my CRAAAAAZY trip to the land of the HOBBITS!!!

Before I lead into my trip let me just say wow it was ridiculous, and although you may or may not believe what I write let me share this, it all happened... the good times and the bad and the craaaziness all took place!!

Soo I don't remember much of the week leading up to break, we had a big party one night at a bar (exchange with another college), there was supposed to be the first game of fresher rugby but that got cancelled due to weather- there is another game tonight, hopefully that happens! Umm I worked a formal dinner... which was actually embarrassing for the college because no one showed up because it was the Thursday on which break started so everyone had gone home- but actually good for me cause I got to eat the formal dinner food which I may have not had been able to cause when you work the dinners you only get to eat the meals if there are left overs- if not you eat the "alternative" meal after formal dinners... anyway so LET ME BEGIN!!

FRIDAY APRIL 22: The first day of break, at this point Sophie and I are starting to freak out, trying to pack and get all of our shit together when we realize, oh wait we really have NOTHING PLANNED other than the first night we booked when we booked our plane tickets back in March. Well plans change, instead of doing the first night in Auckland as we had originally planned- our friend Nick (who is from NZ and lives below me) said he would drive us to Lake Taupo (kind exactly NZ's equivalent of Lake Tahoe in the states) soo we had to scramble to change our plans and book a hostel and then we had to scramble and book the shit out of the rest trip and all day Friday we were freaking out about where we were going to go in NZ, how we were going to get there etc. So finally it all came together/ kinda and the original plan was this: We were going to arrive in Auckland around 4 p.m. when our flight landed, drive down with Nick to Taupo (a 3 1/2-4ish hour drive) stay there Saturday night, Sunday do the "Mt. Doom hike", and then leave monday morning for Auckland, stay in Auckland Monday night, then early Tuesday take the bus to the Bay of Islands (we chose a town called Paihia), be there all day tuesday + night, leave Wednesday morning and go back to Auckland until our flight on Friday morning back to Brizzy. [WOAH I KNOW!] soo we were all okay! until we finally got in contact with Nick late Friday night and he was like well I can drive you back on Monday to Auckland, so it messed up all our already booked bus schedules for that day but thankfully we were able to get refunded on that- but more on that day when I get there.

our little plane!

Saturday: LEAVING BRIZZY! We got up around 7ish and made it to breakfast where we ate with our friend Josh who also lives in Auckland who we were flying on the same flight back with- He also had graciously offered us a ride to the airport that morning from a friend of his parents who was already driving him. But being a silly kiwi he likes to really take his time and we BARELY made it to board the plane in time having gotten to the airport late, had to check in, go through security, then since it was an international flight, go through customs as well! But we made it onto the plane:
There is a pic of the plane, we flew an airline called Pacific Blue... overall the flights' roundtrip prices weren't as bad as I thought they were going to be but they definitely still did damage but it was DEFINITELY WORTH IT. I CANNOT STILL BELIEVE THIS HAPPENED: okay so it is like a 4ish hour flight to Auckland from Brisbane, our flight was scheduled to take off at 10 a.m. and arrive there around 4 p.m. their time (they are 2 hours ahead time zone wise) so about 1 and 1/2 hours into the flight they announce over the loud speaker "Is there a doctor on the plane, there is currently a medical situation taking place, we need a doctor" of course that wasn't scary or anything! then... 2 hours into the flight aka HALF WAY TO AUCKLAND they come over the loud speaker and announce umm soo folks we are going to have to turn the plane around BACK TO BRISBANE there is a medical emergency and we need to treat to him in Brisbane. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!! WE WERE HALFWAY THERE! so the plane turns around and we fly back to Brisbane, sit on the runway for another hour while an ambulance comes and takes the guy away and then we fly the 4 hours again back to Auckland. Turns out this guys was having heart problems. not a heart attack, heart problems, and I guess it was better for him to be treated in Australia or something so they turned back. I am still angry about that. Plus, Sophie and I were not even sitting next to each other so we couldn't even talk about it, she was like 8 rows back and poor her, her headphones had broken before the trip and she hadn't been able to get new ones so she didn't even have any music to listen to throughout this entire mess. By the time we finally got to Auckland it was 6 p.m. their time and poor Nick had been waiting to drive us since 4- he said he saw a sign that there were two flights arriving from Brisbane one that was scheduled to arrive at 4 like we had planned and one at six, he was crushed when we did not arrive at 4- AS WERE WE ALL. Soo good start right? But it was okay, we drove to Taupo through the darkness of NZ night sky and made it to our hostel at 1030ish just in time to get some even better news from the hostel. Since the weather was going to be shitty the next day- the "Mt. Doom hike" was not going to be open... aka we would not be able to hike it. But, there were other fun hikes we could do so I guess we had to settle for those. mehhhh worst first day of traveling but I guess we made it work and hey, the bed in the hostel was comfy... even though somehow me and sophie ended up in a room with all guys... ...

Sophie and I before the hike!

Sunday: Day 1 Lake Taupo: So even though we were not able to do the famous hike that was essentially the reason that we drove down to Lake Taupo for in the first place, we made the best of it and decided to do a 12 hike from the top of the mountain where the dam was stopping the water that flowed into the lake and followed it down through actually all these really cool places down to the lake. The pic on the left is of us before the hike waiting at 930 am to leave the hostel!! We got up early to talk to the reception people at the hostel to try and find alternative plans and they suggested this, this also allowed us to get up early and explore Taupo before it really started humming with people for the day and woah such a cute little town (if you want more photos, look in my facebook album- I posted a bazillion!) So we took a little shuttle up to the top of the mountain and waited patiently until the dam opened up.. which actually worked out well it opened at 10 so we got there with only 5 minutes to spare and had our cameras ready when it opened. I don't believe in my life I have ever seen such blue water rush over what looked like to be a little creek and rise so quickly once it opened. It was actually a really amazing site and I learned that 12% of NZ's electrical power for the entire country comes from hydro electric power so it was cool to see it "in action". After the dam opened we started the hike "down" but let me tell you it definitely felt more like a hike up/kinda side ways because there were many more ups than there were downs! It was also a little ridiculous the lack of any signage pointing us in the direction to continue the trail and I swear we probably didn't even take the right way because we went some weird routes. But nonetheless we made it to our first stop: Huka Falls!! This picture really does not do it the justice that it deserves however it really was enormous and a gorgeous site! Plus the water was sooo blue that I couldn't even get over it! What you can see in the photo is an activity we wanted to do but honestly it cost sooo much money and there was no way that it was going to be possible, but still sooo cool!

HUKA FALLS!

 Yeah, so after Huka falls we continued the glorious hike for a while, running into random people walking and biking the trail and woah are NZ people friendly! I feel like I said hi or hello to every single person we passed, kinda an awkward experience really but I guess it's the culture. Side note: on our drive to the airport the woman who drove us was telling us about her experience when she went to New York City and how nice everyone was to her, the people and the atmosphere, which frankly I was shocked because as any American would say I think, NY people are jerks/obnoxious! haha anyway just a small short story that I just thought of which was relevant! So we continued the hike to the next location on the map which was also really cool a thermal water springs where people could swim and omg! when we touched the water literally it felt like a hot tub! which was extremely ridiculous because it was all natural and you could literally see the steam rising from the ground. Oh nature, so ridiculous! I don't want to post another photo on here cause it wold just make this post even longer but you can picture it or go look at my fb! Or if we are not friends on fb I can send you a pic! Then we continued on the hike to our last stop along the trail, a big cavern where they had set up a bungee jumping thing and omg it was so high and the view was sooo beautiful but omg bungee jumping. People who can do that are honestly insane!! What could possibly make you want to do that, I probably would rather jump out of a plane than do that. But really lets be serious, I wouldn't do either anyway!! After our last stop we walked back into the gorgeous town and explored all the shops that had opened, took notice of the restaurants, walked around where there was a little market set up and just enjoyed being tourists on our vacation in a foreign country!! We made it back to the hostel around 3 exahusted from the events of the morning and immediately crashed and took naps/ hot showers and just relaxed until dinner. Which after going out and walking around, comparing prices and deciding what we actually wanted to eat, we decided upon a cute little japanese noodle place and got yummy food!! Then we walked around the lake for a while, it was gorgeous even at night and the stars in the sky were awesome! and then went back to our hostel around 1030 and like grandmothers, went to sleep early exhausted from our first day in NZ!


