Short weekend in Melbourne!

Alright, so another month between blogs but in my defense I could've sworn I already wrote this one...oops.

A few weeks ago a group of us went down to Melbourne for the weekend. Melbourne is another major city in Australia, more metropolitanish. It's in the state of Victoria so that makes me a 3/7 state traveler of this country! We found a package deal on a student traveling website which consisted of our flights to and from Melbourne and a 3 night stay in a fancy pants hotel. If I'm going to be honest, the hotel was definitely the best part of the trip, I will never ever again take my queen bed at home for granted after this semester abroad. I am soooo over sleeping in my munchkin bed! BUT ANYWAY.

We flew in Melbourne at about 7:30am so we had a whole day to do fun activities:) For the first day we rented a little car and took a road trip. When I say we rented a little car I really mean a LITTLE car. This thing was like the twin brother to a smart car just one that ate a little more mcdonalds. Between having our luggage in the car with four people there was no leg room at all, not that there was any to begin with. We rented a Nissan Micra and it was bright blue; we decided to name him Little Blue. We took little blue out on probably his first real adventure to the Great Ocean Road. When we originally decided to drive on the Great Ocean Road we thought it was just going to a few hours of driving and then stopping to see all the pretty scenic things along the way. To our dismay and entertainment, our few hours of driving turned into 13 hours of driving across the countryside of Victoria. Regardless of the amount of time we spent in that car we had a great time. Road trips with your friends and a lot of chocolate and chips are great fun. It also was a lot of fun because I got to drive:) AND I only went in the wrong lane like twice, no big deal right? Our first and mostly only destination was the 12 Apostles. Years and years ago, like hundreds of years, the waves of the ocean had eroded away a significant amount of the side of a hill. The hills in South Victoria are made of Limestone so between the HUGE waves and the salt water the rocks were easily formed. Eventually these rocks will be gone because they will all erode away the same way in which they were formed so I'm glad I was able to see them in my lifetime.

After our long day of driving we all slept in and relaxed until about noon, whoops. After we woke up though we went to our dream store on this vacation, a USA food store! Ahhh. It was such an odd feeling getting excited to see Heinz Ketchup and Dr. Pepper all in one place. We had such a ball in this grocery store and between the four of us we spent about $300, oops-BUT IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT.

Don't we just look so happy? :)

The rest of our traveling crew flew in that night so we met up with them and got some delicious chinese food for dinner before having a night out on the town.

The next morning we went to the Queen Victoria Markets and did a little shopping. I love going to the big markets in the cities because everything is so much cheaper and all the people there are so friendly! We got a few cool touristy t-shirts of course and some other little trinkets here and there. I got this super awesome Australian fire opal ring that I'm pretty excited for. I'd been wanting one ever since we got here. While at the markets we found another american candy store so naturally we had to get snacks there too! We walked around the Central Business District and Chinatown before heading back to the hotel to get ready for our last night! That night we went to an AFL game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. AFL is a lot different than ARL, which is what they play where I go to school. The MCG was MASSIVE. They say that during an average game an AFL player will run anywhere from 10-12 kilometers during the game, they have to be SO fit. They run around so much because the stadiums they play in are so massive, the MCG holds over 100,000 people in the stadium. Insane. Oddly, sporting events in Australia aren't that expensive compared to games back in the states. We had lower level seating and the tickets were only $25, quite a bargain considering the way everything else is priced here. The teams we watched play were Tasmania versus St. Kilda, and Tasmania just killed poor St. Kilda. It was a bit sad, like watching ISU play football sometimes.

The next morning it was time for us to fly home:( By the end of the trip we had to end up checking a few bags because we bought so much stuff while shopping but once again, No big deal;)

That was our last big trip until its time to go home. In exactly a month from today I'll be landing in the good ole USA. Cannot wait to be home, Mom and Sara are picking me up from the airport and then we're staying over night in a hotel before heading home. Mom's already scheduled me a hair cut, dentist appointment, and doctors appointment. It'll be nice to get back into the swing of things before heading back down to Ames in August to live in my very own apartment! Can't wait to get home and look for grown up things for my apartment with mom.

If anything big happens in the meantime, I'll try to keep you updated buttttt there's a slim chance of that;)

Easter Break

A month between blog posts isn't awful is it? I'd like to say my life is soooo busy that I just don't have anytime to write a blog but in reality, I'm just too lazy. I would much rather spend my time at the beach, shopping, or laying around on the lounge with my roommates. Since my wonderful Grandmother doesn't like when I neglect updating her on my travels I am writing this for her. While writing this I am painting my nails with one of our favorite OPI colors, Too Hot Pink to Hold 'Em. I am such a great multi-tasker.

So, last week was our Easter break at the Uni which I suppose could be the equivalent to a spring break in the U.S. even though it's fall here. Still so weird to me. Since we had already traveled to New Zealand we decided to go up the East Coast of Australia and see the Great Barrier Reef.

Originally the plan was to rent a car and drive up along the coast but since you have to be 21 to rent a car in Australia Steph wouldn't be allowed to drive and I was VERY skeptical about doing all the driving myself. According to Google maps it would be about 30 odd hours of driving. Considering the fact that I complain about the hour long drive I have from Mason City to Ames this whole 30 hour thing didn't sound so great to me. We ended up finding a train pass designed for international travelers that allowed us to hop on a train in each city we wanted to go to and stay for a few days before heading off to our next destination. In the end, it actually was cheaper to take the train and much safer.

On Saturday we woke up at about 4:30 to make it to the airport for our 6 am flight out of Newcastle-yes I had about 3 coffees. When booking our plane tickets, Steph wanted to do minimal baggage weight because it would be cheaper; what a mistake. We were supposed to have 15 kg and I ended up with 19 and Steph had 21, whoops. Later that day I called the airline and upped our baggage weight for the next flight to 25 kg, learned from the first time. When we landed in Brisbane we were naturally pretty hungry so where was the first place we stopped for breakfast, McDonalds of course. Typical Americans. Later that day we went to The Australia Zoo, which is the one where Steve Irwin worked so that was pretty cool. Since we were in Queensland we were actually able to hold a koala. We each got to hold and cuddle a Koala and then since we were on vacation in Australia might as well hold a snake too right? So we held an Australian Python too, SO SICK.

