Well,
Now that I am finally home in Denver that means my 2010 Aussie Adventure is complete. This also means that I will have no more updates or posts to my Australia blog. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it :)
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Final Days!!
12.2.10
Well,
I took my third and final trip to the Line Pine Koala Sanctuary on Tuesday with my parents. It was sad that this would be the last time I got to see all the Australian animals I have come to love. I held a koala again. I now have pictures of me holding a koala from within the first couple weeks in Australia, the halfway point, and the last few days. The weather cooperated and was very nice. We spent about 5 hours there. We started the day by seeing a sheep herding and shearing show. It was interesting. Then we walked around and took tons more photos. I am sad that I won’t be able to see koalas, kangaroos, emus, platypuses, or wombats whenever. Once we finished up there, we headed to Indooroopilly so I could show my parents where I have been shopping and seeing movies. We also had a late lunch of kebabs. After that we headed back to the hotel to reorganize the suitcases and pack them as effectively as possible. This took most of the night. We did get hungry and ran to Pie Face again since they were one of the few places still open.
Wednesday was our catch-up day and my last full day in Australia. First, we went up to Mt. Coot-tha. It was cloudy and rainy. When we arrived we could see the city and within ten minutes, there was a cloud that engulfed the city. It was neat. But, the rain continued for the rest of the day. When we were done there, we headed to Park Road to see the mini Eiffel tower. Then we went to get lunch at La Porchetta in the Vil. I had pesto gnocchi. On our way back to the city we stopped to Toowong. Again, this was only to show my parents where I went on a regular basis. Once we returned to the city, we finished our souvenir shopping. Then we had to finish packing. For dinner, I wanted to go to Mick O’Malley’s Irish Pub. We all had a steak and I had my last glass of Tooheys Old since I don’t know if I can get it in the states. After dinner, we stopped at Copenhagen for ice cream. Then we returned to the room to finish packing.
We woke up at 6:30am on Thursday. We had breakfast at the subway next door to the hotel. Then we collected all of our baggage and headed to the airport. The flight to LAX was 12 hours long and left at noon on Thursday. Then we had to go through customs and security during our 5 hour layover. Our flight to DIA was about 2 and a half hours and left at noon still on Thursday. We arrived at about 3:30pm, local time, in Denver. My sister picked us up and we headed home.
Well,
I took my third and final trip to the Line Pine Koala Sanctuary on Tuesday with my parents. It was sad that this would be the last time I got to see all the Australian animals I have come to love. I held a koala again. I now have pictures of me holding a koala from within the first couple weeks in Australia, the halfway point, and the last few days. The weather cooperated and was very nice. We spent about 5 hours there. We started the day by seeing a sheep herding and shearing show. It was interesting. Then we walked around and took tons more photos. I am sad that I won’t be able to see koalas, kangaroos, emus, platypuses, or wombats whenever. Once we finished up there, we headed to Indooroopilly so I could show my parents where I have been shopping and seeing movies. We also had a late lunch of kebabs. After that we headed back to the hotel to reorganize the suitcases and pack them as effectively as possible. This took most of the night. We did get hungry and ran to Pie Face again since they were one of the few places still open.
Wednesday was our catch-up day and my last full day in Australia. First, we went up to Mt. Coot-tha. It was cloudy and rainy. When we arrived we could see the city and within ten minutes, there was a cloud that engulfed the city. It was neat. But, the rain continued for the rest of the day. When we were done there, we headed to Park Road to see the mini Eiffel tower. Then we went to get lunch at La Porchetta in the Vil. I had pesto gnocchi. On our way back to the city we stopped to Toowong. Again, this was only to show my parents where I went on a regular basis. Once we returned to the city, we finished our souvenir shopping. Then we had to finish packing. For dinner, I wanted to go to Mick O’Malley’s Irish Pub. We all had a steak and I had my last glass of Tooheys Old since I don’t know if I can get it in the states. After dinner, we stopped at Copenhagen for ice cream. Then we returned to the room to finish packing.
We woke up at 6:30am on Thursday. We had breakfast at the subway next door to the hotel. Then we collected all of our baggage and headed to the airport. The flight to LAX was 12 hours long and left at noon on Thursday. Then we had to go through customs and security during our 5 hour layover. Our flight to DIA was about 2 and a half hours and left at noon still on Thursday. We arrived at about 3:30pm, local time, in Denver. My sister picked us up and we headed home.
Brisbane one last time!
11.29.10
Well,
Friday morning we woke up to rain. But all we were doing was going to the airport to fly to Brisbane. Our flight was not delayed due to the weather and we left at 10:05am. We arrived in Brisbane about 12:30pm and grabbed a taxi to the Ibis Hotel. After dropping our stuff off, we went next door to Subway to get some food. Then we went to Queen Street to look around. My parents decided that they wanted to do their entire souvenir shopping then since we were out. After finding some great deals we dropped our stuff we went to dinner at Vapiano. Vapiano is an Italian restaurant where they give you a credit card thing and when you order, you place the card on a reader and it loads the card and when you leave, you swipe the card and it lets the person at the register know the total cost of everything ordered. Also, once you order, they make the food right in front of you. The place looked like an upscale restaurant but it was very casual. We all had some variety of pasta and it was good. On the way back to the hotel, we listened to the Salvation Army band, watched some Latin dancing, and watched a guy spray paint a dolphin using newspapers and a trowel for effects. After that we returned to the hotel and went to bed.
The weekend arrived and it was time for day trip excursion adventures. But before those began we decided to walk through the South Bank markets. They did not open until 10am, so we walked around South Bank to waste some time. Once they opened, we look and we were ready for our day trip down to the gold coast. Thankfully, there was no construction on the tracks and did not have to transfer onto a bus like when Erica was here. Unbeknownst to us, the Gold Coast was going to be full of schoolies. Schoolies is the week after high school graduation where you go to the beach to party. After dealing with some of the schoolies on the bus, we headed to Hungry Jacks for lunch. After lunch, we went to the beach. My mom really enjoyed walking on the water’s edge. After about 30 minutes of that, we headed up to the Q1 building to QDeck. It was beautiful outside and we could see a lot. Once we were done there, we decided that we would rather get dinner back in Brisbane instead of dealing with more schoolies. We got back to Brisbane about 8pm and one of the only places open was Vapiano. This time, we ordered some pizza. Then we returned to the hotel to go to bed.
Sunday, we took a day trip to Fraser Island. We met our guide Eugene and the others taking the tour at the Roma Street Station at 7am. There was a couple and a girl from the UK and two girls from South Korea. The two girls from South Korea spoke almost no English. We headed out towards Gympie. Before reaching Gympie, we stopped for a bathroom/brekky break. This was about two hours into our three hour journey to the island. About a half hour after we headed out, the engine on the car started smoking and we had to evacuate the car on the side of the road. After 10-15 minutes, we tried starting the car but were unsuccessful. WE were hoping to get a replacement car from a city close to Fraser but were unable to and had to wait for a car to head up from Brisbane. This meant we had to waste about 2 hours. We walked across the road into a forest-like area and the guide showed us some trees and plants that we would see on the island. Before getting too far away from the road, we returned to the car to make lunch. We had ham sandwiches and when we were done eating, the replacement car arrived. WE hopped on and our journey to Fraser continued. To get to Fraser, we had to take a barge from the mainland. When we got to Fraser, it was high tide and so we couldn’t drive along the bottom of the island. They had another road that we could drive on during high tide to give us access to the beach that we could drive on. We drove about a quarter of the way up the island before headed passed the resort and to Lake McKenzie. This was a freshwater lake filled with only rain water. The sand on the beach around it was very fine and felt great on my feet. We spent 45 minutes there and then we took a half hour rainforest walk. At this point, we were running late for our barge back to the mainland. We hurried down the beach and were only 20 minutes late and thankfully the barge waited for us and didn’t strand us on the island for the night. On the way back into Brisbane, we stopped at a truck stop to grab dinner since most places in the city would have been closed when we got back. We had MacDonald’s. We finally got back to the Roma Street Station at about 9:30pm. Then we walked to the hotel and crashed.
We were able to sleep in on Monday since we did not have any time commitments. This was the day we were going to King’s to pick up my stuff. We got to King’s at about 10am. We dropped off the empty suitcases in the storage room and I gave my parents the grand tour of the place. Lucky, most of the people I wanted them to meet were working so they could meet them. After our tour, we went to grab lunch. I was hoping to take them to the Kebab place in the Vil but it was closed and we ended up at A Salt & Battery. After lunch, we went back and filled the suitcases with my stuff and then I said my final good bye to the college. From there we took the bus back to the hotel to drop off my stuff. Now it was time to take the CityCat. We took the CityCat around the city so my parents could see the Story Bridge and from there took it back to Campus. Now I gave my parents the full campus tour. I showed them where all of my classes were and all of the important places. We also stopped into Student Flights so I could say bye to Stephanie, the travel agent that has been helping me book all of my tours and whatnot while I was here. From there we walked by the lakes and caught the 109 from the UQ Lakes bus stop and headed back into the city. We went to dinner at Little Singapore. Little Singapore was next door to Vapiano. After dinner we went to Woolworths to pick up food for breakfast. Then we returned to the hotel and went to bed.