Day 2: Monday April 25: Travel Day + Rain! Well, after the wonderful day of hiking, we were keen to move onto our next location: Auckland for the day!! However Monday was also EASTER MONDAY AND ANZAC DAY sooo the traffic wasss horrrible! But! Since nick drove us and we weren't taking a bus, this allowed us to make a couple of stop along the way that we definitely wouldn't have been able to go to if we hadn't done that. For example: We stopped in a town called Rotorua!! and OMG did the entire town smell like sulfur/eggs/shit! Nick took us to a place which we had been before called Whakarewarewa >> see the photo, and it was this REALLY COOL village built on top of thermal geysers and they had them all around the village and everything! too bad the weather was shitty and raining because he said that they usually for the people, the native Maori's (the natives of NZ) cook corn from the ground for the people walking around etc. It was the coolest thing ever to again see the thermal activity that came from the ground, gah! NZ is the coolest country ever. Also in the town, we got to experience a "show" where we learned about the culture of the Maori and all about the people who "lived in NZ many many many years ago" which was really cool, they also did dancing etc. And we were able to take a picture which them after the show which was pretty cool, they did all these ridiculous facial expressions and sang lots and lots of fun songs! Needless to say when it was over and the rain was only getting harder I was ready to leave, but really glad that we got to spend some time there and see it

Me, Nick and Soph + some natives, you know!

If you want to see some photos of the actual village and stuff definitely again check out the facebook photos!! So we continued on our journey through the rain and the terrible traffic until we reached another cute little town where Nick usually stops with his family and ate lunch at this delicious little bakery place. OMG the food in NZ and Australia as well is just so good, so fresh and soo soo yummy. But we continued our drive and apparently when we reached this town we were supposed to be "half way" let me tell you that was NOT THE CASE. we got there around noon ish and unfortunately did not make it to Auckland until 6 p.m. at night! Damn the traffic of easter holidays and everyone coming back to Auckland! Granted NZ is already a small country only having 4 million people total but honestly it felt like all 4 million people were heading to Auckland that day on the same road we were!! But needless to say we finally made it Auckland 6 pmish and all and then without a phone we hop out of the car and Nick drives home (he lives like 15 min. from the city) and Sophie realizes that she left her wallet and purse in his car. So there we were freaking out at the hostel with no way to contact him however it all worked out in the end and we somehow figured out how to contact him and yeah got her stuff back (such good luck we are having right?) We stayed at a YHA hostel in the middle of the city and after we got her wallet back and stuff found a cute little japanese place to eat at and then because we were miserable due to the COLD AND RAINY WEATHER THAT IS AUCKLAND we found the most delicious gelato place ever! (yes we went back another night!) I got two scoops, a peanut-butter thing which was honestly heaven, and honey lavender- yum, just thinking about that gelato makes me sad that I will never be able to eat it again! But we headed back to the hostel early cause we had to make sure that we were up and ready to catch the bus to the Bay of Islands at 8 am! yuck I know but if we were only going to spending the day there we had to start early!

View From Russel !!! I KNOW RIGHT

Our Hostel Beds!

Day 3: Paihia + Bay of Islands: April 26: Got up early, made the bus, thank goodness and then napped for almost all the way there but I woke up with about an hour and a half to go (it was a 3 1/2 hr drive) and decided I needed to document the country because ITS SOO GREEN. never in my life have I seen more green everywhere than I saw in NZ. Plus there is soo much livestock. Fun fact: Like I said above there are 4 million people who live in NZ in total, there are 40 million sheep ... ... bahaha! Anywhere here is a lovely countryside shot! We also stopped on the way at this cute little side of the road cafe and were able to get warm tea... all Sophie and I wanted was to see the sun, and thankfully when we reached Paihia our wish came true!! We got there around 1230 and immediately just had to stop and take in the view- gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous is all I can say. We found our hostel, which actually was probably the worst of all that we stayed in, just what made it bad was the location and lack of heating at night when NZ got cold, and it wasn't "on the beach" which made me a little sad but it was still clean and had hot water which was all I could ask for!! After dropping our stuff off, we wandered around the main street- which was all Paihia really was, and found a cute little cafe! Thank goodness because we honestly were STARVING! At this cafe we got the most delicious fresh toasted sandwiches + yummy fruit etc. and we got our first taste of NZ's "national drink" L&P which kinda tasted
exactly like sprite but ehh I went with it! After our yummy lunch we walked around the little town and then asked the locals what we should do and they recommended hopping on the ferry and going to Russel Island, which was only about a 10 minute ferry ride away. So we did and omg sooo gorgeous! We took a little tour thing, which only lasted an hour because Russel is so small and hah it only happened to be me and Soph on the tour bus so we got to know our tour guide, this cute little old man who ended up buying us postcards at the end but omg so cute. He also took us to the top, which was actually a volcano and we got gorgeous shots and omg such a pretty day. It was kinda windy so not ideal laying out on the beach and tanning weather but perfect walking around weather and exploring the beautiful Bay of Islands: in total there are over 90 islands! CRAZY I was pretty certain I saw what could have been one of the locations for Pirates and the Caribbean which wouldn't make any sense but it looked just like that!! Then we went back to our hostel and relaxed, I read my book which I brought with me on my trip (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and Soph napped, we really got a lot accomplished that day! After relaxing, the sun went down and we decided that we were going to go out for a nice dinner, and then get some alcohol and drink on the beach. We ended up finding a really cute little place that served the best pumpkin + salmon salad thing in the entire world!! We kept finding a lot of pumpkin and even here in Australia I keep seeing it, but I guess it's fall so that makes sense. Yum that meal was probably one of my favorites, then after dinner we picked up some alcohol and since it had gotten really cold since the sun had gone down, we decided that we were just going to drink at the hostel but when we went into the common room, a girl from France was already in there watching ... THE LORD OF THE RINGS THE 2 TOWERS- aka my favorite!! We thought it was soo cliche but we went with it, and she had never seen it so we explained the story to her and looked for places that we had seen in it, and I am pretty certain I saw one of the scenes in person! (too funny) she also was extremely helpful because she had just gotten back from Auckland and told of a few things that we should do/ places that we should see while we were there- which was awesome!! But then after drinking, we got tired and decided to call it a night around 11ish cause we had to get up at 7 to catch the 8 am bus BACK TO AUCKLAND FOR OUR LAST TWO DAYSS!!

The Space Needle actually is very very short!

Day 4: Auckland: Wednesday April 27: Woke up to this gorgeous image and was very very sad to leave Paihia!! But hey, at least the sun was out when we woke up! We hoped on the bus ride and drove back to Auckland- lots and lots of public transportation but hey thank goodness it all worked out and that the NZ dollar is somewhat cheap which enabled us to do all of this and the buses were clean and fast (just normal coach buses) and the drivers were friendly so I didn't mind it too much. We got back into Auckland around lunch time again and found our hostel, which this time was a different one from the one we stayed in when we were in Auckland on Monday night and honestly even though it was extremely cramped, this was my favorite hostel because of how nice and clean it was and the location was perfect. It was directly in the center of the city, which really came in handy that night when we went out out but I will get to that. We dumped our stuff off at our hostel, and went out to explore Auckland, but in typical NZ weather, it was coldish and on and off rain. When I say cold I mean like 55-60ish degrees! Here is a pic of the first shot I could get from the bus of Auckland, and as you can see, the weather is kinda cold and dreary... I would describe it to be what London is like although I have never been to London, so I cannot be absolutely sure! So after walking around and enjoying the sites, we decided after recommendations from the French girl and other local NZrs, to take the ferry to one of the surrounding islands of Auckland called Devonport! It was just a short 20 minute trip and I am really glad that we got the opportunity to do it because again, it was a cute little Martha's Vineyard like place and we got to hike up to the top of an old World War 2 fort, named North Head (bahah funny I know, which the view was clever) and we got to hike our a volcano called Mt. Victoria!! It was extremely steep, and the sun finally came out so we were able to see a gorgeous view of Auckland as well as the other surrounding places + and be on top of a volcano. A win win in my book if you ask me, after that we returned to Auckland and did a little shopping (I mean we had too!) I purchased a T-shirt for the Rugby World Cup, which will be taking place in Auckland later this year, and then we got a phone call from Josh (the one we flew over with) saying that he was going to take us out on a night on the town with his friends! So we rushed back to hostel, showered and met him on the corner of one of the main streets and he took us to one of his friends houses. I would describe it as the typical college house that you could find anywhere in America but to us, it was the perfect way to spend the night out and our first "real night out on the town in NZ". Before we got there, we stopped at the liquor store and I am happy to report that alcohol is a bazillion times cheaper than it is in Australia so we were really able to stalk up and drink liquor. We drank Smirnoff "double blacks" which I really hope are in the states because they honestly are delicious. The party started off small with the 3 boys who lived there and one of their girl friends and it kept growing and growing which was really cool and it let us meet a ton of his friends, who were all super nice! Then after the house party started to run out of alcohol, a big group of us walked to a bar in the middle of the city (which was nice and close to our hostel we found at the end of the night (: ) called Cassette and at this bar, the thing to "buy was a teapot" see the picture of me holding one, and with this teapot, you got to choose a fruity drink and then it came with shot glasses, and you got to drink from it!! Such a funny concept and we definitely enjoyed ourselves because, hey! were on vacation and why the hell not!