Petting a Kangaroo! 

The massive python! 

Cuddling the Koala!

The Lagoon 

The Our last day in Brisbane was Easter Sunday so everyone told us that nothing would be open so we were kinda bummed but after walking around we discovered that enough places were still open roaring for eager shoppers. We went shopping on the street mall and then walked across the river to the South Bank. The South Bank was such a neat area. The river isn't exactly the safest place to swim because of the barges that travel on it so the city of Brisbane has a lagoon in it and it was just like a massive pool but all the banks were sand so it was a kind of like a mini man made beach. We walked around the lagoon and then made our way to the markets. I love walking around all the markets because everything is so different and its fun talking to all the venders about how they got into the business of selling things from candle wax to walkie talkies. While walking along the markets we saw a sign that said Chocolate Bar, instantly I thought I was just imagining things. A chocolate bar? Thats just too good to be true, naturally I had to go in though. They had chocolate EVERYWHERE, it was a dream come true. I ended up ordering banana and praline filled crepes with milk chocolate drizzled on the top and a side of ice cream along with a white chocolate chai tea-so bad for me but SO delicious. 

My yummy food!

That night we were to take the train into Hervey Bay for our next adventure. The first train we were on was called the Tilt train and this was a pretty basic train. They had a little snack cart but nothing too fancy food wise on this one as it was only a 4 hour train ride. We got into Hervey Bay kinda late that night so we didn't do much because we were so exhausted. The next day we were scheduled for a full day tour around Fraser Island. Fraser Island is a massive 75 km long sand island located right off the coast. Most people will rent a big 4WD SUV and go camping on the island for a few days. The only way to get around the island is with the special tour buses or a big SUV that has 4WD because its not exactly the flattest terrain. On the island we did a rainforest hike, beach drive, saw Eli Creek, and Lake McKenzie. Very cool place. 

On the beach

Eli Creek 

Shipwreck 

Lake McKenzie 

The next day we were supposed to leave Hervey Bay at 4 to get back on the train again. Steph and I decided to walk around town for a little bit in the meantime. We walked along the beach and collected sea shells and dead coral pieces and did a little shopping. The train we were getting on that night was an overnight train into Airlie Beach. This train was quite a bit nicer than the first one we were on. The train had sleeper cabins, a restaurant, a club car, and a little meal car. The food on the train was surprisingly well priced so for dinner Steph and I had a steak and beer, living the high life. It was kind of hard to fall asleep in the seats but they reclined pretty far and had a footrest on them so they were much easier to get comfortable in versus the seats on the plane. The next morning we arrived in Airlie Beach and we booked our boat tour to go around the Islands. Airlie Beach is a small town mostly designed for tourists. There are about 200 different sailing tour companies to go out to the islands. Whitsunday Island are a bunch of little islands that broke off the coast of Australia YEARS ago and now its a pretty little tourist attraction. Steph and I did a speed boat tour around them where we got to snorkel and lay on the beach for a few hours. It was a nice relaxing two days laying around there. 

Finally it was time to take the train up to Cairns. The train ride up to Cairns was about 12 hours so we didn't get there until about 9:30 Friday night. Marie was flying in from New Zealand and meeting us there so we had to stay up until about 11 for her flight to get it, we're such good friends. We had a total of 4 days in Cairns so we booked a day scuba and snorkel tour to see the Great Barrier Reef. The weather was SO awful when we were there and the boat ride out to the reef made a few people sea sick. I took two sea sickness tablets as soon as we got on the boat because I was not about to get sick and not be able to go scuba diving. It was really hard to snorkel around because the waves were awful but we still got to see a lot of fish and lots of the reef. We were on the water for about 6 hours so it was a full day. The last hour we were snorkeling I had a little mishap with nature. My wet suit was really tight all day so I didn't like having it zipped up all the way because it was hard to breath with the whole lack of oxygen and such so I left it half unzipped-bad idea. We were in the water and my chest started hurting really bad, like an insane burning sensation. And then my face was burning and my neck, I couldn't figure out what was wrong so I just kept swimming. When we finally got back on the boat the guides took our wet suits off and she noticed the fact that my whole upper body was bright red, sure enough I got stung by a jelly fish. Just my luck. They thought that at first I must've felt the sting and touched it and got the sting juice on my face and neck from that but only got stung once. And no, they didn't pee on me because that doesn't actually do anything. They pour vinegar on my sting and then I had to rub it on any parts that were burning. The sting was gone by the next day though so that was good.

My stings from the jelly.

Our last full day in Cairns we rented a little compact car and drove up to the rainforest and Port Douglas, which is a small little beach town with cute shops and stuff. It was so fun to rent a car and have the freedom to drive wherever we wanted. And we went through a drive thru for dinner too:) On our last day in Cairns we went to the casino so Marie could hold the Koala and we got chinese for lunch and made our way to the airport. We had two flights to get back to Newcastle, the first one was fine and the second one not so much. Our second flight ended up being delayed for about an hour which was irritating because it was getting late at night and we were just exhausted. All in all we made it back to Newcastle and vacation was over:(

We're headed down to Melbourne in a few weeks for a long weekend trip so I'm pretty excited for that and after that it will almost be time to come home:( It's going to be so hard to leave but I'm excited to get back home. I'm living in Mason for the summer and so grateful for it because I haven't worked in so long I literally have no money. Typical broke college student again, just great.

Family Vacation!

Officially two weeks now without the family being around and feeding me, back to the rough life.

So as many of you know Dad, Mom, and Sara and came to Australia to visit two weeks ago and it was marvelous. They flew into Sydney so I took the train to go meet them there. Talk about dedication on my part, I left my apartment at 5:45 am to catch the train to Sydney. I'm a GREAT daughter, I know. Unfortunately my train was slower than molasses so I didn't get to meet them at the airport with a little sign and stuff like all the other great family members but I tried! I met them at the train station in Sydney and then we caught the train back to Newcastle. Everything was going smoothly up until this point. I got off at the train station to come back to school but they got off at a different one to get to their hotel. Half way back to my apartment Dad calls me and says that the place we were supposed to be staying all week went under receivership and we had no where to stay. JUST GREAT. Talk about a stressful start to the week. Thankfully we got a hotel room for the night at a hotel down by the beach and found a new apartment in town. So after much stress and worry we found somewhere else to stay that was just marvelous.