Well,
Friday morning we woke up to rain. But all we were doing was going to the airport to fly to Brisbane. Our flight was not delayed due to the weather and we left at 10:05am. We arrived in Brisbane about 12:30pm and grabbed a taxi to the Ibis Hotel. After dropping our stuff off, we went next door to Subway to get some food. Then we went to Queen Street to look around. My parents decided that they wanted to do their entire souvenir shopping then since we were out. After finding some great deals we dropped our stuff we went to dinner at Vapiano. Vapiano is an Italian restaurant where they give you a credit card thing and when you order, you place the card on a reader and it loads the card and when you leave, you swipe the card and it lets the person at the register know the total cost of everything ordered. Also, once you order, they make the food right in front of you. The place looked like an upscale restaurant but it was very casual. We all had some variety of pasta and it was good. On the way back to the hotel, we listened to the Salvation Army band, watched some Latin dancing, and watched a guy spray paint a dolphin using newspapers and a trowel for effects. After that we returned to the hotel and went to bed.
The weekend arrived and it was time for day trip excursion adventures. But before those began we decided to walk through the South Bank markets. They did not open until 10am, so we walked around South Bank to waste some time. Once they opened, we look and we were ready for our day trip down to the gold coast. Thankfully, there was no construction on the tracks and did not have to transfer onto a bus like when Erica was here. Unbeknownst to us, the Gold Coast was going to be full of schoolies. Schoolies is the week after high school graduation where you go to the beach to party. After dealing with some of the schoolies on the bus, we headed to Hungry Jacks for lunch. After lunch, we went to the beach. My mom really enjoyed walking on the water’s edge. After about 30 minutes of that, we headed up to the Q1 building to QDeck. It was beautiful outside and we could see a lot. Once we were done there, we decided that we would rather get dinner back in Brisbane instead of dealing with more schoolies. We got back to Brisbane about 8pm and one of the only places open was Vapiano. This time, we ordered some pizza. Then we returned to the hotel to go to bed.
Sunday, we took a day trip to Fraser Island. We met our guide Eugene and the others taking the tour at the Roma Street Station at 7am. There was a couple and a girl from the UK and two girls from South Korea. The two girls from South Korea spoke almost no English. We headed out towards Gympie. Before reaching Gympie, we stopped for a bathroom/brekky break. This was about two hours into our three hour journey to the island. About a half hour after we headed out, the engine on the car started smoking and we had to evacuate the car on the side of the road. After 10-15 minutes, we tried starting the car but were unsuccessful. WE were hoping to get a replacement car from a city close to Fraser but were unable to and had to wait for a car to head up from Brisbane. This meant we had to waste about 2 hours. We walked across the road into a forest-like area and the guide showed us some trees and plants that we would see on the island. Before getting too far away from the road, we returned to the car to make lunch. We had ham sandwiches and when we were done eating, the replacement car arrived. WE hopped on and our journey to Fraser continued. To get to Fraser, we had to take a barge from the mainland. When we got to Fraser, it was high tide and so we couldn’t drive along the bottom of the island. They had another road that we could drive on during high tide to give us access to the beach that we could drive on. We drove about a quarter of the way up the island before headed passed the resort and to Lake McKenzie. This was a freshwater lake filled with only rain water. The sand on the beach around it was very fine and felt great on my feet. We spent 45 minutes there and then we took a half hour rainforest walk. At this point, we were running late for our barge back to the mainland. We hurried down the beach and were only 20 minutes late and thankfully the barge waited for us and didn’t strand us on the island for the night. On the way back into Brisbane, we stopped at a truck stop to grab dinner since most places in the city would have been closed when we got back. We had MacDonald’s. We finally got back to the Roma Street Station at about 9:30pm. Then we walked to the hotel and crashed.
We were able to sleep in on Monday since we did not have any time commitments. This was the day we were going to King’s to pick up my stuff. We got to King’s at about 10am. We dropped off the empty suitcases in the storage room and I gave my parents the grand tour of the place. Lucky, most of the people I wanted them to meet were working so they could meet them. After our tour, we went to grab lunch. I was hoping to take them to the Kebab place in the Vil but it was closed and we ended up at A Salt & Battery. After lunch, we went back and filled the suitcases with my stuff and then I said my final good bye to the college. From there we took the bus back to the hotel to drop off my stuff. Now it was time to take the CityCat. We took the CityCat around the city so my parents could see the Story Bridge and from there took it back to Campus. Now I gave my parents the full campus tour. I showed them where all of my classes were and all of the important places. We also stopped into Student Flights so I could say bye to Stephanie, the travel agent that has been helping me book all of my tours and whatnot while I was here. From there we walked by the lakes and caught the 109 from the UQ Lakes bus stop and headed back into the city. We went to dinner at Little Singapore. Little Singapore was next door to Vapiano. After dinner we went to Woolworths to pick up food for breakfast. Then we returned to the hotel and went to bed.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Thanksgiving!!!
11.25.10
Well,
Wednesday was a very exciting day; today we were heading up to Kuranda.
We woke up at 3am for our 4:10am hotel pick-up. We got picked up and then taken into Mareeba for our hot air balloon ride. The balloon ride was about a half hour. We went fairly high up and over fields and saw wild wallabies and it was a ton of fun. We were on the first flight and so had to get off for the second one. We ended up landing on the side of the rode in a small strip and switched passengers. Then we had to chase the balloon since the wind is in control of where it goes. After the second group landed we had to help pack up the balloon. This included helping deflate, folding it up, and lift the basket onto a truck. After this we headed into town for our champagne breakfast. We had eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, hash browns, and of course champagne. From there, we headed to Kuranda.
In Kuranda, we walked around the shops and the markets before heading to the Rain ForeStation. This is where we took an Aboriginal “dream-time” walk and learned about spears, the didgeridoo, and throwing boomerangs. I also finally saw someone circular breathe and will attempt to learn it. Then we went to an Aboriginal dance show. Then we left to go to the Sky Rail. The Sky Rail went through the rainforest. We were able to get off and look at Barron Falls, and rainforest plants. Unfortunately at the top it was raining pretty hard and so we couldn’t really see a lot but it was fairly nice at the bottom after we navigated through the fog. At the bottom, we got picked up and taken back to the hotel. Even though it was like 3:30pm, we were all exhausted. We then walked around the city looking for food and finally decided to eat at KFC. It was a lot better than I expected it to be probably due to my extremely low expectations of KFC. Then we came back to our room, took showers, and went to bed.
Thursday was Thanksgiving Day. This was the day we were heading out to the Great Barrier Reef. We went to the Reef Fleet at 8:15 and caught our boat. We left the marina at 9am. On our way out to the outer reef, we stopped at Fitzroy Island to drop off some people. The entire trip out to the platform took about an hour and a half. Due to the weather, the ride out was very choppy and I became very seasick even though I took pills to prevent it. We were hoping that the platform would be very stable but found out that it was also floating and thus not stable either. Still seasick, we rode both a glass bottom boat and a semi-submerged boat. After having a roll for lunch, we slept on the sun deck with hopes of feeling better. We were woken up by the rain and I definitely felt a ton better. We walked through the underwater part of the platform before heading back onto the boat to head back into Cairns. We got back to Cairns at about 5:40pm. Again we were exhausted and went for food. This time, we ended up at Villa Romano. My mom and I had Moreton Bay Bugs with prawns and my dad had veal. We all had a thanksgiving glass of wine before returning to the room and falling asleep.
Well,
Wednesday was a very exciting day; today we were heading up to Kuranda.
We woke up at 3am for our 4:10am hotel pick-up. We got picked up and then taken into Mareeba for our hot air balloon ride. The balloon ride was about a half hour. We went fairly high up and over fields and saw wild wallabies and it was a ton of fun. We were on the first flight and so had to get off for the second one. We ended up landing on the side of the rode in a small strip and switched passengers. Then we had to chase the balloon since the wind is in control of where it goes. After the second group landed we had to help pack up the balloon. This included helping deflate, folding it up, and lift the basket onto a truck. After this we headed into town for our champagne breakfast. We had eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, hash browns, and of course champagne. From there, we headed to Kuranda.
In Kuranda, we walked around the shops and the markets before heading to the Rain ForeStation. This is where we took an Aboriginal “dream-time” walk and learned about spears, the didgeridoo, and throwing boomerangs. I also finally saw someone circular breathe and will attempt to learn it. Then we went to an Aboriginal dance show. Then we left to go to the Sky Rail. The Sky Rail went through the rainforest. We were able to get off and look at Barron Falls, and rainforest plants. Unfortunately at the top it was raining pretty hard and so we couldn’t really see a lot but it was fairly nice at the bottom after we navigated through the fog. At the bottom, we got picked up and taken back to the hotel. Even though it was like 3:30pm, we were all exhausted. We then walked around the city looking for food and finally decided to eat at KFC. It was a lot better than I expected it to be probably due to my extremely low expectations of KFC. Then we came back to our room, took showers, and went to bed.