Josh, Soph and I 

All around it were signs: Do NOT enter Crater!

Day 6: Our Last Day! Auckland: April 28: Our last full day in NZ, so so sad!! We started the morning off early, although Sophie was pretty certain she was still drunk from the night before and I was definitely struggling with a painful hangover. In the morning, when the sun was kinda out and it wasn't too cold, we caught a bus from the city out about 20 minutes to Mt. Eden, another volcano that everyone told us would show us a beautiful view of Auckland and they were not wrong!! It was a struggle to get up the steep volcano but it was soo pretty!! and I got a really cool photo here of the crater! Sophie and I were kinda hoping that it would erupt, but that would have been very bad, and we would have died but it totally would have been worth it... and like my caption says, we were def not going to enter the crater and get killed by the lava!! Then, of course on our walk back to the bus stop rain rain rain came! So we decided that our outdoor adventures of Auckland were over with and that it was time we went inside. The french girl and Josh + his friends recommended that we go to this under the ground aquarium thing called Kelly Tarltons' so of course it was cold and rainy so we were keen to do it! the coolest part may have been the FREE bus that picked us up from the city to take us there, and once we got there we got to see sooo many cool things, penguins, sharks, nemo, dory, hundreds of lobsters, eels, starfish just tons and tons of fun underwater things! I mean LOOK AT THAT BUS, HAVE YOU HONESTLY SEEN ANYTHING COOLER? I THINK NOT!

Us at the top of the sky tower!

it was a really fun and dry activity but we finished around mid afternoon and were still exhausted from the previous night and days events so we crashed in the hostel for a while! Then before the rain kinda cleared up and it gave us the opportunity to go to the sky tower and watch the sun set!! Imagine kinda the exact thing as the Empire State Building but of course on a much smaller scale but still really really cool and we were set in thinking it was the perfect way to end our WONDERFUL BREAK. But the icing on the cake really was that we found the perfect local little restaurant hidden in Auckland that was packed, so we knew it was good and of course it did not disappoint and then.. we got our GELATO (: omg this time I got cheesecake flavor and a pancake with syrup flavored creation. Oh I will forever dream about that lovely lovely place! But as grandmothers and because our flight was at 7 am and the airport was actually a 30 minute bus ride from the actual city. We went to sleep and had to get up at 430 a.m. to catch the 5 o'clock bus to make sure we got there in time. This time THANK GOD- our flight was fine and we got back to Brizzy on friday with all day to relax.


The rest of break: It was really nice to be back with not a lot of people from college back yet, but then we started to get lonely and I am super glad everyone is back. Plus, getting to hear about everyone else's crazy adventures has been really cool, but in my opinion we definitely had the BEST TIME OUT OF EVERYONE!! I am always going to remember this trip!! check out my photos on facebook for images of everything I just described!


I honestly cannot believe mid semester break is over and that I really only have two more months in this wonderful wonderful country!! I am a little jealous that everyone back at home is getting out of classes now and summer is beginning but I would not trade this experience and the memories that I am making for anything!! This week also looks to be pretty fun, tonight is our first fresher rugby game against the all boys college, our poor boys are going to get killed, and then tomorrow we are celebrating CINCO DE MAYOOOO (: this weekend also we are going to an AFL game! (through my abroad program) so definitely looking forward for things to come!! MISS EVERYONE! Hopefully I didn't forget anything about the trip but boy this is loooooooong!

Welcome To The Danger Zone, Step Into The Fantasy

First of all, I want to apologize, it has been about two weeks since I last blogged and not that I haven't had a ton of things to do (which I have) but I have spent a ton of time doing absolutely nothing for the most part, laying out in the sun, "tanning" (a good joke for everyone who knows I just get little dots all over my body anyway), shopping (terrible I know but addicting cause of the awesome clothes here), and watch movies... so I apologize! But get ready for TONS AND TONS OF FUN BLOG! and photos!

Ville Wednesday was wonderful, [3/30] Went to a place called Curry Connection, and oh boy was the Indian food authentic and delicious! So So SOOO spicy that literally we all went through tons and tons of water bottles to just try and cool our mouths down but god it was so good. I love our little tradition, it really has been a ton of fun to try all the restaurants so far! getting really excited for the ones coming up.

Friday April 1st. (really? is it APRIL already? :( time is flying- I just want to stay here forever and ever) The only prank that was "played" on the college was that they put up signs saying 'Pancake Breakfast! 7 am!' all over the college the night before so apparently so many people showed up to the location and there was just a big sign that said... APRIL FOOLS. haha goofy I know but it was definitely good, people were keen for pancakes. I however went to sleep early the night before and missed all the signs so I was just upset that I missed it but didn't wake up for breakfast by accident anyway so I didn't miss much! (: Later in the afternoon myself, Sophie, Fi and Nat went shoppping shoppppping shoppppping. Oy vey. The day my wallet cried and cried, my poor credit card was so tired by the end he probably hates me. We took Nat's cute car Jimmy- he has a transformer metal sticker thing on the back SO COOL, to a mall called Chermside about 45 minutes away and went to towwwwwn. I mean I needed all the things I bought- sorta- so I don't feel that bad, but we all made a killing that day. I bought two dresses, one I wore for Fresher Dinner last night (I will get there) and one for Grace at Home this weekend, a cute little cocktail dress, a cute pair of black sandals, a shirt, and some other stuff ;) Soph and Fi got some cute stuff as well but Nat definitely won buying the most stuff, goood day overall! That night the people in my hall have a monthly pong tournament (established by the 8 Americans who live in the wing) and I participated... unfortunately my team lost it in the finals [we played a bracket style tournament in support of the March Madness bball- speaking of which. THE FINALS GAME SUCKED.] But overall good chill night/ chill ish of course, I mean pong is still a drinking game!

Saturday- nothing much, relaxed got work done, etc.

Sunday 3/3- CROSS COUNTRY RACEEE!!! Finally, a sport which I have become somewhat good at, running! Which is crazy but honestly running here is really relaxing since it's super flat and the weather is perfect- no humidity and always sunny! Getting back to the race, It was an Inter College Competition (ICC) event which meant that all the colleges participated. The girls ran a 4k while the boys ran a 5k. Short distances I know but still fun. I placed 17th out of 200 and was the 2nd finisher for my ENTIRE college! wooot. The girl who won was AN ANIMAL and I was like 2 and a half minutes behind her but hey! top 20! Then there was a relay race which only 4 people from each college competed in, and since I finished 2nd for emmanuel, they asked me to run in it! It was only a 1.5k so I wasn't tired from the 4k and I somehow ended up running the last leg which actually turned out to be really good because I was in a position that the teams ahead of us were too far ahead to catch and the teams behind were too far behind to catch me (or at least that's what they told me) so I just had to hold the position.. we ended up getting 4 of 8! So not too bad! Overall what a fun fun day! I also earned individual points in Emmanuel for participating and placing which apparently add up at the end and I can get a prize- but unfortunately I don't think I'll be here for that but whatever still very very cool! and then in typical Sunday fashion, did work!

Monday= eh? nothing special I wrote down in my notes... oh! walked around the Uni, here is a nice pic of one of the fountain/lakes that are just randomly all over! I promise I will take tons of photos of the campus before I leave- I just never have my camera on me!

Tuesday: 3/5 There was a formal dinner- which I didn't work this week (I usually work the Thursday ones cause it works out better with my schedule) and after the formal dinner we had a drum roll....
.... ....

Lindon sneaking in there, with Nicole, Liz and Me!

RUBIX CUBE EXCHANGE !! Some of you may be wondering what does that mean? Well, a rubix cube party is where you start off the night wearing the 6 different colors of a rubix cube and by the end of the night through trading with other people you end up wearing all one color and you have then been "solved" (: So here is a ridiculous picture of me before: I have on a white sock, blue skirt, red shirt, green bando, yellow necklace and orange arm sleeve. This was on the bus on the way there, a little ridiculous but a very very very fun theme. I decided before the night began that I was going to keep the blue skirt on and trade everything else for blue and I am happy to announce to everyone that Yes, I did get solved by the end of the night I was all in the lovely color Blue!

Kim, Nhat, and Me!