This is the view from our hotel the first night, Noah's on the Beach.

This is just one of the many views from the balcony of our apartment we stayed in.

While in Newcastle we walked around all the beaches and did a little shopping downtown at the little shops. We played it pretty low key while we were in Newcastle, had to give the fam some time to rest from their jet lag.

On Wednesday we did a full day wine tour, it was awesome! We went to quite a few wineries, a cheese factory, and a chocolatier. Dad was pretty excited at one of the wineries we went to because they had Port Wine, I think he took back two bottles of that. Also discovered dessert wine which is my new favorite thing ever. It was so sweet and yummy, just my type. Mom bought me 4 bottles to take back to school which I am so excited to drink. Fancy wine is way better than goon.

Thursday we took the train into Sydney for the weekend. We did Darling Harbour Thursday, the Harbour Bridge and Opera House on Friday, and the Zoo on Saturday. A fun filled three days but I think I really took all the energy out of everyone because they were just exhausted come Sunday.

It was so nice having them here for a week, and I was a bit spoiled. It was hard to have to come back to cafeteria food and noodles after having mom cook for me and going to restaurants for dinner:( I'm wishing they could come back around May sometime because I think thats when I'll really be starting to get ansy for home. I would love to stay for a year here if they could come back and visit me a few times! Oh well, skype will have to do for now!

Yes, I am still alive.

Hello friends and family,

I am indeed still alive and kicking, just slightly forgot about this little blog. Oops-Sorry Grandma.

I suppose I will start where I left off.

As a correction to my last blog, I did not actually go to an AFL game I went to an ARL game. My bad. I accidentally asked someone what time the AFL game was for the next week and they did not really take kindly to that minor mistake. ARL is Australian Rugby League and is generally only played in New South Wales and Queensland where as AFL is Australian Football League and only played in Victoria and South Australia. Who would've guessed that one little letter was such a big deal! But the game actually ended up to be AWESOME, so fun. It was really easy to pick up on all the rules as they were slightly similar to American football. The only downfall to our first rugby game was it was absolutely down pouring the whole time. But that didn't stop anyone. There were 25,000+ people at the game drinking and having a blast.

Regardless of the rain we had a marvelous time!

Knights vs Dragons!

We had our first formal event for International House a while back and it was marvelous, except it was raining again. Go figure, rains all the time. We went out to a fancy seafood dinner and then out afterwards. I would like to thank this event for my discovery of Sticky Date pudding, the most amazing dessert I have discovered thus far. Grandma, if you're reading this PLEASE make this for me when I come home. I promise Grandpa will love it as well, win win!

My roommates and I at our commencement dinner!

Steph, Marie, and I also traveled up to Sydney for the world famous Lesbian and Gay Mardi Gras parade. Around 700,000 people gather in Sydney for this parade so needless to say we didn't actually get to see the parade because there were SO many people there but it was still fun! We even dressed up a little!

Us girls with our boas and glittery eye make-up!

Unfortunately, it rained AGAIN.

Hopefully that catches up enough for now!

Living the life!

The official countdown to Dad, Mom, and Sara being here is 10 days. How exciting! AHHHH. The other night I made a whole week itinerary for them, sure hope they aren't jet lagged too bad because its going to be busy busy busy! I think the thing I'm most excited for is the wine tour we're doing! It's an all day thing and we go to 5-8 wineries, a chocolate factory, a cheese factory, and an olive tasting. We picked this one so that Sara could come along and enjoy it as much as Dad, Mom, and I since she's just a little youngster. Hoping we get some awesome wines from the vineyards because I am so terribly sick of this boxed wine bologna.

So, school started this week-wah. I really don't mind it that much I suppose because I only have 1-2 classes a day. My only problem is walking 20 minutes in this heat, OMG I die. I'm going to take the easy card and blame it on my hair because I think it's naturally just more hot in my head than anyone else's. And my only complaint about it is that my body doesn't sweat, just my head and neck. I look like the most out of shape, disgusting, drip sweating american around and it is not pleasant. Luckily the lecture halls I have had classes in have all been air conditioned so far but my one today is not. And guess what, its the hottest today it's been all week, AWESOME. I do enjoy my classes though none the less, they seem pretty fun and easy. All of the classes I'm taking here are 1000 and 2000 level classes but they transfer back to ISU as 300 and 400 level-SCORE. Over here they do things way differently though. In all of my classes we have one massive test that accounts for half our grade at the end of the year and a few quizes and papers along the way. Most of your grade depends on that one, 3 hour long exam. Lucky me, I'm a horrible test taker. But I can't complain too much about school because I have a joke of a schedule and I've already made friends in my classes/have friends from Iowa in them so it's nice.

We have an exciting weekend planned, starting today. Tonight I am going to my very first AFL game! AFL is Australian Football League and from what I can understand it's very similar to rugby with a few other rules and tricks. I'm going to try and read the rules before we go so I have a slight idea of whats going on! Tomorrow is our formal commencement dinner for International House. It's a huge dinner party where everyone gets really dressed up and ritzy and we go to a nice restaurant and bar afterwards. All the girls have been talking about their dresses since I've arrived so I've gathered it's a pretty big deal. And on Saturday we're going back to Sydney! Ah, I love going to Sydney!!! (mostly for the food but hey its alright) We reserved a room at a hostel downtown and were going to celebrate Mardi Gras in Darling Harbour. I've heard the parade and show are just awesome and its insane in the city. I cannot wait to see everyones costumes and what the parade is going to be like! Im so excited! And after this weekend its just one more week until everyone comes to visit! I'm such a lucky girl sometimes!

I'll put some photos of the football game up soon and pictures from Sydney this weekend hopefully!

Finally time to start school!

