was so beautiful there, lush rainforest around these towering cliffs.  Lots of pictures are posted.

That night we all went back to the hostel, Jen, Lindsey and I helped Murray, our program leader, go food shopping and make dinner. Our hostel was great so we had a courtyard with a BBQ and some tables. Everyone just ate and drank all night, until we went out to a local piano bar. We came home by 12, and pretty much everyone was asleep by 1.

Sunday morning we had a choice of either going caving or mountain biking, but you had to be in shape for the mountain biking, so only 3 kids did it. The rest of us took a bus to the Jenolan caves and went deep into a mountain. The caves are huge and steep, and they’re over a river. It was awesome.

Once we all got back to hostel we grabbed our bags and had to run for the train (Cydney and Mandy missed it), we were home by about 8:30. Jai was still with us, so we all made dinner and went to bed early since I have a full day of classes on Mondays. Since then I’ve just been going to class and trying to catch up with my life. Today is Wednesday so I may or may not go out. Tomorrow my program goes to the Opera House to see a symphony plus didgeridoo. Someone is having an ‘opera after party’ and then Friday I’m going to Paddy’s Market to stock up on fruits and veggies.

Luckily I’ll have a few hours of downtime tomorrow, but I do have two “papers” to write (papers here are 1000-1500 words, pretty short). Hope you all are well, sorry for the hiatus, I’ll try to be more constant!

 

Link to winery and more:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2289914&l=b1e83&id=824622

 

Link to Blue Mountains:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2296089&l=479f7&id=824622

No kangaroos in Kangaroo Valley.

3/26/08 2:42pm

Hard to believe I know.

Finally a bit of down time to write about my weekend. On Saturday night I went downtown near Bondi to sleep at Melissa’s parent’s friend’s house so that we could leave for Kangaroo Valley on Sunday. We took it easy and took off around noon, it’s not a long drive, but it was gorgeous. We took the scenic route on a road literally on the coast, sometimes even over the water. There were huge cliffs with lush flora and hang and para gliders over the ocean.

We found a cute motel in Gerrongong which is about 30 minutes north of Kangaroo Valley. A little exploring around town and a fresh sea food dinner, then bed. We got up on Monday and had a delicious breakfast and then headed down to Kangaroo Valley to figure out how to spend the day. It turns out that the Kovners have friends in the valley who own a kayak shop, so we all got kayaks and went the 3 miles down the Kangaroo River. Unfortunately we didn’t see any kangaroos or even a wombat but it was still fun. We went back to their friend’s house for dinner and relaxation and ended up spending the night since the drive back to our hotel was an hour and half. The next morning we drove back to the hotel and then went up to Kiama, a town about 15 minutes away. We had lunch and looked around town and saw the blowholes (a blowhole is a small crevice in a rock where the ocean comes spraying up...hence the name). We were all exhausted by this point so we drove home and I was back in my room by 8.

I took tons of beautiful pictures but they can’t begin to show how gorgeous it was there. The link is the same one as below, the 3^rd album.

Today I have another class and then I’m heading downtown to see my second cousin, Patrik, and friends. They’ve been living in Thailand for the last few months so they all came down to Sydney for a few days. I think we’ll get dinner and then I’ll come back to North Ryde because it’s Wednesday so that means it’s Epping Bar night (which has replaced The Ranch night because we don’t like it).

Tomorrow I finally have a day off to get some work done and sleep a bit, then going to an Easter fair with the Kovners. Then it’s time for the winery/brewery tours on Friday and off to the Blue Mountains for some hiking and caving from Saturday morning to Sunday night.

 Busy busy!

Busy bee.

3/21/08 11:47pm

Phew! I have had a busy week and still I have no time coming up for relaxation. Last you all heard, I got back from the surf trip on Sunday night. I have a very long day of classes on Monday, but it was Saint Patrick’s Day, so of course we had to go out downtown. We put on some green and went to a few Irish pubs, but were still so sore and tired from surfing that we came home before one.

Melissa’s parents came into town on earlier this week too, so after classes on Tuesday I had dinner with them at their apartment, which was very nice. They’re pretty much my second family (Vicki, I know you’re reading this...) Then after classes on Wednesday I went downtown again to a small dinner party that they were hosting.

I actually slept at their apartment that night since I stayed a little late (and the last bus home from downtown on week nights is at 12:10, it’s unfortunate).

Thursday I walked around campus and explored since I hadn’t yet and then we had a pub crawl! There’s this club on campus that sets up events for international students so we got tickets to a pub crawl downtown and a winery next Friday (more about that another time). There were about 40 kids and we just explored all these bars with the club leaders showing us around. It was disorganized but fun.

Today (Friday) We slept in a bit and then headed downtown (I’ve been downtown everyday this week) to The Rocks to pancakes. Pancakes on The Rocks is this famous place that makes other things, but mostly delicious pancakes. Melissa and her sister Kelsey joined us, among other friends. Then we made the long walk further downtown to the Sydney Football Stadium for a rugby game! It was the Sydney Roosters and the Brisbane Broncos, an exciting game. We bought t-shirts and finally learned how to play rugby. It’s so much more interesting than American football, so fun!