Here is a photo! I got rid of the hat about a minute later and got some blue arm band... go me. and Thank goodness that it was basically only people from emmanuel because I got all of my clothes back in the end... minus the green bando- traded that with some guy but if he wants to keep it all power to him!? ?? haha

Wednesday: had my first real assignment due! a nice 500 word essay, which I am pleased to say I think went really well and for my first assignment I approve! haha so weird that I didn't have anything due at all until April 6th but whatever! Ville Wednesday- went to Bangkok Delight! Yummy Yummy Yummy Thai foood. We were told that of all the Thai restaurants at the ville (there are like 5) this would be the best and honestly I was sooo pleased about my pad thai with mixed seafood. Got yummy prawns (what shrimp is called here) with calamari and oysters! yum! Definitely will be going back there as soon as we are done trying all of them however it was a pinch expensive so I would need to work more if I wanted to eat there more regularly!

Thursday: nothing too special except I went to dinner with one of my dad's business partners at his home!! His daughter also goes to Uni here and they live like 20 ish minutes away so it was a nice meal away from campus in a home! They were lovelyand eggplant parmesan was to die for! I really hope they decide to visit the states soon, I think it would be really cool to show them around d.c. I don't think I've ever shown people from a different country America. Totally want to!

Friday 3/8: Friday! Yay weekend, well technically my weekend starts at 1:30 on Thursdays but whatever! That night we had a Pajama Party Exchange with I think 5 other colleges? It was at Birdees, in the valley, which I had been to previously and had a fun time but the drinks are SUPER expensive so you have to predrink hard. Which we proceeded to do in order to not have to pay for alcohol at the bar. My "costume" which a picture would just make this blog super un classy, was a blank tank top and these very cute little boys super man boxer brief things. and lets just say I was one of the most covered up people at the event. I did see some lovely pjs though!

(:

Saturday: IFSA Butler Event Day #2! Hiked Mt. Tamborine, Saw two beautiful waterfalls, went through rain forests, and just forests, and then a wine tasting (: Such a gorgeous day! We took a two hour bus ride to it and woah, man Australia is BEAUTIFUL. it was another fun day to just get away from Emmanuel and spend some time with people from the program. Also, the wine tasting was delicious, although I did not end up buying any of the wine I definitely enjoyed the benefits! Such a crazy thing being able to drink here, I still can't get over it! Here is another lovely photo of the group!
Thank goooooodness we had a nice day, bad weather would have totally ruined this trip!

Fi, Nat, Andrea y Me!

Nothing special until... last night 3/12 FRESHER DINNNERRRRRRRRRRRR: many of you might be thinking huh? what is that? well let me tell you. It is an event where the "fresher" girls go on dates with the older boys to a location, and the "fresher" boys go on dates with the older girls to a separate location where there is TONS OF FREE ALCOHOL and then once everyone is "fed" and nice and drunk we all meet up at a location aka a bar and drink the night away more! Everyone gets pretty dressed up and into it as well with is really fun and they really get into the mingling part, it's just so everyone gets to know everyone in the college. So so much fun. The fresher girls/older guys ended up going to this little pizza place for dinner and drinks which was outdoors and lovely and then we all ended up meeting at Hotel LA downtown for more fun! oh shambles ensued, but then again when doesn't that happen! Here is a photo before- I am too lazy to upload a real photo of mine that I took which shows off my lovely outfit but I still like this one!


Cannot wait for next weekend!!! NEWWWWW ZEALAND! woah this was long! ta ta for now (: xox

Sorry for Partying and Maybe Some School Work.. Maybe..

Sorry I haven't updated in a while, honestly just forgot/haven't had time/ been busy/ been lazy/ been lazy x1000 (: But I just finished up a ton of work and I am in a typing mood so here goes nothin!

Me + Lindon after he got back- TRASHED

I left off somewhere arounddd winning in tennis (see how I mentioned it again- not that I'm proud of it or anything or want to brag- false, I do) Well later that day the boys of Emmnanuel had their own exclusive event called Big Game Fishing Contest- BGFC for short. They all dressed up in women's clothing ... of course... and each brought entire sacks of goon [boxed wine] for themselves. Yes an entire slapping of the bag for one person and they went to an undisclosed location which the girls were not told about, or anyone for that matter- safe? debatable and probably got hazed and drank all day and did activities... needless to say they all left looking ridiculous in women's clothing at 1230. When they all stumbled back 100% drunk at 430 covered in food dye, clothes completely ruined and 100% out of control I knew it had to be a good day- It was just hilarious to watch them all stumble in and see what had become of their outfits/faces/everything. Then as per tradition they all "showered" not really though because they were all so drunk that even doing that was tough and changed into SUITS and went to dinner in the dinning hall. One person after filling up his plate full of food and got his drinks just proceeded to completely drop his tray in the middle of the hall because he was too drunk to hold it- another peed in the corner ... You could say the higher up people were NOT TOO KEEN about this and therefore the girls' equivalent called Ladies Day has been postponed. Which actually stinks because it sounds like it would be a very fun event.. and I doubt/ hope no one would get as ridiculous/ out of control than the boys... but then again.. .. (:

monday nothing too thrilling occurred that I wrote down was even memorable.. thanks 3/21/11 ?

Tuesday 3/22 however was memorable. It was another night of formal dinner except tonight- as is formal dinner tradition one wing each week gets to go early and drink with the president of the college and other high adults of the college and gets fed yummy appetizers etc. This week it was my wing! Also what the wing leaders- yogi and michelle- organized turned it into a mini dating thing- Your date was the person with the room above or below you and you were supposed to hang out with them during formal dinner and "date them". Well haha mine turns out to be Will , the American from my program who lives in my wing so I already knew him AND his girl friend has actually been here for the past two weeks visiting him so you could say it would have been awkward but no, it was actually really fun and formal dinner was quite yummy. Such a fun tradition.

Wednesday ehh- hate wednesdays my class from 5-7 BUT ville wednesdays makes up for it and this time we went to a malaysian food place, which was deliciousssssss. I got this tofu stir fry veggies thing with a mongolian barbecue sauce yum. probably my favorite place so far! and of course ice cream after well ice cream I mean gelato! so good, such a fun tradition and then after dinner around 9 the college hosted an american idol type competition called "college idol" original I know, and so we went to see the girl who was representing our college... I was not impressed having heard her sing before however she ended up winning somehow... not sure how that happened but we only stayed to cheer her on and then left but apparently she was the best of the worst. But definitely props to her for being able to get up in front of tons of people and sing!

Thursday: NIGHT 1 OF LIZ'S BIRTHDAY FEST/WEEKEND MADNESS Again with the birthdays you say? and I agree there have been so many but this one was extra special because she has become one of my good friends here and she was turning 21 and I don't have classes on fridays and! I hadn't gone out in a while so it was time to rageeee! We ended up going to the exchange that night with a couple of colleges who I cannot remember that this time who they were but we went to a place called Fridays, which was actually a quite classy place but had the best drink- which I was informed about prior to going called Red Rum. It is like a jack and coke but a different type of rum, a sweeter kind of rum and oh em gee it was delicious! very very very fun night was had by all, including the pre birthday girl who's real birthday was saturday/friday night at mid-night!

Sophie, Nhat, Nicole + Me at Fridays!

Friday: day of recovering ish plus part 2 of LIZ'S BIRTHDAY WEEKEND MADNESS! Tonight she chose to go to a very very seedy place called Down Under or referred to everyone else as Dunder... It is known to be seedy and dirty.. aka the best place to turn 21. It was a group of us about 10 and it ended up being fun, we found this platform near some tables and were dancing there all night long until the clock struck 12 when we just went crazy. Then me and sophie and two of our guy friends decided Dunder was just too seedy to handle [old men would literally just sit at the tables and stare at us dancing, like 50 year old men. ew?] so we moved on to our favorite place called the EMBASSSSSSY and drank and danced the night away (:

Saturday: My second rugby game experience! Sophie and I were invited by our fav Kiwi (New Zealander) downstairs to go to the game and cheer on the Reds as they took on the Cheetahs, very odd names I know but it was still really really fun! Minus the part where our seats were in the blazing down sun the entire time so when at the end of the 80 minutes at the end of the game we were literally covered in sweat.. but eh! Then that night we really celebrated Liz's 21st because it was her actual birthday. We started at the Friday's bar again because they gave her a deal that if she brought 20 people with her the bar would give her a free $100 bar tab! Which she then proceeded to spend on us nicely (: but once the bar tab was gone we immediately left (oops) and club hopped the night away. Did I mention that for her bday Sophie, Nhat and I made jello shots for all of us to pre-drink with? lets just say it was a very deadly night

Sunday 27: We literally all just layed around in the middle of the quad on sheets sleeping all day long. I have never seen 10 people so physically dead and exhausted and hung over at one time. it was honestly the most ridiculous thing and woah I definitely don't think I would be able to survive that again. But I mean minus when I turn 21 though, then it's definitely on (: But at 4 pm my wing had a soccer game vs another one of the wings which I participated in just to make my body move and to do something minus laying around and doing work all day. It turned out to be a really fun time, most of us just joked around and even did some dives when the ball was on the complete other side of the field just to make fun of prof soccer players. Although my team did not win 5-4 (we only stopped because everyone got super hungry at 530) it was a ton of fun, GO MEIKY! and thus another week came to an end!