It is finally the day I have been dreading, the Sunday before classes commence. Been on a break from school for about 3 months now and I feel like it's going to a be a rough start getting back into the swing of things. I did luck out however and have a pretty big joke of a schedule so I guess I can't complain that much. At most, I will only ever have two classes a day and for the first two weeks I only have one class a day. Another cherry topping on my schedule, I only have class 3 days a week. Hello long weekend! I'm thrilled about this long weekend thing because now I can plan all sorts of trips to big cities and other beaches and a few wine tours as well;) Hoping to do a wine tour before Mom and Dad get here so I know how it all works and then I can get them some decent wine because I'm fairly certain they won't like my box of goon.

I have gone on campus twice now trying to find the buildings my classes were in and got lost both times so I'm hoping today I can figure it out so I'm not wandering around like a lost kitten tomorrow!

More Adventures in Newie

Well it is officially orientation week and I really don't think I'm ready for my vacation to come to a stop. I mean it won't really because I'm in Australia but class, ehhh blah.

So orientation here is a two week thing. Last week was just fun things for the colleges(dorms) and this week is the scholastic stuff-the boring stuff. We did a lot of fun stuff last week, there were several cooking classes and a few things to do in town. I re-learned how to make tacos, the mexican here is so sad. I miss El Azteca so much! I need some salsa in my life. Yesterday we had a compulsory information session and I thought I was going to die. It was SOOOOO boring, I fell asleep in the middle. I have NEVER fallen asleep during a class or anything before and I used to be an engineer so thats saying a lot! Before I fell asleep though I did watch some Aborigine people come and dance so that was pretty neat. I was on facebook messenger for most of it too so bless my besties hearts from home for keeping me entertained.

Today was supposed to be an "amazing race" day, yeahhhh. Slept right through that one! Thursday however I have my faculty day for business students that goes from 9-4, please kill me now. I think I'm going to be all alone in that one too so Ill really fall asleep. But the college is really nice and plans fun activities for us after all the boring stuff.

Sunday night was toga night.

Monday night was trivia and games, I failed miserably at that.
Tuesday(tonight) is pool party.
Wednesday is student night, bar crawl.
Thursday is Hawaiian.
Friday is nerdy school night.

So the rest of the week is looking up besides this boring school stuff.
Next week real classes start and granted I only have 3 classes a week I'm still not excited.

Until then, peace out.

Shout Out to my Nugget

Dear Samantha (a.k.a. Nugget), I miss you very much. It is so weird not having you sitting behind me and singing to yourself and watching countless hours of SVU or Grey's. I hope that someone is teaching you how to dress more like a mom and making sure your laundry gets out of the dryer and folded properly. Lamby told me to say hello to the kitty and she hopes that kitty still smells wonderful.

I'm currently texting you and I think that you will be pleased to know I have you in my phone as nugget, if Matteo had whats app and I texted him as well he would obviously be in the phone as Matteo because thats his real name.

As of lately I have been passing the time by looking up adorable little housewife things for our apartment. I'm beginning to think we need a kitchen table so you can cook me delicious meals/bring me home BWW every day. (There's no wings here, yeah I know, shoot me) And for wall decoration we can put up really pretty pictures in frames and have cool curtains on our massive windows! We could even get romantic little candles to light or just have scentsys everywhere, I like the scentsy idea a little better maybe.

I hope you have a wonderful Sunday evening because my Monday is looking up. Maybe I'll hit the beach;) Sorry I had to:)

Last but not least, here's a flight itinerary I took the liberty of finding for you.

Save your money, See you in May.
http://book.statravel.com/staglobe/AirFlightSearchResult.do;jsessionid=FE4EF062B96D0583DEC3DDEE265BF7AE?followAction=AirFlightSearch

The Goon

Yes, The goon struck again. Nasty stuff. For those of you who don't know what goon is, it's just boxed wine. Everything in Australia is far too expensive to buy so we buy the boxed wine. You can get 4 litres for $10, which is even cheaper than it is at home. Why is it so cheap? Because it's TERRIBLE! We've discovered that if you mix it with stuff it doesn't taste as bad so that will help some. And here's how it all started.

On Sunday night two of my best friends, Jake and Gary, from home came to Newcastle to stay for a few days. Nights with these boys always end interesting and with great stories. We had gone to dinner and movie earlier that evening with girls from our block and after the movie I legitimately thought that something had happened to these boys because they hadn't called me yet. Around 9:30 we get a call from Campus Security saying they have two friends of mine, ohhh great. Turns out they weren't actually in trouble they just got lost on campus and asked security for help, smart boys. We made them some PB&J sandwiches and they passed out on the lounges in our den. Monday night we met up with some of Jakes friends from the University of Iowa for some "casual drinks" and there was nothing casual about it.

Let me just say that australians are insane and love to drink. As soon as we walk in the door they made the boys each chug a glass of wine and take a few jager bombs. Steph and I just sat back in shock, it was so overwhelming having all these guys screaming at everyone and drinks were just flying. Gary and Jake had each purchased their own box of goon at the store earlier and Steph and I had our own boxes as well. Needless to say when we came back that night no one had a box anymore-oops. When we told the boys to go get goon they came back saying they couldn't find anything with the name goon on it but they found boxed wine, classic mix up. hahah. Gary didn't handle the wine very well but we managed to get some solid photos of the night.

All in all, it's so nice having the boys here. It's kind of like being at home so it helps with the whole home sickness factor, I'll be super bummed when they leave Thursday though. :(

Tomorrow is slip n slide day so better head to bed and rest up for that. I have a feeling its going to be pretty awesome with the hills and everything on campus!

Arrival in Newcastle! (aka school-blah)

Can I just say how nice it is to not be living out of a suitcase anymore? Geesh that sucked, backpacking is definitely not my thing! I hated not having any privacy and just moving my life around in 20 kg, blah. But on a positive note, I'm finally at school! I'm always excited for school in Ames but school here just seems 1092384x more awesome!