Thursday was Thanksgiving Day. This was the day we were heading out to the Great Barrier Reef. We went to the Reef Fleet at 8:15 and caught our boat. We left the marina at 9am. On our way out to the outer reef, we stopped at Fitzroy Island to drop off some people. The entire trip out to the platform took about an hour and a half. Due to the weather, the ride out was very choppy and I became very seasick even though I took pills to prevent it. We were hoping that the platform would be very stable but found out that it was also floating and thus not stable either. Still seasick, we rode both a glass bottom boat and a semi-submerged boat. After having a roll for lunch, we slept on the sun deck with hopes of feeling better. We were woken up by the rain and I definitely felt a ton better. We walked through the underwater part of the platform before heading back onto the boat to head back into Cairns. We got back to Cairns at about 5:40pm. Again we were exhausted and went for food. This time, we ended up at Villa Romano. My mom and I had Moreton Bay Bugs with prawns and my dad had veal. We all had a thanksgiving glass of wine before returning to the room and falling asleep.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Cairns Round 2!!!!
11.23.10
Well,
Our last day in Sydney was spent walking around again. Before my mom and I woke up, my dad went exploring. He found an underground mall that was right across the street from the hotel. After my mom and I got up, we headed down to the mall to get breakfast. Then we wandered around checking out the area. From there we went to get my mom a free opal kangaroo pin. Then we walked over to the Botanic Gardens. We walked around for a couple of hours and got tons of sweet photos of plants and of the opera house with the Harbour Bridge behind it. When we got done in the gardens, we headed back to see the Opera house one more time up close. We got our final pictures and I touched all three buildings one last time. From there, we headed around Circular Quay back to the Rocks to the Fortune of War. We all got a Boag’s Draught and my dad also got Tooheys Old Black Ale. After that we decided we wanted food. We got side tracked and ended up in the three story Apple store. After checking out their new toys, we walked back to the Royal George bar for dinner. We had Barramundi and Chips. Then we found out that the bar was connected to a high class restaurant that turned into a night club called Ivy. My dad was blown away with what it was and how hidden it was. After dinner we returned to our room to pack and get ready to head to Cairns.
We got up at like 5:30am Tuesday Morning. We finished packing and caught a cab to the airport about an hour later. We grabbed breakfast at the airport and then left at 8:30am. We landed in Cairns just before 11am. Then we got a taxi to the Shangri-la Hotel. This hotel was more like a resort than a hotel, it is amazing. Unfortunately, it was rainy and muggy for most of the day. We walked around trying to find lunch and ended up at a Starbucks like place called Gloria Jean’s coffee. Then we continued walking around the city. Then we ended up at Kani’s. We shared a seafood platter that had prawns, lobster, salmon, and an avocado salad, and an Outback Sampler with kangaroo, crocodile, emu, and veggies. My favorites were emu, kangaroo, and the salmon in that order. Then we walked back to the hotel and went to bed.
Well,
Our last day in Sydney was spent walking around again. Before my mom and I woke up, my dad went exploring. He found an underground mall that was right across the street from the hotel. After my mom and I got up, we headed down to the mall to get breakfast. Then we wandered around checking out the area. From there we went to get my mom a free opal kangaroo pin. Then we walked over to the Botanic Gardens. We walked around for a couple of hours and got tons of sweet photos of plants and of the opera house with the Harbour Bridge behind it. When we got done in the gardens, we headed back to see the Opera house one more time up close. We got our final pictures and I touched all three buildings one last time. From there, we headed around Circular Quay back to the Rocks to the Fortune of War. We all got a Boag’s Draught and my dad also got Tooheys Old Black Ale. After that we decided we wanted food. We got side tracked and ended up in the three story Apple store. After checking out their new toys, we walked back to the Royal George bar for dinner. We had Barramundi and Chips. Then we found out that the bar was connected to a high class restaurant that turned into a night club called Ivy. My dad was blown away with what it was and how hidden it was. After dinner we returned to our room to pack and get ready to head to Cairns.
We got up at like 5:30am Tuesday Morning. We finished packing and caught a cab to the airport about an hour later. We grabbed breakfast at the airport and then left at 8:30am. We landed in Cairns just before 11am. Then we got a taxi to the Shangri-la Hotel. This hotel was more like a resort than a hotel, it is amazing. Unfortunately, it was rainy and muggy for most of the day. We walked around trying to find lunch and ended up at a Starbucks like place called Gloria Jean’s coffee. Then we continued walking around the city. Then we ended up at Kani’s. We shared a seafood platter that had prawns, lobster, salmon, and an avocado salad, and an Outback Sampler with kangaroo, crocodile, emu, and veggies. My favorites were emu, kangaroo, and the salmon in that order. Then we walked back to the hotel and went to bed.
Monday, November 22, 2010
21!!!!!!!!!!!
11.21.10
Well,
Wednesday was the day I started packing up. I did very little packing and just relaxed since I only had a few days left at kings. That is until about 9:45pm. This is when I went to the bus station to head to Indooroopilly mall. This was opening night for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1. When I got to Indooroopilly, I filled in some crossword puzzles waiting for Jessica to show up with other girls from Women’s College. They finally arrived at 11:30. The theaters we went to had reserved seating so there was no need to wait in a line for 5 hours beforehand to try and get a good seat. The place was nearly empty until about 11:15. I enjoyed the movie, it was much more hilarious than I was expecting. Afterwards, I hitched a ride from one of Jessica’s friends back to King’s.
Thursday, I essentially finished packing except for the miscellaneous thing’s I used that night and on Friday. This took me most of the day since I had to empty out my closet and desk. I also had to do laundry so I had enough clothes to last for my trips with my parents. I filled all three of my suitcases and about 10 plastic grocery bags to fill the empty suitcases being brought by my parents. After I got done and felt that I had everything either packed or ready to be packed after I used it, it hit me that I was leaving Australia very soon. Even though I am excited to go home, I am going to have a tough time leaving. So to make myself feel a little better, I went up to see Gets, the head porter. Before I could really say much he asked me if I wanted to get some pizza and we headed to La Porchetta in the Vil. We got a Margarita pizza and went back to King’s and ate and talked for like an hour or so. It definitely cheered me up. After that I went to bed.
Friday was the 19th of November, aka, my birthday. Even though turning 21 here is not as climactic as it is in the states, I was still very excited. Unfortunately, this was that day I had to say bye to most of the people at King’s. I woke up early to make sure I got to see Lido and Wendy in the dining hall since they both leave for holiday and won’t be there when I return on December 1st to pick up my stuff. After having breakfast, I once again relaxed for most of the day. Since it was the end of the semester, most of the guys had left or had family visiting and so there wasn’t really anyone to do anything with. For lunch, I went to the kebab and pizza place in the Vil for a beef and lamb kebab and chips. It was really tasty. After lunch, I started to move all of my things up into a storage room since I couldn’t use my room for storage. I took about half since the rest still was not fully packed. For dinner, I found a place in West End that served kangaroo and I really wanted to have kangaroo for dinner on my birthday. I invited a group of people but Jessica was the only one that could make it; some were in Tassie, some had family visiting, and other just couldn’t make it. We met at about 5:30 to catch the 109 to the city to do some last minute souvenir shopping before heading to food. I made a reservation for 7pm and since I was unsure of the restaurant’s exact location, we wandered around West End until we found it. The place was called Tukka. I got to have my Kangaroo and I had a glass of wine. It was delicious. I am very happy that I will be able to drink when I return to the States.
I only got two hours of sleep Friday night due to anxiety for Saturday. I got up at 3:30am, left my room, turned in my room keys, and caught a taxi to the airport at 3:50am. For the third time, I flew to Sydney. My flight was at 6:00am and I managed to get to my gate by 4:30. I watched videos and listened to music on my iPod while waiting for the sun to rise and to board. When I got to Sydney, I got my luggage and headed to the international terminal to meet my parents. Once we found each other, we got a taxi and headed to a different Travelodge than the one that Erica and I stayed in at the end of September. Check-in time was at 2pm and since we arrived before lunch, we put our bags in their storage room until we could check in. we walked over to the QVB to walk around and take photos. Then we went to Darling Harbour to take more photos. After that we started walking back to our hotel and stopped at a Pie Face to get lunch. Since this was my parents’ first meal in Australia, I figured they should have an Australian food of meat pies and sausage rolls. After lunch we were allowed into our room. Luckily, our room is on floor 13. Once our bags were moved into the room, we left and headed towards the opera house. We caught the 3:15pm “Essentials Tour” through the opera house. Unknown to us, Saturday is matinee day so there were performances happening in almost all of the theaters. The theaters we were allowed into were the Studio, the opera theater, and the concert hall. We were lucky since we were not going to be able to get into the opera theater because of the ballet but it got let out just before the end of the tour. After we finished the tour we stopped in the gift shop and then headed to jetty #6 at Circular Quay. At 5pm, we left on our cocktail cruise. We sailed around the harbor for about an hour and a half and got some great pictures. We had a Sydney Bay Breeze, which was our complimentary cocktail, and a snack platter with cheese and olives and such. Then my dad got a gin martini, my mom got pink champagne, and I got a Mojito. After we returned to Circular Quay, we walked back to our hotel, stopping at some souvenir stores. Since we were not very hungry, we went to McDonald’s for dinner. Then we returned to the hotel and went to bed.