WEEK 5
really? for realz?

monday: nothing. boring. picked classes for miami because drum roll:

Tuesday: scheduling day! well not till 10 pm because I had to wait till 8 am Miami time- meh so clearly all day I was extremely nervous because scheduling is always stressful, and yeah. But thank goodness 10 pm came and went and I got everything that I needed/wanted sooo yay go me! (:

Wednesday: nothing happened today really except ville wednesday! tonight we went to a place called Curry Connection and yum yum yum i got the best curry thing ever with garlic naan and yummy yoghurt sauce and yum yum ice cream after. great day and tomorrow = an exchange so it should be A GREAT WEEKEND COMING (:

miss everyone xo-

Smell like a man, man. Rugby, play like one too!

Every week here is action packed honestly going back home is going to be sad because I'm going to miss all the funtivities that happen constantly here- plus all the people who have made so far in australia pretty amazinggg!

The last time I blogged I believe it was Saturday the 12... it is now the 20th so a bunch to catch up on!

Sunday 13- ehh I don't think anything too exciting happened, of all days sundays are the most boring here because everyone is just doing work in prep for the week. Which I guess does make sense because due we are here to go to uni but honestly... it's lame- there should be something fun. Well actually I take it back Sunday's here are "Hawaiian themed" so we all wear tropicalish clothing and have a bbq for lunch with yummy food but thats not a funtivity!

Monday 14- Ben from downstairs turned 21. wooooah was that a mess for him, and most of all of us who celebrated with him. I didn't go out of the college to the bars with him because I have an early class on tuesday's but wow he got so so drunk. Ben is one of the americans who is not here with my program but one through his school, Dickinson, so clearly unlike the Australian's turning 21 is a huge deal. Talking to him the next morning he does not remember a thing past 7 pm so I guess that's a great sign. Also every monday the entire college comes together for a weekly meeting called "pound" I think I may have mentioned it before in previous postings but this week's pound was really fun because they finally got the slide show to work and let's just say they had many scandalous photos of tons of people hooking up since the beginning of school. That always just makes me laugh.

Tuesday: Ash turned 22! or as he was referring to it, the first anniversary of his 21st birthday. I like this better as well. Ash is one of the exec members of the college, I think he's VP but I could be wrong, and he's become someone who I have become pretty good friends with so tonight I had to go out and celebrate! We actually ended up having a surprise event anyway where they rented out a bar for us so it worked out and we got free transportation there! (never get it back though because that would be too hard to organize and they would have to waste money paying the bus drivers to just sit outside whatever bar we go to) We went to me and Sophie's favorite bar called Embassy. (We previously visited this heavenly place on our last stop during pub crawl during O Week) and what makes it our favorite place are the Sex on the Beach Jugs for $10. which allow you to consume oodles amounts of alcohol for a relatively cheap price compared to everything that we have found down under! We all ended up having a great great night that for some rather than others went later but all and all I know Ash definitely had a fun time and celebrating birthdays are the best so it was extremely fun... here is a pic of the 3 of us drinking our fav drink!

Wednesday 16: happpy happppy HALF birthday to me! I have miraculously made it halfway through my 20th year! (crazy I know, but then again I am soo close to that magic 21) Class was okay, actually no I take that back- I hate hate hate wednesdays in regards to classes because I only have one class for the entire day and it's at 5 pm and waiting to go to class, when it's really a class that I am not too interested in anyway IS LAME. But as is Wednesday's tradition we tried our next restaurant at the ville. It was a japanese place called Edamame! soo sooo goood, I got this wonderful noodle dish with tons of fresh veggies, tofu, and the most delicious spices ever, and it was served to me on a wonderful wooden board? Which was quite silly actually because when I tried to pour soy sauce onto the noodles it was a flat board so it kinda went anywhere but ehh! still yummy. Not my favorite place though and not exactly sure if I would ever go back- we will have to see. Tonight also was someone else's birthdays but there is only so many times I can celebrate so Isa I am sorry that I did not party for your 20th birthday but I know that you definitely had a good time and that is all that counts. I also did not go out on Wednesday because the next day was ST. PATTTTYS DAYYY!

ST. PAT'S DAY! 17- Arguably one of the most fun holiday's on the American calendar and boy did us Americans really do it justice this year! Not sure if I mentioned this or not but I got a job here as a waitress for the weekly formal dinners at the college and the other events that the college may host so at 2 pm after my classes had finished I went to set up for it- let me just say that minimum wage here for someone who is of the age of 20 is 20 dollars. It is outrageously AMAZING so set up took a while because we had to arrange the tables in the right direction and polish the silver utensils because tonight was the academic awards banquet for the people in the college who had gotten gpa's of 6 and above. (I think that the equivalent of their 6 is like a 3.5? But you cannot quote me on that, I honestly have no idea- I just know that it is out of 7 so in all my classes I am striving to get either 6s or 7s) So after setup I went back to an American's room and hung out with them before having to go back at 530 to serve the dinner and woah were they having a WONDERFUL TIME. Having started drinking at 11 then were all sloshed but it was still fun to hang with them- they put some of their green juice (I call it juice for lack of any idea what type of alcohol was in it, and because it was green it kinda looked like juice) in a nice water bottle for me and told me to drink it after I got off work. Anyways at 530 I worked the dinner until unfortunately 1030, which was good the amount of money I made but it took away precious partying on St. Pat's day time! Whatever! After I got out I dressed in my best green outfit and hit the town! Caught up with all of them at the local irish bar (the Pig 'n' Whistle) and celebrated the wonderful holiday in style!

Friday- tough to get up day! but I don't have any uni on friday so it worked out for the best! (: had a lazy day of shopping and walking around Brisbane until after dinner when a few of us girls (me morgan and soph) went with some of the Aussie boys to the Red v. Rebels Rugby Union game in downtown Brisbane! Tickets were cheap because we are students and because you buy tickets online and print them out you can get free transportation on the public transportation system if you just flash the ticket! So that was awesome. The game started at 740 and honestly was probably the best sporting event that I have ever been to/watched. Rugby Union is 80 minutes of NONSTOP ACTION, and when I say nonstop I mean LITERALLY NO STOPS. No timeouts, no tv commercials, no injury time- yes there is a half time but that was rather short. And they just play- it was honestly the coolest thing to watch and sitting there with a 5 dollar beer in my hand watching sports was heaven. Plus, one of the guys was sitting next to me explaining to me the rules the entire time so I wasn't lost which was super nice of him. The Brisbane team- The Reds ended up killing the other team 53-3 so although it wasn't an excting game for someone who watches rugby, I throughly enjoyed it! After we just went back to college and hung out, pretty chill night.

Saturday 19- ehh nothing too crazy happened yesterday other than it down poured all day :( which stinks but still got some fun bonding time in with the people in the college so I was pretty happy about that.

Today: rain as well but this morning at 730 I played tennis for emmanuel and won my singles game giving us just the amount of points to beat Union College (our opponent this morning) Yay, it was so much fun to go out and play tennis, plus I got to wear the cool Emmanuel College singlet that all the athletes wear so win win win.

So not too much fun themed stuff this week but should be a fun week coming up I hope!

Miss you all (:

One Word To Describe Australia- AWESOME

Woah a toooon of fun stuff has happened since the last time I updated this thing, so hopefully I can remember it all and with good details!

Soo I left off that I was waiting for class to be at 5 pm which was ehh- the class doesn't seem like it will be too hard just the whole missing the free dinner thing is a bummer BUT a group of us have started to go out to dinner one night a week (I convinced them all to go out Wednesdays so I wouldn't have to eat alone- smart I know) so when I get to a week from this wednesday later in the blog I will talk about our first big night out! So Wednesday the 2nd nothing really exciting happened...