It's now my second full day in Newcastle and I love every little piece of it! The University, or Uni as they call it, that I'm attending is called The University of Newcastle and I'm enrolled on the Callaghan campus. I thought that the ISU campus was large and this is at least three times the size of that! It's set up similar to the University of Iowa in the sense that campus is like a town. There's several restaurants on both sides of campus and quite a few pubs, go figure, along with little campus shops and trinket places. We tried to walk around yesterday and find our classes and failed miserably. We walked into town almost and then on the way back got stuck in a rain storm, just my luck. We eventually found our way back and next time I will definitely take someone from here along with me so I don't get lost.

The colleges here are set up quite differently than they are at home. The college is actually the residence halls, so I live in International House College. The campus is the actual 'Uni' and no one calls it University, they love shortening up words whenever possible I have noticed.

My room looks a bit like a jail cell but I love it! Its a great size for one person and I have so much storage and shelving! Only downfall is that it doesn't have air conditioning or wifi. (I'm currently using an ethernet-kicking it old school) Pardon my mess but I can have my room set up however I want and the mess is cozy. :) I have a tiny little bed that is dire need of a memory foam topper but oh well, a huge wall desk with a massive shelve on it, and a large wardrobe that is extremely empty because I didn't pack hardly any clothes. Definitely need to hit the mall A.S.A.P!

Everyone here has been so nice and taken us to the shopping centre, which has The Big W and Woolie's (Wal-Mart and grocery store) in it, twice now. I finally have sheets and a blanket and towels, you know the necessary things. Went to the grocery store twice now and I think I finally have enough stuff to make a decent meal. I made yummy guacamole tonight for Steph and I. :) The produce here is wonderful, the meat-ehhhh not so much. Anything besides sheep and red deer meat is outrageously expensive compared to at home and cheese. Don't even get me started on how expensive cheese is BUT I bought some today and its glorious. I found a really cheap brand of soda I sort of enjoy and coffee too. They don't brew coffee over here unless you work in a cafe, all the coffee is instant. HATE IT, but I make do. While we were traveling someone told us this neat and absolutely amazing thing to do with your coffee. Over here they have these biscuits called Tim Tams and they are GLORIOUS, I'll probably send like 10 boxes home before I leave, but they're a chocolate coated wafer cookie. If you bite the ends of the Tim Tam off you can use it as a straw in your coffee and it gets all gooey and melted and absolutely amazing. I don't even care that I'm having a cookie for breakfast because its AMAZING.

Not only are Tim Tam's going to kill me but the chocolate here is soooo much better than it is at home. I love it. Everywhere we go I want another candy bar. I've discovered Cadbury pods which helps my cravings. They're a little chocolate circle with filling inside of it, kinda like stuff we have at home; they're bite sized so a little better for my craving.

Needless to say I love it here and will probably struggle to come home. I have a feeling I'll want to go home but then want to come back two weeks later. I wish it wasn't so darn expensive! But Dad, Mom, and Sara are coming in a month and I am SOOOOOOOO EXCITED. I only wish they could bring Libby with:(

As a nice little closing treat, these little creatures are roaming all over the college. Scared the living daylights out of me the first time I saw one.

Say hello to the Skink. Nasty little lizards. They range in size from an inch to a foot long-SICK.

Life as a Kiwi

Hello everyone! Finally at school now with stable Internet and an actual computer so the blogs should be coming at a steady pace-hopefully!

I'll try to fill everyone in from where I left off last time!

That gorgeous place is Milford Sound. Steph and I were so lucky with the weather on our travels and were there for another gorgeous day! It was AMAZING. There were hundreds of waterfalls everywhere and the sound actually opened up into the Tasman Sea! We took a cruise around in there and went out to the sea and then to an underwater observatory center. I cannot even begin to describe how pretty everything is in New Zealand but it was just absolutely awesome. This was a whole day trip, as it took us nearly four hours to get to Milford and another four back. So worth it though!

We stayed in Queenstown for a total of 6 days and it honestly wasn't enough. I absolutely loved it there, it had a little bit of everything. We were lucky enough to not have to switch rooms at any point in the stay so we let our bags explode all over the room a bit-oops. While we were in Queenstown we did a little bit of everything. We bungy jumped, as I previously mentioned, which was awesome. The bungy just wasn't enough for us though so we went canyon swinging and that was the perfect mix of awesome and terrifying at the same time. I tried to upload a video of it soo if it works, watch it, if not ehhh oh well.  We went out with the friends we made on the Kiwi bus almost every night which was always fun. Everyone was from different countries so we all danced differently which always made the nights interesting. One night didn't end too well for Steph and I however. They have a lot of boxed wine in New Zealand and Australia and they call it goon-terrible stuff. The word Goon comes from the aborigine word for pillow because when the bag of wine is empty it blows up into a pillow, how creative! So Steph and I managed to drink the whole box(4 litres) and had massive headaches the next day. Oops. We decided we were allowed one crazy night though! We did a lot of shopping and went to the beach, basically just enjoyed the town a lot. On our last night we went on a little date to a nice restaurant and treated ourselves to seafood.

It was definitely the most interesting plate of seafood I have ever received. I wish I would've snapped a photo of it before I ate it all-shoot. But everything came in shells and the prawns still had their heads on and everything! I had NO idea how to even begin to dig into my food, total tourist move! Look at all those shells! Needless to say the food was amazing.

We met so many awesome people on our trip so it was sad to leave everyone we met on the bus and in Queenstown, but it had to be done. We left Queenstown on the morning of the 6th and traveled to a tiny tiny town called Geraldine. We didn't actually stay in Geraldine but traveled to a little farm about 30 minutes outside of town. All the farms in New Zealand are just MASSIVE and are actually called stations. The little old man that took us out to the farm was telling us about how everything worked. His family had owned the land for over 150 years and their station is about 15,000 acres! I couldn't even imagine farming that much land, and they only have 6 people that work on the farm! Talk about hard work! Most of the farmers there have sheep, red deer, beef, and field grass. Since the land is very hilly the animals just roam as they please and come back in for winter, just mind boggling.

ANYWHO. So we went to this farm and stayed in the Rangitata Rafting Lodge. It was in the middle of no where but such a cute little place. For the rafting package we booked we received three meals, a hot dessert, a ride to Christchurch, a place to stay, and the rafting tour. It was a nice little deal, and the rafting was awesome! Weird thing about it was that they had group showers instead of individual ones and the dorms were 9 sleepers so the bunks were three high! I would've been so scared to sleep on the tip-top!

