Coming from America

I am officially down to my last month in Australia. Lots of stuff has happened since my last post and even more after this one.

To start I had two visitors come from America and stay with me for about 2 weeks. We met up in Brisbane and had as much of a good time as we could with the two days we had there. We stayed in a really nice bed and breakfast, where we stayed in an attic for three and of course got served complementary breakfast each morning. The room even came with a free bottle of champagne upon arrival. That night my friends and I hit the sack somewhat early and got up early to get the most out of our day.

That morning we walked along the boardwalk of the Yarra River and ended up at a market. We spent some of the morning there and then headed for the beach, more specifically the Gold Coast. We caught the train and spent the day at Surfer's paradise. Unfortunately, I still have yet to try surfing, but it was a nice relaxing day. And I finally got to body surf some waves in Australia. The reef breaks up all the waves near Townsville so if I go to the beach I pretty much just sit there and bake. Surfer's Paradise reminded me a lot of Myrtle Beach, SC though. Someone later informed me if I wanted the real surfer's beach experience, I should try Byron Bay.

That night my friends and I had dinner and we were planning on seeing some of the night life in Brisbane. Being that my friends were still jet lagged that night they fell asleep for an hour and pushing them to get up and go out was rather difficult. Fortunately, they saw the light and made it to a club. We ended up at a place with four levels, two of which we never made it to. Unbeknownst to us, until a minute after we walked in, we were at a gay club. Well we paid $7 to get in and we weren't planning on going anywhere else but back to sleep, so we stayed and danced there for some time. Funny story is the only one who got hit on by someone was one of my girl friends by a guy no less!

After that interesting night we took it easy the next morning as we were leaving for Townsville that day. We went to the botanical gardens once again via the boardwalk along the river. It was a nice morning walk. We then checked out of our room and took a taxi (even though i said never again) to the airport.

So back in Townsville, I did my best to entertain my guests while attending class. I did spend some time with them visiting Maggie island again, but I did not do any diving. Instead I layed on the beach. It seems I've been doing a lot of that lately. However, I fail to foresee the next time I go to the beach, so I'm living it up while I can.

Well all things must come to an end I suppose. My friends left on Thursday at the crack of dawn. On the bright side, I have my room back to myself and I'm finishing up with my final week of classes! Then I'm off to sydney and uluru for swot vac (study vacation) and back to North Queensland for diving trip at the GBR!

REAL FEELINGS IN 4D

I AM GOING TO MISS KATE AND CRAIRE SO MUCH. WHAT WILL I DO WITHOUT THEM SLEEPING ON MY FLOOR? WHAT WILL I DO WITHOUT THE LULL OF KATE'S SNORES EACH NIGHT? WHAT WILL I DO WITHOUT SLAPS TO THE FACE? I WISH I WAS COOL ENOUGH FOR THEM TO STAY. WHAT WILL MY LIFE BECOME...

I AM LOST WITHOUT
KATE AND CRAIRE...IN THEIR ABSENCE
MY HEART BREAKS TIMES TEN.

Post Vacation

Here is a little update on what I have been doing since lecture recess. Midterms were technically before lecture recess but I had them all due after my break. I turned in my rabbit paper, handed in a lab paper, and took a psych stats test. This week I'm busting my butt to finish another lab paper and study for a final! So this is a sort of awakening that I have to do everything that I want in the next 7 weeks.

I celebrated by weekend by attending Groovin' the Moo, which is essentially this giant festival of music. It seemed like everyone and their mother from Northern Queensland showed up to this event. There were heaps of bands playing, various DJ's throwing down their best, and loads of people dressed in ridiculous outfits. Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures. Now I wish I had brought my camera instead of my flask :).

So I partied all day during this concert by dancing and throwing up my hands whenever the bands told us too. It was a lot of fun, but I was surprised how difficult it was to keep track of the group. I gave up sometimes, but I always just floated around for too long and ended up calling my friends to find out where they were, only for them to move/me take forever to spot them. If I ever go to an event like this again, I won't try to keep with the group; its too much hassle.

After Groovin' I took a special bus back to uni and went out to town. I figured it'd be a mess because people from the concert would be there. Instead it ended up being dead. The friend that I came down with just talked to a bartender for awhile, got a cocktail, and talked on the back deck of a bar/restaurant. To end our night we got McDonald's and headed home for bed.

Today was nothing really too impressive. Still attempting to get work done, I took a not needed break and threw my boomerang in a field across the road. I don't know if Uncle Rusty has magic or if just taught me so well how to throw the thing, but I was lousy. Going from almost catching my boomerang on my first throw with uncle rusty, to not having it return to me once on my own, was pretty discouraging. I quit after awhile and now its back to homework. Wish me luck!