We got home a little while ago, and I am exhausted. We were out and about for twelve hours.

Tomorrow is a relaxing homework/errand/movie day. Not sure what’s up for tomorrow night, but I think Sunday morning I’m going to go down to Kangaroo Valley with Melissa and family, I’m so excited!

I posted some more pictures in the 2nd album, the link is below in the surf post.

And here is a new link for my 3^rd album:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2289914&l=b1e83&id=824622

I'm a Pro Surfer.

 Home from the Surf Trip! And man, am I sore. We just got a 3 day workout.

On Friday morning 14 kids from my program and I got up at 6am and met across the street to take the 6 hour bus ride up the coast to Crescent Head (about half way from Sydney to Byron Bay). It didn’t seem so long since we all slept or talked, and we took quite a few breaks for food and bathroom. A surfboard fell on my head on the way there and I have a nice scratch on my cheek from the fin (not the best way to start a surf weekend). We got to the surf camp around 2 and quickly ran to our rooms. Six girls in my room, boys in another and a few more girls in a third. Bathrooms outside and around the corner, screened in porch for meals. No cell service and one computer for internet. We all needed a weekend away, and it was great to really be out in the wilderness. We were about 10 minutes by car from the nearest grocery store, but we only made stops there on the way back from the beach. As soon as we had set out stuff down and gotten on swimsuits, we headed out again. We had a few surf instructors, our main one was Plenko, and awesome (although very inappropriate man) who just liked to drink beer and surf. There was also a younger guy, Kyle, and a gromit (apprentice) named Jai. We all piled into a van with boards for everyone and drove to a nearby lake, Tea Tree Lake. The water was brown and warm because it was filled with tea tree oil, needless to say, we all had nice skin for the weekend. Everyone proceeded to stretch and learn the rules of surfing. Next think I know, we’re in the lake practicing paddling on the board and learning to how pop up (stand up on the board). Once we all could stand up and be pushed along, we paddled across the lake and to the beach. A big and deserted beach with large scary waves. No one was ready for this (except for the boys who could already surf). “In ya go mates”, Plenko said, pushing us all into the water.

We did our best, but...most of us ate it. Actually all of us ate it. Over and over again. Knees and faces ground into the sand (my knees are bright red and purple right now), lungs full of salt water. My board hit me in the mouth once, it really gets tossed around in the waves. After a few hours we had had enough. We collapsed on the beach and couldn’t move. Surfing is hard. Unfortunately we still had to paddle back across the lake and to van.

We got back to camp and everyone ran for the showers. Dinner was burritos and everyone chowed down. We had all intended to drink beers around the campfire all night, but by 10:30 we were all in bed. It was a long day.

Up at 8am on Saturday, banana pancakes for breakfast and into the van for a full day at the beach. About a half an hour drive to Point Plomer, a campsite with a huge beach and some shady spots with trees. We unloaded and hit the water. The waves were much smaller and regular this time (Plenko said he purposely gave us big waves the first day to prepare us for what was ahead. Really though, he just liked to watch us go down). Pretty much everyone got up at least a few times, I did about 4 or 5, but no one could really ride a whole wave in. We took breaks for lunch and laying the sun, then back our or more surfing. A professional photographer came to take pictures of all of us surfing, a few of us, myself included, bought a CD from her of about 200 pictures. See the link below!

The waves got a bit bigger in the afternoon and we all gave it a go, but right after I got out there, my leg was suddenly on fire. I turned to Kyle, an instructor, and said “Hey Kyle, I think I got stung.” (Jellyfish stings are pretty common). “Stop being a fucking princess and ride this fucking wave”. Oh...ok. So I did, and then went in and ran fresh water on it. Gone ten minutes later, not so bad really.

We headed home later that evening, showered and had such a perfect dinner waiting for us. Steaks, sausages, mashed potatoes, homemade gravy and salad. We all washed it down with beer and then sat around the camp fire all night. Some of the staff at the camp jammed on guitars and bongos and we made make-shift smores (No graham crackers or normal marshmallows here). In bed by midnight, up by 7 the next morning.

A few more hours of surfing at a different beach Sunday morning, but most of us were too tired and sore to go out for the whole time. Drove in to town in the early afternoon and made a stop for the best meat pies ever. Meat pies are really big here, all bakeries have them, and if you get a good one, there’s nothing better. Today I had beef, bacon and cheese; cover it with a little tomato sauce (ketchup) and yum!

Back to camp, shower, pack and hit the road. We were all back to the Parklands by 8:30 where I unpacked my stuff and am now writing this. I will upload some pictures into an album before I go to bed, but I will be asleep before midnight. I am so sore and so tired, but it was such a good weekend. Class tomorrow and some plans for the week, Easter is coming!

Hope everyone is well, hope to here from you!

Link to new album: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2287887&l=2e857&id=824622