On Sunday, my parents were up early still trying to adjust to the time change and I slept until 8:30. We headed towards town hall and stopped in Woolworths for breakfast. I was just planning on grabbing a doughnut or something like that but we found they had a café on the top level and so we had a fairly large breakfast. My parents got to try the Australian breakfast sausage and we had eggs and toast. I had one and a half cooked tomatoes since neither of them wanted theirs. From there, we walked across the street to the anchor at Town Hall to catch the walking tour of the city that Erica and I took. The tour guide was the boyfriend of the tour guide that Erica and I had. The tour was just as good as I remembered it and I got another one of their awesome maps. The tour, again, took about 3 hours. Since it was the weekend, there was a market in the Rocks. We walked through them and headed towards the Hero of Waterloo to grab a beer. My mom had Pure Blonde, my dad had a pilsner, and I had Tooheys New. Tooheys is my favorite beer that I have had in Australia. It is so nice to be able to grab a beer with my parents, finally. After refreshing, we went to walk across the Harbour Bridge. After taking more pictures of the opera house and Circular Quay, we walked back across and over through the rocks. Once we got back across my mom needed a restroom and we stopped at the Australia Hotel. While my dad and I waited, we looked at the menu and noticed that they had kangaroo, crocodile, emu, and tons of other pizzas. So, we made a reservation, ran to a few souvenir stores, returned, and ordered a half and half Kangaroo and BBQ Emu pizza. We again had a beer with dinner. My mom had a Blue Tongue, my dad had a Beez Neez, and I had a Fat Yak. After dinner, we thought about possibly going to the Sydney tower or the other tall lookout. In both places, it was a bit expensive and not entirely worth the money to go to. While we walked back to the hotel, we stopped at Pie Face once again to grab a couple of their mini dessert pies. We had cherry, chocolate, and pear and ricotta. We ate them back in the room. Then we all went to bed.
Well,
Wednesday was the day I started packing up. I did very little packing and just relaxed since I only had a few days left at kings. That is until about 9:45pm. This is when I went to the bus station to head to Indooroopilly mall. This was opening night for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1. When I got to Indooroopilly, I filled in some crossword puzzles waiting for Jessica to show up with other girls from Women’s College. They finally arrived at 11:30. The theaters we went to had reserved seating so there was no need to wait in a line for 5 hours beforehand to try and get a good seat. The place was nearly empty until about 11:15. I enjoyed the movie, it was much more hilarious than I was expecting. Afterwards, I hitched a ride from one of Jessica’s friends back to King’s.
Thursday, I essentially finished packing except for the miscellaneous thing’s I used that night and on Friday. This took me most of the day since I had to empty out my closet and desk. I also had to do laundry so I had enough clothes to last for my trips with my parents. I filled all three of my suitcases and about 10 plastic grocery bags to fill the empty suitcases being brought by my parents. After I got done and felt that I had everything either packed or ready to be packed after I used it, it hit me that I was leaving Australia very soon. Even though I am excited to go home, I am going to have a tough time leaving. So to make myself feel a little better, I went up to see Gets, the head porter. Before I could really say much he asked me if I wanted to get some pizza and we headed to La Porchetta in the Vil. We got a Margarita pizza and went back to King’s and ate and talked for like an hour or so. It definitely cheered me up. After that I went to bed.
Friday was the 19th of November, aka, my birthday. Even though turning 21 here is not as climactic as it is in the states, I was still very excited. Unfortunately, this was that day I had to say bye to most of the people at King’s. I woke up early to make sure I got to see Lido and Wendy in the dining hall since they both leave for holiday and won’t be there when I return on December 1st to pick up my stuff. After having breakfast, I once again relaxed for most of the day. Since it was the end of the semester, most of the guys had left or had family visiting and so there wasn’t really anyone to do anything with. For lunch, I went to the kebab and pizza place in the Vil for a beef and lamb kebab and chips. It was really tasty. After lunch, I started to move all of my things up into a storage room since I couldn’t use my room for storage. I took about half since the rest still was not fully packed. For dinner, I found a place in West End that served kangaroo and I really wanted to have kangaroo for dinner on my birthday. I invited a group of people but Jessica was the only one that could make it; some were in Tassie, some had family visiting, and other just couldn’t make it. We met at about 5:30 to catch the 109 to the city to do some last minute souvenir shopping before heading to food. I made a reservation for 7pm and since I was unsure of the restaurant’s exact location, we wandered around West End until we found it. The place was called Tukka. I got to have my Kangaroo and I had a glass of wine. It was delicious. I am very happy that I will be able to drink when I return to the States.
I only got two hours of sleep Friday night due to anxiety for Saturday. I got up at 3:30am, left my room, turned in my room keys, and caught a taxi to the airport at 3:50am. For the third time, I flew to Sydney. My flight was at 6:00am and I managed to get to my gate by 4:30. I watched videos and listened to music on my iPod while waiting for the sun to rise and to board. When I got to Sydney, I got my luggage and headed to the international terminal to meet my parents. Once we found each other, we got a taxi and headed to a different Travelodge than the one that Erica and I stayed in at the end of September. Check-in time was at 2pm and since we arrived before lunch, we put our bags in their storage room until we could check in. we walked over to the QVB to walk around and take photos. Then we went to Darling Harbour to take more photos. After that we started walking back to our hotel and stopped at a Pie Face to get lunch. Since this was my parents’ first meal in Australia, I figured they should have an Australian food of meat pies and sausage rolls. After lunch we were allowed into our room. Luckily, our room is on floor 13. Once our bags were moved into the room, we left and headed towards the opera house. We caught the 3:15pm “Essentials Tour” through the opera house. Unknown to us, Saturday is matinee day so there were performances happening in almost all of the theaters. The theaters we were allowed into were the Studio, the opera theater, and the concert hall. We were lucky since we were not going to be able to get into the opera theater because of the ballet but it got let out just before the end of the tour. After we finished the tour we stopped in the gift shop and then headed to jetty #6 at Circular Quay. At 5pm, we left on our cocktail cruise. We sailed around the harbor for about an hour and a half and got some great pictures. We had a Sydney Bay Breeze, which was our complimentary cocktail, and a snack platter with cheese and olives and such. Then my dad got a gin martini, my mom got pink champagne, and I got a Mojito. After we returned to Circular Quay, we walked back to our hotel, stopping at some souvenir stores. Since we were not very hungry, we went to McDonald’s for dinner. Then we returned to the hotel and went to bed.
On Sunday, my parents were up early still trying to adjust to the time change and I slept until 8:30. We headed towards town hall and stopped in Woolworths for breakfast. I was just planning on grabbing a doughnut or something like that but we found they had a café on the top level and so we had a fairly large breakfast. My parents got to try the Australian breakfast sausage and we had eggs and toast. I had one and a half cooked tomatoes since neither of them wanted theirs. From there, we walked across the street to the anchor at Town Hall to catch the walking tour of the city that Erica and I took. The tour guide was the boyfriend of the tour guide that Erica and I had. The tour was just as good as I remembered it and I got another one of their awesome maps. The tour, again, took about 3 hours. Since it was the weekend, there was a market in the Rocks. We walked through them and headed towards the Hero of Waterloo to grab a beer. My mom had Pure Blonde, my dad had a pilsner, and I had Tooheys New. Tooheys is my favorite beer that I have had in Australia. It is so nice to be able to grab a beer with my parents, finally. After refreshing, we went to walk across the Harbour Bridge. After taking more pictures of the opera house and Circular Quay, we walked back across and over through the rocks. Once we got back across my mom needed a restroom and we stopped at the Australia Hotel. While my dad and I waited, we looked at the menu and noticed that they had kangaroo, crocodile, emu, and tons of other pizzas. So, we made a reservation, ran to a few souvenir stores, returned, and ordered a half and half Kangaroo and BBQ Emu pizza. We again had a beer with dinner. My mom had a Blue Tongue, my dad had a Beez Neez, and I had a Fat Yak. After dinner, we thought about possibly going to the Sydney tower or the other tall lookout. In both places, it was a bit expensive and not entirely worth the money to go to. While we walked back to the hotel, we stopped at Pie Face once again to grab a couple of their mini dessert pies. We had cherry, chocolate, and pear and ricotta. We ate them back in the room. Then we all went to bed.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Tasmania 2!!!!!!!!!
11.16.10
Well,
Sunday morning came and I got up around 6:15am. The tour we had booked provided us with breakfast so I had a bowl of cereal and a couple pieces of toast with jam. We checked out of the hostel by sliding the keys under the door to reception. The shuttle came and picked us up and again there were five of us. This time the three other people were not a group; one was from France, Lorraine; another from China, Carmen; and the third from the UK, Chris. Our first stop was in the town of Ross. This was a very small town that had a church on every corner and the third oldest bridge in Australia. This bridge was built by two convicts. From there we stopped at a café to grab food for lunch when it was that time. Then we were off to Freycinet (pronounced fray-sin-nay) National Park. This was the home to Wineglass Bay and Hazards Bay. The five of us decided it would be a great idea to see as much of the park as we could in the 4 hours we were there. We saw both bays and got to walk along the beaches plus we saw wild wallabies and tons of nature. It took us about 3 and a half hours to walk the 11km path. We were all exhausted by the time we made it back to the shuttle. We also stopped to see a couple lookouts before heading to Bicheno for the night. In Bicheno, we stayed at the Bicheno Backpackers Hostel. Bicheno was also a very small town; it had one supermarket and a few surf shops. For dinner, Chris, John, and I went to a surf and turf diner, basically the place that was open. After dinner, the three of us chose to go to the penguin rookeries that were in town. At 8:25, we grabbed the shuttle to the rookeries and had an hour tour of the area and saw the Little Penguins, the same kind of penguins I saw in Melbourne with Kirsten, come out of the water, scale the rocks, and waddle their way up to their nests. We also got to see some of the nests that were in man-made, observation burrows. Once that was done, we headed back to the hostel and crashed.