Thursday March 3- ehh average day, had my two morning classes then I am done for the weekend at 130! wooot, I love not having classes on fridays, hopefully I can continue the trend back at Miami for the fall? that would be awesome... but I was sad because technically I was missing out on Green Beer Day back at school and from the looks of everyone's pictures it was a huge day! From George Clooney shooting his movie on campus to lots and lots of green beer consumption. Eh honestly I guess it's okay because IM IN AUSTRALIA HAVING A BLAST ANYWAY! and I will definitely participate in GBD next year (:

Friday March 4: the day of all days. The first all college exchange was held at the college named Cromwell. Our cheer about them is CROM-WHO? CROM WHO? silly I know but when you get a bunch of people yelling it over and over in a small controlled environment where lots of people are excited to be cheering against them it really gets the crowd going. but back to the exchange, which in australian just means an a social with another college, so an all college exchange would be a social with all 10 OF THE COLLEGES AKA INSANITY. The theme of this one was things you would find in a toy box! clever I thought and I had never done that theme before so I was pretty excited! However it rained pretty hard all day friday, that did not stop us from going out and having a blast though! Me, Morgan and Sophie decided to be pieces of a puzzle and the puzzle made up the wonderful country we are currently residing in- see the featured picture! I drew the country on a huge piece of cardboard, then we painted on the australian flag and cut the country into 3 pieces (plus tasmania was attached on the bottom of sophie's section- people in aussie were concerned about it so we added it) and then we stole some serran wrap from the dinning hall to wrap the pieces to make sure that the paint did not wash off in the rain! WHICH IT DID NOT! it turned out to be such a fun night! and my puzzle piece survived, it is hanging in my room- yay middle australia, I believe I got the bush/outback! part of the country...

saturday was nothing special, we were all struggling the next morning from the night before and just hung out- I believe some shopping may or may not have happened, which is never good for my bank account but wonderful for my wardrobe! Then that night a few of us who were still hurting from the night before- aka all the americans because we clearly cannot keep up with the aussies, they drink everyone under the table decided to watch (with one of our new zealand buds) their highest grossing movie to come out of NZ called BOY. ... ... ... let me just say it was no hollywood movie and it was like watching Napoleon Dynamite but worse x10000 bahaha those silly Kiwis!

Sunday March 6: clean up australia day!! A few of us from the college, like 40 of us, signed up to go at 9 am and help out by volunteering with flood relief stuff and picking up trash around the community. It was a really nice thing to do and they rewarded us with free UQ hats and free lunch! basically you say the word free in front of anything that I find appealing and you can probably get me there pretty easily. It was also really eye opening because we got to see all the damage that had been done to the country and let me say those floods certainly were nasty! Then for the first time all semester I actually did some homework! I know, you guys are super proud of me! I am proud of myself as well, but I mean hey I guess I am actually here to go to college- who knew this was not just one big vacation! kidding mom and dad!

Monday: week 2 of classes begins! and thankfully I only have one class on mondays, international journalism.. (: the focus of the class= American Journalism so if I don't do well in this class or get anything less than a 7 (which is an A, they do their grades on a 1-7 scale where 5 is passing...) it will be extremely embarrassing not only for me but America in general so clearly I cannot let that happen or suffer the consequences! But that night we had our weekly meeting in the college (called POUND) cause our mascot is the blue bulldogs! Which was really fun, the exec works hard to put on a nice show for us which is really appreciated! After classes finished, a group of us americans- Will, Nyat, Me, Morgan, and Sophie went to the Modern Gallery of Art in downtown Brisbane- it was free of course and wooooah it was the coolest thing ever. I will post photos soon but it had some of the most fun exhibits that I have ever been too including a room entirely filled with balloons that you could just run through for hours, a "cube" shaped room that was extremely trippy- look for that photo on my fb- and other cool exhibits including one where they will send a postcard for free. aka home look out for a postcard addressed to from the future! (: such a fun free day that I will definitely not forget in Briz-Vegas.

Tuesday: my yucky class day, which I got through, barely, it was tough I forgot what going to 3 classes felt like! but then at night we had our first all college sporting event! SWIM CARNIVALLLLL! which is code for a swim meet against all the colleges. It was really fun, everyone painted them selves in all blue and wore ridiculous costumes- I of course did not paint myself in all blue but definitely had some war paint to show off. We aren't the best at the sporting events and that was clearly proven, but we definitely have the most spirit and cheer out of any of the 10 colleges which was really exciting. A few of my friends swam in the event so it was fun to cheer them on! We ended up coming in 5th for the girls and 4th for the boys, so not too bad but clearly there were some races we could just not compete in- I'm told our college is good at rugby, which i am STOKED to watch. Then since we had missed dinner for the carnival, we all ran to the vill (village down the road with food places) and went to the famous kebab shop! aka the only place that is open past 9 pm any night aka drunk munchies! yummmmm! the hummus and the pita and the falafel were just win win wins!

Wednesday March 10: yuck as I said in my previous post, wednesdays are not my friends for the sole reason that I don't have class till 5 pm! and then I miss dinner! BUT this Wednesday we started our vill restaurant crawl that I mentioned above and went to a place called A Salt and Battery! Which was the best fish and chips place I have ever been too. Since there ended up being 8 of us we were able to get the group "banquet" style which consisted of, 2 huge chips spreads (when I say chips i mean FRIES), 4 full salads (greek, house, cesear, and some other yummy one) and then the night's fish special which was salmon! and that was cooked in 3 ways, grilled, breaded and fried! soo yummy and for only 12 dollars a person! which ended up being a ton a food. plus the place was a b.y.o. (yes marissa I guess they exist outside of philly) so we enjoyed some nice wine and got yummmmy ice cream afterwards! god this countries food is DELICIOUS! so it made my wednesday alright!

Thursday: another all college exchange!! This time there was no theme unfortunately but it was still massive and a ton of fun! it was located at a bar in the valley which is the club scene of Briz-Vegas, and not too far away from the college, which is good for the taxi ride back when you have a ton of people to split it with! It was at a bar called Birdees which is 3 floors of bars and dance floors, and they are really cool and usually sponsor a lot of the exchanges which happen on campus. There ended up being soo many people there but it gave us a chance to meet people from other colleges and I ended up meeting a ton of new people who hopefully I will be able to hang out with more in the future! yay meeting people, especially aussie's who like my accent, which is funny because I am dying to have theirs!

Friday: nothing too special happened, just recovery from the exchange and no class (: a few of us went to the local mall and purchased some items for the wonderful holiday which is approaching of ST. PATRICK'S DAY- which I am told they don't really celebrate here but honestly that is no excuse and we have all decided that we will be those tacky American's who celebrate it (:

Saturday March 12 aka today! PROBABLY ONE OF THE MOST EPIC DAYS I HAVE HAD SO FAR IN AUSTRALIA. we got up at 6 am to make the 645 bus because today was a trip day through my IFSA BUTLER program. (We do one trip a month as a big group that is paid for in our IFSA fees) and today we went to Morton Islanddd!! Morton Island, for those who don;t know, is the 3rd largest sand island in the entire world and let me tell you it was RIDICULOUS. we were able to go sand boarding/tobogganing down the steepest hill of all time, face first. omg what a rush, it was unlike anything that I have ever done before in my life and possibly one of the coolest things ever, you don't just go down, you go down FACE FIRST! and get up to huge speeds! woah what a rush. Also to get to these wonderful hills, you have to take a 2 hr long ferry then have to drive in what look like tanks on a sand road through mountains, it was definitely an experience but one that I am glad I participated in- Also I went down the hill many times, but walking back up it to return the board was a bitchhhhh. Then we had lunch, lovely Subway provided by IFSA Butler. did you know subway is the largest fast foodish chain in the world. there is a subway every block it seems in australia. many more than mcdonalds which was extremely surprising to me. Also they have the 7 dollar foot long, which is funny because the 5 dollar footlong song definitely sounds better and is nicer on my wallet! Then after lunch we went snorkeling around old ship wrecks and open water. I can say with confidence and people can back me up that I did it! Not that I wasn't secretly having a panic attack after we saw 2 sharks just casually swim by, but it was really really cool and I'm glad I decided to not sit out and miss it. The fish were gorgeous and the water was so warm. yay summer. Then we chilled on the beach for a while and then rode the ferry back, grabbed dinner just in time to be able to eat in the dinning hall before it closed, and then took a loooong shower- After being at the beach all day long sand gets everywhere I've realized and you just need to embrace it. Also after dinner tonight we/ all the americans sat down together and started to plan out our trips for the next couple of weekends. It looks like we are going to do a two day one night camping trip to Fraiser Island, and then spring break in NZ (: which i am sooo stoked about.

ahhh I am having such a great time here, the next couple of days look pretty chill thank goodness but you never know about Australia they go big!

miss all of you xoxo!

Hot Hot Heat!