The rafting was really really fun though. We rafted on the Rangitata River, which is formed from glacier run off so the water was ice cold but a super pretty blue. We actually had to raft ourselves instead of a guide doing everything which made it more fun I think. After rafting we got to swim in the rapids and float down the river and do some cliff jumps. I oddly became a bit of an adrenaline junkie on this vacation!

After rafting we went to Christchurch to get ready to fly back to Australia. The city suffered a MAJOR earthquake last summer and the devastation is unreal. The city has just died, it was so sad to see everything.



If only I had a video recording of what I am about to tell you, you would all laugh hysterically at us. We made the mistake of taking the train to Newcastle with all our luggage. Dumbest idea I think I've had in a  long time. I had three rolling bags and two hands, if you can visualize this in your head just imagine the biggest struggle ever. The 10 minute walk to the train station turned into a muscle building, sweat accumulating, blister forming, 40 minute pure torture walk. Trying to drag my bags through an extremely busy Sydney train station was hell. By the time I got to the ticket stand I was dripping in sweat and my arms were pulsing with pain. It took us another three elevator rides and 20 minutes before we even got on the train. Needless to say that when we fly back out I will be taking a taxi the whole way to the airport. I hate luggage officially now.

I am finally in Newcastle though! It is amazing to be settled-ish into my room and the campus is gorgeous. I love the privacy and the set up of the dorm. I'll clean my room and take pictures of it so you can all see later. Forewarning: it looks like a jail cell from the 70's kinda. But I'm enjoying it and that's all that matters, right?

Just a bit more New Zealand.

I'm sure everyone's bored with my stories but just a few more!

After Franz Josef we went to a gorgeous town called Wanaka. The lakes around there were surrounded by mountains and it was amazing. Steph and really didn't want to go out so we went to the cutest little movie theater ever. They play about two movies a day and instead of movie seats they have couches! It was so comfy! They stopped the movie in the middle and served us these massive, delicious, hot cookies-sooo good! And we had hot chocolate with mallows and chai lattes and fanta. As you can tell I just loved it.

We're now in Queenstown, the party capital of the country. Unfortunately, my camera broke before we got to Wanaka. :( So I had to purchase a new camera, so expensive! But oh well, more pictures to come I suppose! We went out last night and it was quite the experience. Lots of dancing and not dancing like we do at home. I'm learning all the UK dance moves, yeah I'm getting cool I know.

We're headed to Milford Sound tomorrow, which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. I'm really excited! We're in Queenstown for 5 more days so we have lots of time to relax and adventure.

Oh yeah! I bungy jumped yesterday!!! It was definitely a thrill. We just did a 40m jump, which was high enough for me! On Friday though we're doing a canyon swing and thats 109m high so I might pee myself a little. I bought the pictures though so you'll have to look at them all!

I'll try to update at least once more before we go back to school. And I'll update all the photos as soon as I'm back!

Kiwi Adventures

Hello dear loved ones! I've been a blogging hiatus but the Internet in New Zealand is nearly non-existent. I'll just do a little catch up quickly; if I spell something wrong or the grammar has a few mistakes you'll have to cut me some slack, blogging on my phone is hard.

On the 26th Steph and I left Australia to begin our adventures in New Zealand. Our flight didn't leave until the evening so we went around Sydney and celebrated Australia day for a bit. Our last day didn't give us any breaks though. The elevator in our hotel was broken so if you can imagine two girls carrying over 100lbs of luggage in a stairwell I'm sure you'll get a laugh. Needless to say we were absolutely dripping when we made it to the bottom. It was raining, again, in Sydney when we left so genius me didn't wear any sunscreen that morning. But just my luck, it stopped raining and I naturally got fried. Luckily it wasn't a farmers tan though. We toured Darling Harbour for the morning and had some more gelato, that will be a weakness for me.

When we finally made it to the airport that evening it was one of my most pleasant airport experiences ever, weird. We must've looked absolutely lost and confused because a pilot stopped and showed us where the gate we needed was and helped us put quite a bit. While checking in we spotted some dashing guys and to our surprise and luck, they sat right next to us. ;) If you've ever been to an international airport you know about the duty free zones-my new favorite places. All of the duty free locations sell alcohol at a tax-free price so they're not extremely expensive. While going through duty free a vendor stopped us and there we were taking shots in the airport-it was nasty gin but hey I'll take anything free! We also discovered there's no bologna over here, so no cold cut trios at Subway! Shoot.

We landed in Christchurch around 11:30 that evening so we didn't get to our hostel until late. Unfortunately we had to wake up at 6 am the next morning. :( Last summer there was a massive earthquake in Christchurch so on our taxi to the hostel we learned a bit about it and saw a lot of the devastation. Our taxi driver was actually caught in the middle of the street during the earthquake so he told us a bit about it.

Needless to say our first hostel experience was a success. We left our hostel and caught a shuttle to the train station. On our shuttle we met an engineer from Afghanistan and she old us different stories about working there. She has 8 body guards with her at all times because the Taliban is consistently trying to attack her, terrifying right?

We took a train called the tranzalpine so it took us from one side of the country to the other basically, and right across the alps. I cannot even begin to describe how gorgeous that train ride was. New Zealand is just beautiful. I took so many photos on the train. As soon as I get back to school I'll upload my photos and you can all be jealous of the gorgeous views.

After we got off the train we began our adventure on the Kiwi Experience bus. All I have to say about the bus is that it is definitely the most interesting thing I have ever done. There's people from all over the world on the bus and they're just all characters. Most of the people weve met are from the UK though and the more and more time I spend with them the more I find myself saying weird UK phrases and small words.

Our first night on the bus we stayed at the poo pub, the second hostel experience was not as good as the first. We stayed a very small cabin and the bathrooms were out away from our cabin in a little trailer. And everything is co-Ed an boys are just SO gross and smell awful. But on the plus side the place we stayed was right on the Tasman Sea and it was SO pretty.