Monday morning was very exciting because we had to meet at 7:45am instead of 7:30am. Again, I had toast with jam. Once we checked out, we headed for some whaling lookouts. We could see the entire town and many beaches surrounding Bicheno. At that point we left Bicheno and stated our journey towards Launceston. On our way, we stopped at a river and watering hole. Then the group split up and John and I went to see a beach while the other three went to see Tasmanian Devils at a wildlife park. The beach was nice, kind of chilly but not bad. We got some good pictures and took about a 1km walk from one car park to the other. Before we reached the second car park, we had to walk through a little stream that was about a foot deep. The water was freezing. But, by the time we got back to the shuttle, our legs had dried off. Then we picked up the rest of our crew and headed to the Bay of Fires. This was another beach but this one had lichen, which is a type of rock. It is orange and made the rocks look like they were on fire. It was pretty neat. We spent about an hour there. After that we went to grab some lunch in St. Helens, the largest city on the east side of Tasmania with a whopping population of 5,000. After that we headed across the state to a cheese factory. They have it set up so people can look into the factory and watch how the cheese is made. We watched that and then went to a cheese tasting. Behind the factory were awesome views of the green hills and pastures along with their collection of cows (and bales).
After that we headed up to St. Columba Falls. The falls are about 90 meters long. The water falls onto a rocky part of the cliff so it is not just one stream falling but it splits in to multiple. After another small hike, we got up close and stood basically at the base of the falls. Then we loaded back into the shuttle and headed up to Ralph Falls. This was where we had the most gorgeous view of anything I have seen while in Australia. The water in these falls fell in one stream along the cliff but that was not the best part. Looking away from the cliff was got to see an eagle’s eye view of the green pastures. Everything was green and all the hills were coated in grass. It was clear enough that we could see out to the bay between Tasmania and Victoria. I was in shock at how beautiful the view was. After getting tons of picture we headed back up to the shuttle to go to Rangarooma. This was another small town. In this town, they had carved trees as memorials to soldiers who fought in the World War I. We then went up to one last look out over the green fields before leaving and getting to Launceston. When we got to Launceston, John and I parted ways with the rest of the group. The other three had booked a five day tour that started on the second day of our three day tour. John and I stayed at the Arthouse Hostel. This was right accords the river from the main part of Launceston. After dropping off our bags we headed into the city for dinner. I was in shock that at 7pm, the entire city was closed down. I understand that everything closes earlier in Australia but I didn’t think it was that early. Luckily we found a Thai place that was still open. For dinner, I had quail. It was really good and really spicy. After dinner we walked back to the hostel and went to bed.
Tuesday morning we slept in until 9. After checking out of the hostel, we headed towards the gorge. The gorge was about a 45 minute walk from the hostel. They had a café, a pool, a suspension bridge, and multiple trails to and from the main lake area. Our walk to the gorge was nice and fairly flat, which was nice, but our walk back was tough. We took a hike that was essentially an upside down v path. We hiked up a steep trail for about 10 minutes and then down a steep trail for about 10 minutes. Then we went to grab lunch at a place called “Burgers Got Soul.” This place had the best burgers I have had since I have been here. They still weren’t American burgers, but they were the closest. Then we walked around the city taking pictures. We then got back to the hostel to get a shuttle to the airport. The airport was really small, they had a news store and a coffee shop and the gates. About 10 minutes after we were supposed to board, we found out that the flight crew for our plane was in Melbourne and we had to wait for their flight to arrive before we could take-off. Therefore, our flight was delayed by almost two hours. We finally got back to Brisbane and got our luggage at about 8:30pm. We got back to King’s, got some food, and I went to bed.
Well,
Sunday morning came and I got up around 6:15am. The tour we had booked provided us with breakfast so I had a bowl of cereal and a couple pieces of toast with jam. We checked out of the hostel by sliding the keys under the door to reception. The shuttle came and picked us up and again there were five of us. This time the three other people were not a group; one was from France, Lorraine; another from China, Carmen; and the third from the UK, Chris. Our first stop was in the town of Ross. This was a very small town that had a church on every corner and the third oldest bridge in Australia. This bridge was built by two convicts. From there we stopped at a café to grab food for lunch when it was that time. Then we were off to Freycinet (pronounced fray-sin-nay) National Park. This was the home to Wineglass Bay and Hazards Bay. The five of us decided it would be a great idea to see as much of the park as we could in the 4 hours we were there. We saw both bays and got to walk along the beaches plus we saw wild wallabies and tons of nature. It took us about 3 and a half hours to walk the 11km path. We were all exhausted by the time we made it back to the shuttle. We also stopped to see a couple lookouts before heading to Bicheno for the night. In Bicheno, we stayed at the Bicheno Backpackers Hostel. Bicheno was also a very small town; it had one supermarket and a few surf shops. For dinner, Chris, John, and I went to a surf and turf diner, basically the place that was open. After dinner, the three of us chose to go to the penguin rookeries that were in town. At 8:25, we grabbed the shuttle to the rookeries and had an hour tour of the area and saw the Little Penguins, the same kind of penguins I saw in Melbourne with Kirsten, come out of the water, scale the rocks, and waddle their way up to their nests. We also got to see some of the nests that were in man-made, observation burrows. Once that was done, we headed back to the hostel and crashed.
Monday morning was very exciting because we had to meet at 7:45am instead of 7:30am. Again, I had toast with jam. Once we checked out, we headed for some whaling lookouts. We could see the entire town and many beaches surrounding Bicheno. At that point we left Bicheno and stated our journey towards Launceston. On our way, we stopped at a river and watering hole. Then the group split up and John and I went to see a beach while the other three went to see Tasmanian Devils at a wildlife park. The beach was nice, kind of chilly but not bad. We got some good pictures and took about a 1km walk from one car park to the other. Before we reached the second car park, we had to walk through a little stream that was about a foot deep. The water was freezing. But, by the time we got back to the shuttle, our legs had dried off. Then we picked up the rest of our crew and headed to the Bay of Fires. This was another beach but this one had lichen, which is a type of rock. It is orange and made the rocks look like they were on fire. It was pretty neat. We spent about an hour there. After that we went to grab some lunch in St. Helens, the largest city on the east side of Tasmania with a whopping population of 5,000. After that we headed across the state to a cheese factory. They have it set up so people can look into the factory and watch how the cheese is made. We watched that and then went to a cheese tasting. Behind the factory were awesome views of the green hills and pastures along with their collection of cows (and bales).
After that we headed up to St. Columba Falls. The falls are about 90 meters long. The water falls onto a rocky part of the cliff so it is not just one stream falling but it splits in to multiple. After another small hike, we got up close and stood basically at the base of the falls. Then we loaded back into the shuttle and headed up to Ralph Falls. This was where we had the most gorgeous view of anything I have seen while in Australia. The water in these falls fell in one stream along the cliff but that was not the best part. Looking away from the cliff was got to see an eagle’s eye view of the green pastures. Everything was green and all the hills were coated in grass. It was clear enough that we could see out to the bay between Tasmania and Victoria. I was in shock at how beautiful the view was. After getting tons of picture we headed back up to the shuttle to go to Rangarooma. This was another small town. In this town, they had carved trees as memorials to soldiers who fought in the World War I. We then went up to one last look out over the green fields before leaving and getting to Launceston. When we got to Launceston, John and I parted ways with the rest of the group. The other three had booked a five day tour that started on the second day of our three day tour. John and I stayed at the Arthouse Hostel. This was right accords the river from the main part of Launceston. After dropping off our bags we headed into the city for dinner. I was in shock that at 7pm, the entire city was closed down. I understand that everything closes earlier in Australia but I didn’t think it was that early. Luckily we found a Thai place that was still open. For dinner, I had quail. It was really good and really spicy. After dinner we walked back to the hostel and went to bed.
Tuesday morning we slept in until 9. After checking out of the hostel, we headed towards the gorge. The gorge was about a 45 minute walk from the hostel. They had a café, a pool, a suspension bridge, and multiple trails to and from the main lake area. Our walk to the gorge was nice and fairly flat, which was nice, but our walk back was tough. We took a hike that was essentially an upside down v path. We hiked up a steep trail for about 10 minutes and then down a steep trail for about 10 minutes. Then we went to grab lunch at a place called “Burgers Got Soul.” This place had the best burgers I have had since I have been here. They still weren’t American burgers, but they were the closest. Then we walked around the city taking pictures. We then got back to the hostel to get a shuttle to the airport. The airport was really small, they had a news store and a coffee shop and the gates. About 10 minutes after we were supposed to board, we found out that the flight crew for our plane was in Melbourne and we had to wait for their flight to arrive before we could take-off. Therefore, our flight was delayed by almost two hours. We finally got back to Brisbane and got our luggage at about 8:30pm. We got back to King’s, got some food, and I went to bed.
Tasmania!!!!!