Wooooza it's like 96 degrees outside! Not having aircon (as they call it in aussie land) is starting to become a real pain. But all the "ra's" have it in there rooms so I have been mostly just hanging out in their rooms (: I have a ton of catching up to do on here, it's been a while since I last posted and a ton of stuff has happened!

Okay so I believe I left off at Market Day. The freshman/fresher dance. Oy vey that was a mess! The dance itself was actually very well choreographed however there was one move where everyone had to get on the ground and like do this thing which I couldn't even begin to explain however there being like 120 freshers and the stage being much smaller than they anticipated not everyone could do the move so us stuck in the middle/back (yes that was totally on purpose) just ended up squatting awkwardly. The song we danced to was Usher's More. [aka I can never hear that song or boom boom boom again because it will bring back oh so wonderful O Week memories] We also had to wear our lovely BLUE (kill me if I get another blue shirt, the colors of Emmanuel College are BLUE and WHITE - of course they are) Fresher shirts so everyone could see our awesomeness. But the fair turned out really cool actually there are like a bazillion societies for every major and a club for every kind of activity that you could ever think or even imagine about joining. I guess there are perks to going to an enormous school! I opted to join the Quest Club, a club for international students were they arrange trips to places around Aussie for you + activities that would normally be extremely touristy... hopefully that works out! I was also extremely tempted to join the wine and cheese society however the admission fee was 10 Aussie Dollars and I could think of a couple of things I would rather be spending my money on instead of that. After market day we were all still kind of hurting from the pub crawl the night before so we just layed out on the quad, took a glorious nap then put on our lovely UGLY clothes (Finally!!) and had a Ugly Dinner. But actually they grouped it together with another event which was pretty cool called "Global Dinner". When you first walked into the room you picked from a box the name of a country and you were assigned to go sit at that country's table (Or lack of). I unfortunately chose Afghanistan and was left without a table or any silverware. There were other countries such a the US, Aussie, England who had lavish seating and expensive cutlery and other countries such as Sudan and Brazil who had ehh okay stuff I guess. Then they served us the portion that would be alloted to that country as if you were actually living there and while we ate they read out facts about world poverty and health, and being Afghanistan we even had a representative from the American table come and sit with us for a while, how appropriate and funny I guess. Food wise my table (or lack of) ended up with 3 tortillas for the 10 of us to split so we were over joyed when they announced at the end of the event that you could actually go eat dinner now.. :P Then after the dinner we had a talent portion where people had been signing up all week and some people did really good things, and some people like my silly wing (they call the different halls in the college wings) which's nickname is Mickey did a 30 second dance to "Hey Mickey" but one girl sang and it was VERY legit. My favorite act consisted of two silly Fresher boys doing a GLORIOUS DANCE to "Sexy Can I" I was extremely impressed by how well they actually did. Afterwards people just hung out and drank and some went off to the bars but taking a taxi is just a silly waste of money especially if I didn't want to be out that long so a few of us just drank around the college!

Thursdayyy Feb. 24: Toga Toga Toga! Today was the last day we were woken up, at a lovely 7 am! Finally a somewhat normal time ish, or at least normal for those who are going to have an 8 am sometime this semester which I am not! And we all had to put on our Fresher shirts so they could take a Fresher picture! Yay memories! Then we were told they wanted to take an arial shot of us so we went under one of the balconies and after snapping a couple of photos out of no where came a lovely HUGE shower of water and then flour all over our lovely shirts! After being directly hit with tons and tons of flour I quickly ran to the shower in an attempt to not only get it off my body because it's not a pleasant feeling to have wet flour all over you but because I didn't want my shirt to get ruined- I think it was okay but thank goodness I wasn't picking flour out of my hair all day like some girls!! Nice way to start out the morning. After that a few of us went into Brisbane City to see some of the sights and do a little shopping. The clothes here, gosh they are so darn cute! Brisbane is a very nice city as well (You can see it by looking at my fb photos). When we got back in time for dinner they announced the night's activity... a toga party! But first there was going to be a wedding! Two people at the beginning of O-Week had been given the Fresher names of Bride and Groom, so clearly they had to get married. IT was cute, the exec had set up a nice pavilion for a ceremony and the people who were given the names mom and dad walked the bride and groom down the aisle respectively , just a fun and silly overall event- but getting back to TOGA! Having seen animal house many times clearly I was VERY excited (: But I did not come as prepared as some people having multiple sheets that go on my bed so I was forced to borrow a purple fitted sheet which just ended up looking like a hot mess in the way I pinned it but it still looked a little silly, oh well this was probably the most drunk night for everyone so no one really cared that much! That is the bow from the groom's outfit which I managed to borrow to make my outfit that much more complete. Sexy I know.

FRIDAY: SLEEEEEEEPT IN. Well sort of, we were all going to the water park Wet 'n' Wild! At 9 am sharp! so I got more sleep than normal but not enough that in the states would be acceptable! However Wet 'n' Wild was probably one of the best water parks that I have been too in a while, it had so many slides, a wave pool, and a roller coaster type thing which let you free fall while spinning for 50 seconds. Such a fun fun day and I didn't manage to get any sunburn at all! yay go me! That night however we/ my group of people/ decided to take it easy because the next day we decided that we were going to go to COOLANGATTA Beach in the Gold Coast to see the 2011 QuickSilver Surfing Competition and Kelly Slater!!! We figured we could just go for a night and beach during the day, ah Aussie and all the wonderful life possibilities that come with extremely easy public transportation!

Saturday: took the train to COOLANGATTA and immediately dropped our stuff off at the hostel, which was nicer than the one I had previously stayed at before in Surfers Paradise because it was a "YHA" which stands for like Youth Hostel Association and is a national thing around Australia so they are known for being nicer but not expensive! yay! And we hit the beach, called Kirra. So SO SO pretty, probably the best beach I have ever been too, the sand was SO NICE as well as it wasn't too crowded because everyone was watching the competition. After lying on the beach a few of us decided to walk to the competition where it was a mad house and I may or may not have seen Kelly Slater surf (; Surfing is really cool if you are good at it or have any balance at all but after doing it that one time in Sydney I learned that maybe my skills lie elsewhere! After that we just layed on the beach practically all day until dinner which we decided to venture out and found this lovely Mexican Restaurant Called Montezumas! What made it even better was that we were allowed to get Margs while we ate the Mexican food, oh this wonderful country! and then we all got back to the hostel and like immediately crashed due to the loooong day at the beach.

Sunday: some of us left early to get back in time to meet all the second and third years who were finally moving into the college, while others stayed at the beach to get in another day. I left early and thank goodness I did because my wing is one of those who tons of second years live in and I definitely wanted to meet new people! Plus, tomorrow (monday was my first day of the semester! and I had to get all prepared for school!) All the girls in the hall moved in, and the boys down stairs as well and it was really fun getting to meet them and helping them and stuff. They are all groups of friends who lived together in different wings last year who are now living with small groups in this wing. You can tell in my hall at least there are two distinct groups but I seem to have settled into a cute one with Two girls from Australia, One from Malaysia and One from America who after coming here for fall semester last year decided to full on transfer and attend here full time. SO COOL. They are all great and two of them have cars, which hopefully will come in handy. Plus they are all friends with a lot of people and boys around the college which will definitely help me meet more and more people! That night a few of us/ mostly the second and third years in the college decided to go to the Red Room (the on campus bar) and have a couple of drinks and get to know eachother. Yes, Aussie's even drink on Sunday NIGHTS! I didn't stay out that late though because MONDAY MORNING I HAD CLASS

Monday! First Day of Classes! I had one. from 10-1150. and then i was done for the day bahaha! That is my mondays! It was international journalism and we spent a majority of the class talking about American Journalism so I am not too worried about that class AT ALL (: But for the rest of the day I just hung out and walked around the college, tried to find the buildings that my other classes were in for the rest of the week and get errands done! Later our college had it's first "exchange" of the semester, meeting we met another college at a bar and had a social with them. It was craazy the amount of people that were there and how crazy of party-ers they are. I know I keep repeating this fact over and over but honestly I am still impressed EVERY SINGLE TIME! I had fun though but had to be back early because I had a 9 am and a 4 pm the next day

Tuesday: My 9 am is the class that I will be dropping. Actually I did drop it. Before even coming to the Uni they told us that we should only be taking 4 classes but I signed up for 5 and figured I would drop one, well I found it. Television and Popular Culture, Miami wasn't giving me course credit, just hours for the class and after watching an episode of the Jersey Shore in class and discussing it, I knew it was the class that I could live without. However my 4 pm class, Mass Media and Society, looks to be extremely fun and interesting! Thank goodness it is going to get out early every week though because 4-550 is a terrible class time, and formal dinners are on tuesdays at 6 so I don't want to be late and miss out on those! Speaking of that, we had one last night- ehh not bad! There were just so many people crammed into the dinning hall at one time that it got very hot very quickly so by the time that they were supposed to give speeches, everyone was very anxious to get out of there!! Fun night activity though, a group of us sat in the airconditioned common room and made friendship bracelets and just played cards. They had early classes today (Wed.)