We left there early the next morning for Franz Josef. Steph and I signed up to do a full day glacier hike in Franz Josef, 9 hours of straight hiking. We stayed in Franz for two days and it was a fun little town. I was dying for a burger and fries and the ones they had at the bar were just delicious. I think the ketchup over here is different and it tastes much better. The room Steph and I ended up with had a bathroom attached and we actually ended up having a room to ourselves, so nice.

So yes you did read that right, I hiked a glacier. And yes it nearly killed me. Ha. We had to report to the office at 9 and get dressed for the glacier. They gave us boots, pants, crampons, and a raincoat. I absolutely ended up loving the hike on the way up, died about twice but it was all fine once I decided to start eating the glacier. It is a big ice block after all. We ended up hiking up about 16,000 feet. Insane. It was gorgeous though, also more pictures to follow. After the glacier we went into the hot springs, which was so nice and relaxing.

This post is getting a bit long so I'll have to update you on the rest of the trip later!

Our two day adventure in Sydney and the start of Australia Day!

Good Morning America! It is a lovely warm Thursday over here in Sydney and the festivities for Australia Day are starting soon! Australia Day is similar to the 4th of July, but it is way better. Festivities start around 10 am for the general public but people wake up and begin drinking and barbecuing as early as 6 am! This day is a big deal to Australians because they all love their country so much. They even have an Australian of the Year award which was ironically awarded to one of our beloved Actors, Geoffery Rush, who gave a wonderful speech last evening. I think Steph and I are going to go out and enjoy some of the festivities this morning before our flight to New Zealand.

Yesterday was an adventure packed day for us. We were busy for most of it! We woke up early in the morning, still getting used to this whole 16 hours ahead business, and went to the centre to get our phones purchased. I LOVE being back in the world of technology, and everyone here has an iphone so I fit right in again. We did a little shopping around the centre, the shopping is amazing by the way-too amazing! Limited myself to three cute little shirts-Australian style-and a pair of killer heals that I got for AU$15! After we shopped we headed to china town for lunch and had some DELICIOUS chicken fried rice, the chinese here will be the death of me! After lunch we decided to hit up the Paddy's Market. It was HUGE. There were vendors selling everything from lingerie to grapes! Its also the Chinese New Year here so there are Dragon dances and other celebrations going on. Steph and I got into the market and got stuck right in the middle of some dance thing, gongs and all! It was the weirdest thing I have ever seen, they did something with a head of lettuce-who knows what it was actually supposed to mean! But it was neat none the less. We're also catching onto some of the ling-o. We used several "Take away" boxes yesterday instead of to-go boxes.

After the market we came back to the hotel to dry off and drop our purchases off. It was raining all day yesterday:( We skyped for a bit with our wonderful friends Jess and Jenna and then headed out for more adventures.

We bought a day pass yesterday for the monorail and rode that around. We eventually took the monorail into Darling Harbour and took some pictures of the pretty harbour over the bridge! We did the supposed "world famous" Sydney Aquarium but the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago is way better! We did see some weird things in there though, interesting sea life over here in Australia-too many sharks! After the aquarium we did some more shopping and ate more chinese-yum. By the time we were done with all that it was around 8:30 over here so we grabbed a bottle of wine and headed home. (Steph is becoming quite the little drinker now that she is legal over here-we're very savvy with our wine purchases though. Nothing over AU$10)

We're just getting ready now to begin our day and head to New Zealand! Not sure how the internet situation will work over there so I'll try to update as much as possible!

Arrival in Sydney!

Good morning from Sydney! Its about 9am here on Wednesday morning, the whole time change thing is still weird to me! 

We landed in Sydney yesterday morning and it is SO warm here, love it! Only downfall is that there is so much humidity because we are right on the Ocean, but hey it's the Ocean so I won't complain. 

After waiting for our bags FOREVER yesterday in the Airport we hopped on a shuttle to get to our hotel. To my surprise and disappointment our hotel didn't have a shuttle like it said so we had to buy a ticket to one, shoot. I stored some of my luggage at the airport so I wouldn't have to lug it around New Zealand, which I might add was outrageously expensive, but definitely worth it. My suitcase is HUGE. 

But, back to Sydney! It took us about 40 minutes to get to our hotel from the Airport just because of traffic and how busy everything is around here. The city is definitely not what I was expecting. It's almost a little run down in a lot of the city which I found odd. There are people EVERYWHERE though, always walking around or riding bikes. I've also noticed that there aren't many older vehicles around, everything is fairly new. They also have a different car company over here which I'm thinking is kind of like Chevy but it's called Holdens ( I think, I don't remember for sure) and they have those cars everywhere. 

Once we arrived at our hotel we were definitely missing our American hotels. The hotel is definitely different from my Country Inn & Suites and Holiday Inns. The hotel is called The Aspire Hotel and its in a nice and quiet neighborhood, which made sleeping SO nice last night. We decided to do a hotel instead of a hostel just for the space and comfort, also the private bathroom is wonderful! We were extremely confused with the electric system over here. In order to turn on the lights you have to insert your room key into a sort of power box to turn everything on. There are WAY too many switches for me! The room, however, has a tv and fridge which is so nice. Minor downfall when we got here was that our TV didn't work so the maintenance man brought us a new one, we get a whole 5 channels. Whoop whoop! HA. I did however find a show I really enjoy called The Project, which I would compare to a combination of E!-news and Chelsea Lately- it's informational yet hilarious. 

After we showered and got all clean we were ready to adventure Sydney. Before we left I almost was electrocuted by the blowdryer in the bathroom so the hair stayed wet for my safety! We definitely looked like tourists though, we wore t-shirts and athletic shorts which no one wears in the city here. Oops. I'll definitely have to wear something a bit nicer today. 

We left the hotel yesterday to walk around and discovered that there are Chinese people EVERYWHERE. There are more chinese people here than there are Mexicans in USA. Everything is written in english and chinese-crazy. There's also a chinese restaurant if not two on every block downtown. YUM. It's currently the Chinese New Year so there's a lot of cool dragon and different dance things going on. Our hotel is about 5 minutes away from China town so I think we're going to go check that out today! 