11.13.10
Well,
John and I left King’s at the dark and early hour of 3:30am on Friday. I stayed up all night because it was not worth trying to sleep and then not being able to sleep on the planes. We arrived at the airport by 4:30am and got through checking and security before 5. Our flight left at 5:30am. I was surprised at how many people were actually on a flight that early. We had a 2 hour layover in the Canberra airport. The airport was the least exciting airport I have ever been to. They had like one coffee shop, a news agency, and gates. The gates didn’t really have sufficient seating so I sat on the floor. Then from Canberra we flew in to Hobart. I was unaware that Tasmania was a quarantined island and no produce was allowed in or out of the island. They had dogs sniffing to find the food. We finally got to Central City Backpackers hostel at about 1pm. Tasmania is 1 hour ahead of Brisbane due to daylight savings not being observed in Queensland. We had a privet room for the two which is a whole lot nicer than sharing a four bed room with strangers. It was tiny but good. That afternoon, we both took a nap to catch up on sleep. That evening we walked around Hobart to get our bearings. It was threatening rain but there was nothing more than a sprinkle. We managed to miss both breakfast and lunch and so only had dinner. We ate at a dumpling restaurant. I had some awesome wonton noodle soup. After dinner we returned to our room and played some cards before going to bed.
We checked out the hostel Saturday morning at 7am and went to wait for our tour shuttle to arrive. We got picked up at 7:20am. We found out that there were going to be five of us total on the tour but the driver did not know where the other three were getting picked up from and took me and John to the Saturday market near the wharf until he found out. After about a half hour, we found the other group and were heading on our way. Our first stop was in Richmond at a bakery and also saw the oldest bridge in Australia; it was built in 1823. From there we headed to Port Arthur. On the way we stopped at lookout point and got awesome views of the coast. We also saw the Tasman Arch. This is a natural arch caused by erosion of the soft stone due to the tide rising. We arrived at Port Arthur at about 11:15am. Port Arthur, also considered “Hell on Earth” is a decommission prison. To be sent to Port Arthur, first you had to commit a crime in England, be sentenced to transportation (being sent to Australia) and then be convicted of more crimes while in Australia. Unlike most prisons, this one had no perimeter fence due to the natural vegetation around it that prevented criminal from escaping. We spent three hours there and had both a harbor tour and a walking tour. This is also where we had lunch. From there we went to so more scenic lookouts and saw another archway but it was more of a cave. After that we headed to the Tasmania Devil Conservation Park. We saw Tasmanian devils, kangaroos (with Joeys in their pouches), a bird show, and other various animals. From there we headed back into Hobart. Our tour included accommodations so we stayed a different hostel, Montgomery’s and had a family room to ourselves. This hostel was a bit nicer then Central city but was much noisier. Luckily we had a corner room but it was sitting right over a bar and the bar was blasting music. We somehow managed to sleep through it.
Well,
John and I left King’s at the dark and early hour of 3:30am on Friday. I stayed up all night because it was not worth trying to sleep and then not being able to sleep on the planes. We arrived at the airport by 4:30am and got through checking and security before 5. Our flight left at 5:30am. I was surprised at how many people were actually on a flight that early. We had a 2 hour layover in the Canberra airport. The airport was the least exciting airport I have ever been to. They had like one coffee shop, a news agency, and gates. The gates didn’t really have sufficient seating so I sat on the floor. Then from Canberra we flew in to Hobart. I was unaware that Tasmania was a quarantined island and no produce was allowed in or out of the island. They had dogs sniffing to find the food. We finally got to Central City Backpackers hostel at about 1pm. Tasmania is 1 hour ahead of Brisbane due to daylight savings not being observed in Queensland. We had a privet room for the two which is a whole lot nicer than sharing a four bed room with strangers. It was tiny but good. That afternoon, we both took a nap to catch up on sleep. That evening we walked around Hobart to get our bearings. It was threatening rain but there was nothing more than a sprinkle. We managed to miss both breakfast and lunch and so only had dinner. We ate at a dumpling restaurant. I had some awesome wonton noodle soup. After dinner we returned to our room and played some cards before going to bed.
We checked out the hostel Saturday morning at 7am and went to wait for our tour shuttle to arrive. We got picked up at 7:20am. We found out that there were going to be five of us total on the tour but the driver did not know where the other three were getting picked up from and took me and John to the Saturday market near the wharf until he found out. After about a half hour, we found the other group and were heading on our way. Our first stop was in Richmond at a bakery and also saw the oldest bridge in Australia; it was built in 1823. From there we headed to Port Arthur. On the way we stopped at lookout point and got awesome views of the coast. We also saw the Tasman Arch. This is a natural arch caused by erosion of the soft stone due to the tide rising. We arrived at Port Arthur at about 11:15am. Port Arthur, also considered “Hell on Earth” is a decommission prison. To be sent to Port Arthur, first you had to commit a crime in England, be sentenced to transportation (being sent to Australia) and then be convicted of more crimes while in Australia. Unlike most prisons, this one had no perimeter fence due to the natural vegetation around it that prevented criminal from escaping. We spent three hours there and had both a harbor tour and a walking tour. This is also where we had lunch. From there we went to so more scenic lookouts and saw another archway but it was more of a cave. After that we headed to the Tasmania Devil Conservation Park. We saw Tasmanian devils, kangaroos (with Joeys in their pouches), a bird show, and other various animals. From there we headed back into Hobart. Our tour included accommodations so we stayed a different hostel, Montgomery’s and had a family room to ourselves. This hostel was a bit nicer then Central city but was much noisier. Luckily we had a corner room but it was sitting right over a bar and the bar was blasting music. We somehow managed to sleep through it.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
DONE!!!!!
11.11.10
Well,
I had my Australia’s Marine Environment final exam on Monday and I turned in my last paper today. It is official that I am done with school in Australia. Wednesday, I went to the percussion recitals. These are similar to the juries I have to do at the end of each quarter except I think they get to choose the judges and anyone can sit in to listen. They were all really good and I am going to miss playing with them. Tomorrow, I leave for Tasmania with John. We will be gone for 5 days, three of which will be traveling the eastern side of the island; the other two days are travel. I am really excited.
Well,
I had my Australia’s Marine Environment final exam on Monday and I turned in my last paper today. It is official that I am done with school in Australia. Wednesday, I went to the percussion recitals. These are similar to the juries I have to do at the end of each quarter except I think they get to choose the judges and anyone can sit in to listen. They were all really good and I am going to miss playing with them. Tomorrow, I leave for Tasmania with John. We will be gone for 5 days, three of which will be traveling the eastern side of the island; the other two days are travel. I am really excited.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Last weekend before schools out!
11.7.10
Well,
Thursday morning was the time for last minute Sydney souvenir shopping. After wandering the streets Kirsten and I got our luggage and headed to the airport for our flight. Once we arrived in Brisbane, we parted ways. I got to my room, and went to bed early.
On Friday, I spent most of the day relaxing and slowly studying for my Marine Environment final exam on Monday. That night I hit the town with Kirsten, Jessica, and Evan before Evan headed back to Texas. On Saturday, Kirsten, Jessica, and I went back to the city to grab lunch and hit up the South Bank weekend market. We had lunch and then ran to the Indooroopilly mall to buy tickets for the midnight Harry Potter. I am very excited for that. Sunday, I finished studying for my exam.
Well,
Thursday morning was the time for last minute Sydney souvenir shopping. After wandering the streets Kirsten and I got our luggage and headed to the airport for our flight. Once we arrived in Brisbane, we parted ways. I got to my room, and went to bed early.
On Friday, I spent most of the day relaxing and slowly studying for my Marine Environment final exam on Monday. That night I hit the town with Kirsten, Jessica, and Evan before Evan headed back to Texas. On Saturday, Kirsten, Jessica, and I went back to the city to grab lunch and hit up the South Bank weekend market. We had lunch and then ran to the Indooroopilly mall to buy tickets for the midnight Harry Potter. I am very excited for that. Sunday, I finished studying for my exam.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Sydney take two!!!!!
11.3.10
Well,
Tuesday morning came and after Kirsten and I collected our stuff, we checked out and headed to the airport for our 8:45am flight to Sydney. Once we arrived in Sydney, we found out that to get the free airport shuttle we were told about, we had to spend at least three nights in the hostel and we only were spending two. So, we got a taxi. When we got to the Westend Backpackers Hostel, we were expecting to see Jessica (Kirsten’s friend from Women’s College at UQ) and Evan (Jessica’s boyfriend), but they were not there due to their flight being delayed. They finally arrived about 40 minutes after Kirsten and I did. The four of us stayed in one of the four person rooms. This was super nice since we all were going to be hanging together and I trusted everyone in the room with my stuff, unlike in Melbourne. Luckily, we also had a private bathroom in the room. This hostel was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much better than the hostel in Melbourne (and yes, the excessive amount of ‘o’s is necessary). The hostel was about 2 blocks away from the Travelodge that Erica and I stayed at 5 weeks ago.
The first thing we decided to do was walk over to the aquarium. The aquarium was at Darling harbor. The harbor is also home to the Maritime Museum, the Wildlife World, Captain Cook Cruises, some shops, and a bunch of boats. The Aquarium was fairly large, larger than I thought. The big theme was “Animals of the Future” and they had a booklet and displays of animals that could scientifically exist in 200 million years. Most of these ideas were extremely dumb. The present animals they had included a dugong, a couple manta rays, sharks, fish, octopi, cuttlefish, squids, more fish, and more sharks. The walk felt a little long and repetitive. They also had the world’s largest animatronics shark at 7.4 meters. The previous record holder was the 6 meter animatronics shark from Jaws. Once we got done at the aquarium we walked back to the hostel to drop stuff off before we met up with Sylvia. Sylvia is a friend of Kirsten’s grandparents and was given Kirsten’s number so they could meet when we got to Sydney. Sylvia invited all Jessica, Evan, and me to join them. We first drove to Bondi beach. The waves were huge. After taking some pictures and driving around some more, we went up to Gap Bluff and got amazing shots of both the ocean and the city. We then went to Doyle’s for a delicious dinner. I had Tasmanian Salmon. We also sat on the deck and saw the sun set behind the Sydney skyline. It was the best view I have seen of Sydney. After dinner we went to Badde Manores for dessert and coffee. Once we got done there, Sylvia dropped us off. The four of us played a couple games of cards and went to bed.