I don't have class till 5 pm today ! yuck! 5-650. SUCH A GROSS CLASS TIME. plus it will mean I will miss dinner! I guess it's finally time for me to buy my first meal off campus! good I guess. But then it's free week at the gym so a group of us are doing pole dancing at 730. I will definitely update you guys on how that goes!

Well that's it from down under. If you have any questions or anything message me!

stay cool!

O Weeeeeek Madness!!

Wow I cannot believe how much has happened since last time I updated this and it was only last Thursday, not even a week ago! Soo on friday the 18th a bunch of us traveled down to the Gold Coast to a WONDERFUL WONDER WONDERFUL place called Surfers Paradise! (check out my photos on the book, god I want to permanently stay there and never ever go back! [speaking of which I am actually going back this weekend because it was really cheap and gorgeous]

At Surfers Paradise: It was a group of 10 us (people who are also doing IFSA Butler with me) got up early in the morning and then took the hour and 15 minute train down to a cute little city. We found a hostel named Backpackers in Paradise, which was relatively cheap for how nice it was- arguably thought it was my first hostel but I thought it was quite nice. Then we immediately went straight to the beach, I slip, slap, slopped (the official slogan of putting on sunscreen in Aussie) on tons and tons of sunscreen and just laid on the beach for at least 4 hours going in occasionally to the perfectly temperature water to cool off when needed. I can totally get how people just sit there for tons and tons of time because of how nice it is, I never wanted to leave. Then around 5 we all headed back to the hostel to shower and get ready because we had signed up for a 5 bar pubcrawl around the city so that we could really experience the Surfers Paradise nightlife. It was relatively inexpensive ($20 for 5 bars and a free drink at each one plus dinner was served) God had such a fun night. The club scene, at least there (I have not yet had time to check out Bris-Vegas' yet due to O-Week) was pretty cool and they really know how to have a good time. By the time the pubcrawl was over we all stumbled back to the hostel where a guy who was staying there was putting on a local concert in the hostel- people who can play guitar really well and sing honestly have a gift. It was wonderful and the perfect way to end such a great day. The next morning two of us left early because I wanted to get back for O WEEEEEEEEK!

Definition of O Week: Stands for Orientation Week and it is for the new "freshers" who are moving in to the different colleges on campus- a week long and you do tons and tons of fun activities and it's a way to get them to all meet each other and get introduced to college life in an awesome way!

So Saturday when I got back to Emmanuel I was immediately given my "freshman nickname" (everyone has one and they are written on a construction workers' hat which you are to wear AT ALL TIMES NO MATTER WHAT OR THE UPPER CLASS LEADERS WILL HAZE YOU- mine is Bo Peep - no idea why. How they choose the names is that the executive leaders all go out to a bar one night with a list of the new freshman and their pictures and drink and come up with all the fun names. Here is a lovely photo of me and my hat, out a bar- on the other side it says BoPeep - these are just other "freshers" living it up at a bar one night. so much fun!

So after all the freshers checked in we had like a convocation type ceremony where they individually called us up one by one in front of everyone and made us sign a welcome contract, mind you while doing this we were in our "robes" which picture harry potter and those are the robes. It felt like graduation, especially after the president of the college said, "Welcome to the first day of the rest of your lives..." Thank goodness I didn't trip on the stage, that would made a great first impression on everyone.. The freshers are cute, but a ton of them are 17 so it is a little weird especially because they can't drink and a lot of the activities that we do at night revolve around drinking. But as any typical college student in the states they always find a little way around it. Later that night we "bush danced in the parking lot" it was just a huge excuse for everyone to drink for the first time and then dance around doing aboriginal dances... like I wrote before this aboriginal stuff must be nonsense because when they broke out the makarena i called fowl on that being legit.

So after a night of drinking you could kinda say I was struggling, especially the next morning when I was woken up at 5 am by the leaders pounding on all of our doors and blasting music in the hallways. We were ordered to get us and led into the quad where they were ready for us to go on a little morning run followed by push ups in the wet grass and then we learned some cheers. Needless to say it was a little harder for some of the freshers than others and they left some evidence in the trees during the run.. But a nice way to start out the day I guess.

The next day (Sun. Feb 20) We just had meetings in the morning and afternoon about the regulations of the college, thank goodness though being an international and 20 I did not have to attend anything other than the one where they talked about playing sports for Emmanuel (they do like a Harry Potter thing where the colleges play against each other) After Dinner we all headed (hats and all to a local pub called the Pig 'N" Whistle where we were treated to lovely drink specials and lots of fun traditions + activities that the execs had in store for us. (That is the picture above) It is so weird to be able to buy drinks in a bar legally!

The next morning (Mon. Feb 21) I was promptly woken up again during the wee hours of the morning but thankfully this time it was at 6 am and after doing a nice morning run we were taught a dance which we are performing tomorrow at the local activities fair. God kill me, I am the most awk dancer as everyone knows but! IN AUSTRALIA AT THE CLUBS AND BARS THEY DON'T BUMP AND GRIND THEY DO 7TH GRADE CIRCLE DANCING SO IT IS JUST ALL AWKWARD! So I guess it's a win win win for me!! After that we had some free time to go back to sleep! woot and then we had a fun meeting about "Expectations at Emmanuel" but being a wonderful international student I did not have to go to it because they were like you are a 3rd year in college, you know how to behave or we hope! So the internationals went to the "International Orientation" god what a joke- it was again a meeting that I probably did NOT need to attend!  but whatever, after the meeting we broke up into wings and all of us went ugly clothes shopping in order to prepare for the night's activity which was UGLY MINI GOLFING. I bought the ugliest dress probably ever made for a nice 3 dollars, such a find in a thrift store- I don't know how anyone ever bought it in the first place! After dinner just as we were all changing into our wonderful outfits, probably the biggest and most ridiculous storm x10000 that I have ever heard/ seen the lightning flashes broke out and needless to say we could NOT go mini golfing. So they rescheduled the ugly night for tonight I believe and then they set up board games and other fun things that would entertain 17 year olds but us older ones decided to go causally drink at the ON CAMPUS AND RUN BY THE UNIVERSITY bar- probably the best idea ever on that part because I'm sure they don't pay that much in taxes on the alcohol because they are a school and they allow people to come and buy stuff! It's called the Red Room, seems like a fun place to chill and drink on the weekends or casually during the week- overall not a terrible night.

The next morning however (Tuesday) I could not wake up, they were pounding at my door at 5 am but no way after getting up two mornings in a row was I going to be participating in it- I did however miss the second part of the dance, which when we perform it later today will be slightly embarrassing however I will just stand in the back and hope that no one sees me. After lunch we had a meeting about the "Sports at Emmanuel" which actually seem pretty cool, again they do it harry potter style where the colleges face off against each other. They are trying to recruit me to play NetBall because of my wonderful height (it's like basketball but you cannot bounce the ball or travel with it, you just have to pass it up the court and then shoot it in the net) I am probably going to pass though because I want to play touch rugby! The aussie's are obsessed with Rugby so I figure while I'm here I might as well experience it! Plus a nice rugby shirt/ souvenir can't hurt!! Then later after dinner we had a pre activity called "trivia night" where they broke us up into teams and quizzed us on aussie slang + other australian things + things about UQ in general. My team was not the greatest and I know absolutely nothing about Aussie Slang so that didn't end well but after it we went on a PUB CRAWLLL in the city!! WHich was really fun, again we were broken up into teams and at all the bars had tasks that we had to do! The girls on my team started the night off with a wonderful tequila shot so clearly it was a great night for everyone! These activities really do help to bond all of the freshers together, I am so jealous that we don't do this type of thing in America, god it would be SO much fun.

This morning I did go at 530 am after I was woken up and we marched to all the other colleges and yelled our dirty cheers at their buildings and then we ran back to the main field where they had set up an obstacle course where the last piece was a slip-n-slide but instead of water to make traction they were using GOON (Definition: Boxed Wine or in the states Franzia) I thank goodness managed to avoid that part of the course, but they are crazy, I have no idea where they come up with these types of things! Woah looong post, I must be off, we are going to go perform the dance and then head to the HUGE activities fair! yay free swag! more sooon! pictures on fb soon as well!

AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE, OY OY OY