A few other things I noticed in Sydney: a TON of people smoke over here. The buildings are non-smoking but I bet 1 in 4 people smoke so we were always walking through cigarette smoke. Gross. Also, gas is only $1.46! Which converts to about $1.80 US dollars-still cheap! And Thursday is Australia Day so they put their gas on special so everyone can travel! How nice is that? Everyone is talking about Australia day over here, I'm going to go ahead and compare it to VEISHEA almost. Except, VEISHEA x1000. It sounds absolutely insane. Last year, they arrested over 200 people in Sydney. CRAZY. 

Everything in Australia is behind in technology. You have to pay for Wifi everywhere and its only in certain places. Its $10 for 24 hours in our hotel but many restaurants offer it for free when you order drinks or food. We went and had a drink in a Pub called Cheers yesterday and used their wifi. My beer was $6 for a schooner(pronounced skooner-about 17 ounces) which I think is just too spendy to drink. We stopped at a bottle shop and bought some Moscato for the hotel though:) Steph is getting sad because no one is carding her over here, she was pretty excited to drink legally haha. 

On the way home from downtown we stopped in the mall and went to the grocery store. It's no Hy-Vee but I think Cole's is a suitable replacement. MINUS the fact that Curtis Stone is EVERYWHERE. He's haunting me! 

Our last stop yesterday was McDonalds-shocker if you know me! We ordered a McOz meal, figured we should try it out, which came with fries and a coke. Corn Syrup is illegal here so the pop tastes so different, but not terrible. The fries make me a little sad, they are fried in a different oil so they are more healthy and taste just weird. But to the exciting part, a McOz is a cheeseburger with A BEET on it. Ew, I hate beets! But I ate it just because I'm trying everything, but never again. The beet was too much! 

We're ready for a new day here! Just getting ready and I think we're going to go hit up the Sydney Aquarium! 

32 hour travel time: Success!!

Hello Mates! First blog update from Australia!

Steph and I made it here alive, obviously, and everything worked out wonderfully!! I was so nervous about the whole flying and traveling thing but it was just about perfect!

We left Sunday, the 22nd from Dallas on Quantas Airlines. First off, that was our first awesome choice, Quantas is THE BEST airline EVER. I was thrilled that the plane was half empty so Steph and I could sprawl out and sleep. We flew on an air bus, which holds anywhere from 300-400 passengers, which ended up to be a Boeing 747. The plane was so clean and comfortable! When we found our seats I was originally nervous because I thought they didn't recline but low and behold, they did! We ended up with pretty awesome seats actually, there wasn't anyone behind us kneeing our seats or anything.

When we boarded we were given a pillow, blanket, headphones, toothbrush, toothpaste, and a sleeping mask. Along with everything that was already provided we received two full meals too! Our dinner was served around 11:30 pm and it consisted of: BBQ chicken, green beans, garlic mashed potatoes, french loaf, salad with balsamic vinaigrette dressing, carmel creme cake, a chocolate bar, water, and drink of our choice. A little bit after the meal was served they gave us a refreshment bag for in between the meals which had a bottle of water, two chocolates, a cookie, and some crackers. They turned all the lights off and everyone was very quiet so falling asleep wasn't terrible. I ended up watching the movie What's your Number? before taking my sleeping pills and falling asleep. Sleeping was easy and difficult at the same time. Although Steph and I spread out it was still cramped. I slept for about 8 hours total, which was nice.

We were served breakfast at about 8 am US time and 2 am Australian time. Breakfast was hot and delicious! Steph and I had bacon, an asparagus and mushroom omelet, blueberry muffin, yogurt, orange juice, and coffee. Shortly after breakfast the flight was over and we landed in Brisbane, Australia. We re-boarded almost right away just a short half hour break in the airport. We figured the food was over, especially since it was only an hour flight to Sydney, but to our surprise-more food! We received a breakfast croissant, juice, yogurt, and coffee! This was my favorite part of the whole flight because I found Big Bang Theory on the entertainment guide, so I was more than thrilled to spend a quality hour with my main man Sheldon.

We landed in Sydney at 10:15 am on the 24th, January 23rd is just forever gone from our lives. We got all our bags and nothing was damaged or lost. Customs was a breeze and we made it to the hotel safe and sound.

I'll try and write another blog tomorrow about our stay in Sydney, it's such an interesting city! So much to see!

First Day as World Traveler

If you know me at all you know I hate writing and could care less about it, but after many requests and suggestions from loved ones I decided to make a blog about my travels. (Also, don't judge my grammar and the blog design/lay out-way too confusing for me)

As of 8:35am this morning we started our travels. It didn't get off to a good start to say the least. Who know baggage check-in ladies could be so rude. I ended up paying to check my bags for my flight to Dallas when they should've been free, American Airlines you're welcome for the $70 donation, and one of my suitcases ended up to be 66lbs. so we had to pay an extra $50 to check that one too. (The extra $50 was worth it, just couldn't part with my clothes!) I ended up packing one large suitcase, a medium sized roller duffel for New Zealand, and a small carry on suitcase for the plane. How I am going to carry all that is beyond me. 

I'm very fortunate enough to be traveling with someone, who's keeping me very entertained I might add, so this whole experience isn't alone. We are now on hour four of our eleven hour layover in the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport. Lucky enough for us we landed in terminal D and fly out of terminal D this evening. Also to our benefit, terminal D is HUGE. There is a lot to do and we scoped out some comfy snuggle chairs to nap in later. 

We have about 7 hours left here in the airport so I'm sure I will spend those hours worrying about this huge flight ahead of me. The international flight is 16.5 hours and we will land in Brisbane, Australia and from there head onto Sydney. Really hoping to be able to fall asleep and stay asleep for quite sometime on the plane otherwise it's going to be a long and terrible time. 

I will do my best to keep this thing updated for my loving Aunt Stacie who is dying for updates all the time. Once I figure out how to put a lot of pictures on here I will add some soon too. 

Wish me luck and safe travels! 

Steph decided to snap a picture of me in the MSP Airport this morning at the crack of dawn. Like how organized my carry on is? (Oh and no I am not referring to myself in the 3rd person, Steph is the girl I'm traveling with!)