Wednesday came and we got up to go to the Taronga Zoo. Our ferry was leaving from Darling Harbour and on our way we went through the Queen Victoria Building (QVB). Last time I was here, the Queen Victoria statue and all the other statues were dressed up in ridiculous outfits and now they were all back to normal. Now, they had a ridiculously large lit Christmas tree in the middle of the QVB. We got to darling harbor and couth the ferry. We stopped at Circular Qauy and Fort Dennison before getting to the Zoo. At the zoo, we rode the gondola from the bottom to the top of the zoo and started to walk down. The zoo kind of felt like the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo since it was on somewhat of a hill. We walked through the Australian animal area, saw the sea lion show, visited the nocturnal animal house, and saw the big cats. It was really cool. Once we got done, we caught the ferry back to Circular Quay and walked to the opera house to take tourist pictures. From there we walked back to the hostel to again meet Sylvia.
This time we drove across the Harbour Bridge to the Kirribilli club for dinner. I had linguini seafood pasta that was also amazing. Then we drove to Manly beach and had dessert and coffee. After that we drove back to the hostel and crashed. Thursday, we fly back to Brisbane at 2pm.
Well,
Tuesday morning came and after Kirsten and I collected our stuff, we checked out and headed to the airport for our 8:45am flight to Sydney. Once we arrived in Sydney, we found out that to get the free airport shuttle we were told about, we had to spend at least three nights in the hostel and we only were spending two. So, we got a taxi. When we got to the Westend Backpackers Hostel, we were expecting to see Jessica (Kirsten’s friend from Women’s College at UQ) and Evan (Jessica’s boyfriend), but they were not there due to their flight being delayed. They finally arrived about 40 minutes after Kirsten and I did. The four of us stayed in one of the four person rooms. This was super nice since we all were going to be hanging together and I trusted everyone in the room with my stuff, unlike in Melbourne. Luckily, we also had a private bathroom in the room. This hostel was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much better than the hostel in Melbourne (and yes, the excessive amount of ‘o’s is necessary). The hostel was about 2 blocks away from the Travelodge that Erica and I stayed at 5 weeks ago.
The first thing we decided to do was walk over to the aquarium. The aquarium was at Darling harbor. The harbor is also home to the Maritime Museum, the Wildlife World, Captain Cook Cruises, some shops, and a bunch of boats. The Aquarium was fairly large, larger than I thought. The big theme was “Animals of the Future” and they had a booklet and displays of animals that could scientifically exist in 200 million years. Most of these ideas were extremely dumb. The present animals they had included a dugong, a couple manta rays, sharks, fish, octopi, cuttlefish, squids, more fish, and more sharks. The walk felt a little long and repetitive. They also had the world’s largest animatronics shark at 7.4 meters. The previous record holder was the 6 meter animatronics shark from Jaws. Once we got done at the aquarium we walked back to the hostel to drop stuff off before we met up with Sylvia. Sylvia is a friend of Kirsten’s grandparents and was given Kirsten’s number so they could meet when we got to Sydney. Sylvia invited all Jessica, Evan, and me to join them. We first drove to Bondi beach. The waves were huge. After taking some pictures and driving around some more, we went up to Gap Bluff and got amazing shots of both the ocean and the city. We then went to Doyle’s for a delicious dinner. I had Tasmanian Salmon. We also sat on the deck and saw the sun set behind the Sydney skyline. It was the best view I have seen of Sydney. After dinner we went to Badde Manores for dessert and coffee. Once we got done there, Sylvia dropped us off. The four of us played a couple games of cards and went to bed.
Wednesday came and we got up to go to the Taronga Zoo. Our ferry was leaving from Darling Harbour and on our way we went through the Queen Victoria Building (QVB). Last time I was here, the Queen Victoria statue and all the other statues were dressed up in ridiculous outfits and now they were all back to normal. Now, they had a ridiculously large lit Christmas tree in the middle of the QVB. We got to darling harbor and couth the ferry. We stopped at Circular Qauy and Fort Dennison before getting to the Zoo. At the zoo, we rode the gondola from the bottom to the top of the zoo and started to walk down. The zoo kind of felt like the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo since it was on somewhat of a hill. We walked through the Australian animal area, saw the sea lion show, visited the nocturnal animal house, and saw the big cats. It was really cool. Once we got done, we caught the ferry back to Circular Quay and walked to the opera house to take tourist pictures. From there we walked back to the hostel to again meet Sylvia.
This time we drove across the Harbour Bridge to the Kirribilli club for dinner. I had linguini seafood pasta that was also amazing. Then we drove to Manly beach and had dessert and coffee. After that we drove back to the hostel and crashed. Thursday, we fly back to Brisbane at 2pm.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Penguin Parade
11.1.10
Well,
This past week was the last week of classes for the semester. It was really nice not having tutorials and only having lectures. Since wind symphony already had a concert, the Thursday rehearsal was a party. It really wasn’t that exciting but it was nice to say bye to some people I may never see again. And after the last week of class, there is a week break before finals. I only have one final exam and so I am taking that week to travel. The first stop is Melbourne.
Kirsten and I left Brisbane around 6pm Saturday night and arrived in Melbourne about 10pm and checked in at the Nomads All Nations hostel. We are in a four person room, meaning we are sharing with two strangers. The beds are horrible; I can feel every spring in the mattress. The pillows are basically cases filled with lumps of fluff and extremely difficult to sleep on. The two other guys that are in the room I am pretty sure live out of it and left very little room for Kirsten and me to put our stuff. Thankfully, we really never see them except at night. The room is on the fourth floor of the building. Unfortunately, there are train tracks and trolley tracks right out or window and are extremely loud when either pass. Kirsten and I are both very glad we are only spending one more night here.
On Sunday, we got to sleep in a little bit and grabbed breakfast at a café right next door. We both had a cup of coffee and a muffin. Then we headed to the Holiday Inn entrance to go on our day trip to Phillips Island. The tour was with a company called Go West. There were 20 people total on the trip and after picking everyone up, we were off. Since, we arrived in Melbourne it had been raining and we were all hoping it would stop before we started any of the activities. And it did. Our first stop was in Kooweerup, aka the asparagus capitol of the world. We did not stop for the asparagus but we stopped for a bathroom break and to grab some kind of food. After that we headed to the Bass River Winery for a wine tasting, my first wine tasting ever! We had two white wines, two red wines, a rosé, a sweet Riesling, and a cherry wine. The cherry wine and the sweet wine were my favorites. They also had concentrated grape juice which was a bit thicker than honey and was also very good. Along with the wines they had some cheeses. We had brie, mozzarella, and blue cheese and they were fantastic. After the winery we headed to the Philip Island Chocolate Factory. I got to create my own chocolate bar with strawberry and cola flavoring. I also could have put in wasabi or vegemite but did not.
The next stop on our adventure was to Woolamai Beach. The parking lot was at the top of the dunes and due to high winds, sand was being blown everywhere. We were hoping that the high winds would equal surfers but there was no one in the water. Then we headed to the Koala conservatory. This was basically a gated off area of eucalyptus trees and nothing like the Lone Pine Sanctuary. We only saw 5 koalas and one wallaby. Then it was time for dinner. Kirsten and I went to an Italian place called Isola Di Capri and it was delicious.
From there we headed to the Nobbies. This was an area where penguins had burrows and we could see seal rock. The place was covered with seagulls and one of the windiest places I have been to in a long time. Since the wind was so strong, all of the penguins stayed in their homes and I couldn’t get any good pictures of them. Then it was time for the Penguin Parade. They had a café, two gift shops, and a museum area. For the parade, we sat three rows from the sand. The penguins arrived at 8:17pm. There were hundreds of them. The actually species we saw was the Little Penguin. They came up in groups called ‘rafts’ and every raft had more and more penguins. After sitting and watching them come out of the water, we worked our way back up the path that ran next to the parade. We were there for over an hour before returning to the shuttle to get back into Melbourne. We got back to the hostel just after midnight.
On Sunday, Kirsten and I slept in until about 10:30am. We had nothing planned for the day and just wandered around the city taking pictures and getting to know Melbourne. When we arrived at the hostel, we were given drink vouchers for the bar next door and I got a free beer before heading to bed. So far, this is my second favorite city next to Brisbane. Tomorrow morning we are heading to Sydney.
Well,
This past week was the last week of classes for the semester. It was really nice not having tutorials and only having lectures. Since wind symphony already had a concert, the Thursday rehearsal was a party. It really wasn’t that exciting but it was nice to say bye to some people I may never see again. And after the last week of class, there is a week break before finals. I only have one final exam and so I am taking that week to travel. The first stop is Melbourne.
