Mojo Surf Photos

I'm currently working on my first blog entry from my trip this past week, but have some other exciting pictures to share - I got my photos from the surf camp I attended last month! There are quite a few of me falling, but there are a few good ones as well :)

What a Week!

I am back! This past week a group of 4 of us spent 5 days in Sydney and 3 days in Port Douglas at the Great Barrier Reef.

Over the course of the trip I took over 800 photos and am currently working on sorting through all of them! We did so much and I have some great stories to share so the entire trip will most likely be separated into a few different blog posts that I'll have up across the next few days.

Until then, G'Day!

A Day In The City

Spent the day in Brisbane yesterday! We started off at the train station in the morning then ventured into the city to explore a bit.

After walked around a bit and exploring some of the shops we headed over the river to the South Bank to find someplace to go to lunch and look around at the outdoor market that is set up on weekends. 

After weaving through the tents walking down by the river and the lagoon we settled on going to a place called Nandos for lunch. It was small place that is popular for their chicken so we decided to give it a try. It was a good choice, the food was amazing. 

 After lunch we headed back toward the center of the city where we were catching a bus to go to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. We took a slightly different route, walking down closer to the water, and seeing a beautiful Pagoda right on the river's edge.

 We found the correct bus stop (there's a ton - it's a huge city!) we were on our way to see the koalas! It was a small park, but it was awesome. We saw koalas (obviously), dingoes, platypus, emus, kangaroos, parrots, and even a ram!

It was all really cool, but I have to say the highlight of my day was getting to hold a koala! His name is Eeyore and he's so cuddly and soft and adorable!

Once we had gotten to see all the animals we caught a bus back to the city again to catch a train home. After grabbing a few souvenirs, and only one wrong turn, we found the station we were leaving from and boarded our train home. 

The weather stayed beautiful all day and it didn't start raining until we were getting off the train and meeting up with our friend who was picking us up from the station. We're getting rain from the outer bands of the cyclone that is hitting up North, nothing severe at all, just some showers.

Yesterday was adventure filled and so fun! We're planning on having another trip into the city to explore a bit more - there's so much to do and see!

Futbol & Bridges & Roos Oh My!

Good morning! (At least it is here, good evening to those at home!)

I ventured into Brisbane again yesterday, this time to see a futbol/soccer game! It was a friendly between Brazil and Australia (or the Westfield Matildas as they are known as here). It was a great game! On our way their we noticed the clouds were rolling in and getting darker and darker and we were hoping to not get rained on at the game. Our luck held out - it didn't start pouring until we were at our seats which were under cover. As you can see from the pictures, it was quite rainy for most of the game though!

Brazil ended up winning 1-0 with a late second half goal - their precision and technical skill is amazing to watch. As the game was ending our luck helped out again, it only drizzled as we walked back to the car. Not long after we were on the road on the way back!

For our return journey we took a different motorway and went over the Brisbane Bridge.

It was raining so I wasn't able to get a nice clear picture, but it was cool. The city was out to our left but pretty much all we could see of it were the lights on the buildings, next time we go that way hopefully it'll be sunny and clear and I can get better pictures. 

So yesterday was fun and a good adventure!

This morning I got up and went for a run and about a mile in found my path blocked by these guys: 

They stared me down for a minute then, after snapping a couple pictures on my phone, carefully walked around them. The middle one has a Joey in her pouch (if you look closely you can see it's head sticking out!) so I knew that they would be very protective if I got too close. After I carefully, and slowly, navigated around them I continued on my way. Two of them were still there when I came back around so I had to be careful coming back too.

I just got finished Skyping with my family, it's so good to talk to them! I've reached that stage of my trip where I'm still very excited to be here but I am getting quite homesick and really miss everyone. I know the time is going to fly so I'm just doing my best to stay in touch with everyone and stay excited about everything.

Speaking of being excited, less than 2 weeks until Sydney! And just a little over two weeks until the Great Barrier Reef! Ahhhhh!!! That's going to be such an amazing week, I can't wait!

And then it was April...

I just realized how long it's been since I've posted a blog, sorry about that!

We haven't done anything too big lately, we're saving up for our trip to Sydney and the Great Barrier Reef that we leave for 2 weeks from tomorrow! Over the last couple weeks we've finalized our plans for while we're there. We will be: touring the Sydney Opera House, climbing the Sydney Harbor Bridge, kayaking in Sydney Harbor, and snorkeling and scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef. It's going to be an amazing week and I can't wait!

The last couple weeks have been a bit slower than earlier in the trip, but very productive. It's coming to the weeks of the semester where the first batch of assignments are due; turned in my first 2 big design projects this week, my short story draft for Creative Writing is due next week, and the week after I have a Politics paper due. I've been pretty successful at staying ahead on everything though - I want to make sure that the assignments I have due right after Easter Break are taken care of early since I'll be gone that whole week!

Beyond schoolwork and work we have had time to relax and still have fun. Made a couple trips to the beach last week and explored one of the little towns nearby (found an awesome bookstore that we're planning on returning to when we have more time). Tonight we're going to a trivia night and next week I'm getting some people together to go see Divergent. It's an advanced screening on Monday... only two and a half weeks after it came out at home is the advanced screening here... it's crazy how late movies and tv shows get released here! I'm excited to see it though as I read the book series a couple weeks ago.

Not much else to update. I can't believe I've already been here 6 weeks! Here's to making the next 12 just as incredible, if not even better!

Kinder Surprise

Haven't had too much exciting going on the past few days but I did experience another "first" today. I was doing a little bit of grocery shopping and noticed that there were Kinder Surprise Eggs on special in the candy aisle. Now, as you may know, Kinder Surprise Eggs are banned in the US (I Googled why - it's because you can't completely enclose a non-food item within a food item.... not sure why that is though?) so I was naturally excited to see something new.

I tried it while I was waiting at the travel agency with Elsie (she's planning a trip). It was pretty much what I expected... chocolate with a toy inside....

Yay for Kinder Surprise!

 

 

 

On a different note, a few of us have decided to make a weekend trip down to Byron Bay sometime soon. It's about 3 hours away so we would leave a Saturday morning, stay that night, then head back on Sunday afternoon/evening. We made a couple brief stops there on our way to and from the surfing trip a few weeks ago but didn't really get much time and it seems like a pretty cool place.

 

Thinking about heading into Brisbane to go to the koala sanctuary this weekend! 

One Month

Today marks 1 month that I've been in Australia! I've had some pretty amazing experiences, met and befriended some amazing people, and have so much more to look forward to still!

A group of us have been planning the past few days and we have planned and booked a 9 day trip to Sydney, Cairns, and the Great Barrier Reef. I'm going to be touring the Opera House, kayaking in Sydney Harbor, climbing the Sydney Harbor Bridge, and Snorkeling/Scuba Diving on the Great Barrier Reef. All in a week. To say I'm excited is an understatement!

During the planning for Sydney it hit me again how absolutely incredible it is that I'm here and able to experience all of this. A lot to be very thankful for and an opportunity to make the absolute most of.

I have been feeling a bit homesick on and off since I've been here, it's difficult being so far away from everyone at home. I've been Skyping a lot to keep up with my family and friends and have heaps of pictures on my bulletin board by my desk and covering nearly an entire wall in my room to make it feel more homey.

Speaking of pictures, I put together a collage of some pretty good ones from the past month :)