Kirsten and I left Brisbane around 6pm Saturday night and arrived in Melbourne about 10pm and checked in at the Nomads All Nations hostel. We are in a four person room, meaning we are sharing with two strangers. The beds are horrible; I can feel every spring in the mattress. The pillows are basically cases filled with lumps of fluff and extremely difficult to sleep on. The two other guys that are in the room I am pretty sure live out of it and left very little room for Kirsten and me to put our stuff. Thankfully, we really never see them except at night. The room is on the fourth floor of the building. Unfortunately, there are train tracks and trolley tracks right out or window and are extremely loud when either pass. Kirsten and I are both very glad we are only spending one more night here.
On Sunday, we got to sleep in a little bit and grabbed breakfast at a café right next door. We both had a cup of coffee and a muffin. Then we headed to the Holiday Inn entrance to go on our day trip to Phillips Island. The tour was with a company called Go West. There were 20 people total on the trip and after picking everyone up, we were off. Since, we arrived in Melbourne it had been raining and we were all hoping it would stop before we started any of the activities. And it did. Our first stop was in Kooweerup, aka the asparagus capitol of the world. We did not stop for the asparagus but we stopped for a bathroom break and to grab some kind of food. After that we headed to the Bass River Winery for a wine tasting, my first wine tasting ever! We had two white wines, two red wines, a rosé, a sweet Riesling, and a cherry wine. The cherry wine and the sweet wine were my favorites. They also had concentrated grape juice which was a bit thicker than honey and was also very good. Along with the wines they had some cheeses. We had brie, mozzarella, and blue cheese and they were fantastic. After the winery we headed to the Philip Island Chocolate Factory. I got to create my own chocolate bar with strawberry and cola flavoring. I also could have put in wasabi or vegemite but did not.
The next stop on our adventure was to Woolamai Beach. The parking lot was at the top of the dunes and due to high winds, sand was being blown everywhere. We were hoping that the high winds would equal surfers but there was no one in the water. Then we headed to the Koala conservatory. This was basically a gated off area of eucalyptus trees and nothing like the Lone Pine Sanctuary. We only saw 5 koalas and one wallaby. Then it was time for dinner. Kirsten and I went to an Italian place called Isola Di Capri and it was delicious.
From there we headed to the Nobbies. This was an area where penguins had burrows and we could see seal rock. The place was covered with seagulls and one of the windiest places I have been to in a long time. Since the wind was so strong, all of the penguins stayed in their homes and I couldn’t get any good pictures of them. Then it was time for the Penguin Parade. They had a café, two gift shops, and a museum area. For the parade, we sat three rows from the sand. The penguins arrived at 8:17pm. There were hundreds of them. The actually species we saw was the Little Penguin. They came up in groups called ‘rafts’ and every raft had more and more penguins. After sitting and watching them come out of the water, we worked our way back up the path that ran next to the parade. We were there for over an hour before returning to the shuttle to get back into Melbourne. We got back to the hostel just after midnight.
On Sunday, Kirsten and I slept in until about 10:30am. We had nothing planned for the day and just wandered around the city taking pictures and getting to know Melbourne. When we arrived at the hostel, we were given drink vouchers for the bar next door and I got a free beer before heading to bed. So far, this is my second favorite city next to Brisbane. Tomorrow morning we are heading to Sydney.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
QPAC!
10.24.10
Well,
I had my last tutorials this week and only have 2 lectures left before finals. I am definitely ready for this semester to be over so I can travel without stress. Once again, very little occurred during the weekdays. The only difference was that the wind symphony rehearsal got moved to Wednesday and to QPAC (Queensland Performing arts Center). This is because the actual concert was at QPAC.
Saturday, my French friend, Vivian, had a BBQ at his apartment. Even though only six people showed up, it was fun. We didn’t do a whole lot, just some cooking, eating, and talking.
Sunday was the day of the concert at QPAC. Three different groups played: UQ Symphony Orchestra, UQ Chamber Players, and UQ Wind Symphony. The concert rand for almost 3 hours, I played in about a half hour of it. It was nice to play at a state performing arts center and get to see backstage and not just be playing at a venue on campus.
Well,
I had my last tutorials this week and only have 2 lectures left before finals. I am definitely ready for this semester to be over so I can travel without stress. Once again, very little occurred during the weekdays. The only difference was that the wind symphony rehearsal got moved to Wednesday and to QPAC (Queensland Performing arts Center). This is because the actual concert was at QPAC.
Saturday, my French friend, Vivian, had a BBQ at his apartment. Even though only six people showed up, it was fun. We didn’t do a whole lot, just some cooking, eating, and talking.
Sunday was the day of the concert at QPAC. Three different groups played: UQ Symphony Orchestra, UQ Chamber Players, and UQ Wind Symphony. The concert rand for almost 3 hours, I played in about a half hour of it. It was nice to play at a state performing arts center and get to see backstage and not just be playing at a venue on campus.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Straddie take two!!
10.17.10
Well,
I had another eventful weekend, though, the weekdays…not so much. I had a paper due Tuesday and was stressed out about turning it in and everything. Once I was done with that a weight was lifted and I started relaxing and calming down knowing more stress is on the way. One of those stresses includes a “Places of Worship” paper. For this assessment, I have to visit three different places of worship and compare contrast them. While in Sydney with Erica, I went to the Hillsong church. This past weekend I went to place number 2, a Buddhist chanting service at the Amitabha Buddhist Association (AMB).
The chanting service was completely in Chinese so, I had no idea what was going on. The place was gorgeous, though. I did get a little lost trying to find it since it was hidden in a neighborhood and I could not figure out through Google maps, or the public transportation website where the bus was going to drop me off in reference to the AMB. After wandering or 10-15 minutes, I finally found it. After a little bit of an awkward introduction, I was guided around by one of the receptionists. I did have to take off my shoes in all of the buildings and had to wear a haiqing (a robe) while in the chanting space. The service was 2 hours long. The room had the Three Buddha’s at the front with two other statues. All five were covered in shiny gold clothing and adornments. There was a table at the front and a podium behind it. Most people used the cushions on the floor rather than chairs. They used a lot more percussive sounds than I was expecting. Almost the entire two hours was full of either chanting or bells and drums. It was quite an experience. On top of that, my journey involved getting soaked in the rain since I decided it would be a fantastic idea to leave my umbrella in my room instead of grabbing it when I realized there was a high chance of rain.
Saturday was a lazy day for me to work on more assignments and continue relaxing until more stress hits. I also decided to find the Southern Cross (constellation only visible in southern hemisphere) for Erica since she did not get to see it due to cloudy weather. Saturday night was the first night in almost two weeks that I could see stars and was able to find it. Unfortunately, my camera is not awesome enough to photo graph it well. I am hoping I will get into a darker part of the city and try taking a picture once again.
Sunday, I returned to North Stradbroke Island. QUEST, the international student org at UQ, planned a day trip across Moreton Bay to Straddie. Once again, I got to take the vehicle ferry. Once we got to the island, we parked and had a boomerang workshop. This included painting boomerangs and throwing them. Once we got done there, we headed out to point lookout. The views were awesome. Thankfully, it was clear and not as rainy and muggy as Friday. While there, we saw two whales breaching and 6 dolphins catching waves. It was awesome. After that we headed back to the park where we were throwing boomerangs since there was a beach there for us to swim. We were there for about an hour and a half and I continued throwing boomerangs and played catch with both a rugby football and an American football. I had a great time.
Well,
I had another eventful weekend, though, the weekdays…not so much. I had a paper due Tuesday and was stressed out about turning it in and everything. Once I was done with that a weight was lifted and I started relaxing and calming down knowing more stress is on the way. One of those stresses includes a “Places of Worship” paper. For this assessment, I have to visit three different places of worship and compare contrast them. While in Sydney with Erica, I went to the Hillsong church. This past weekend I went to place number 2, a Buddhist chanting service at the Amitabha Buddhist Association (AMB).
The chanting service was completely in Chinese so, I had no idea what was going on. The place was gorgeous, though. I did get a little lost trying to find it since it was hidden in a neighborhood and I could not figure out through Google maps, or the public transportation website where the bus was going to drop me off in reference to the AMB. After wandering or 10-15 minutes, I finally found it. After a little bit of an awkward introduction, I was guided around by one of the receptionists. I did have to take off my shoes in all of the buildings and had to wear a haiqing (a robe) while in the chanting space. The service was 2 hours long. The room had the Three Buddha’s at the front with two other statues. All five were covered in shiny gold clothing and adornments. There was a table at the front and a podium behind it. Most people used the cushions on the floor rather than chairs. They used a lot more percussive sounds than I was expecting. Almost the entire two hours was full of either chanting or bells and drums. It was quite an experience. On top of that, my journey involved getting soaked in the rain since I decided it would be a fantastic idea to leave my umbrella in my room instead of grabbing it when I realized there was a high chance of rain.
Saturday was a lazy day for me to work on more assignments and continue relaxing until more stress hits. I also decided to find the Southern Cross (constellation only visible in southern hemisphere) for Erica since she did not get to see it due to cloudy weather. Saturday night was the first night in almost two weeks that I could see stars and was able to find it. Unfortunately, my camera is not awesome enough to photo graph it well. I am hoping I will get into a darker part of the city and try taking a picture once again.
Sunday, I returned to North Stradbroke Island. QUEST, the international student org at UQ, planned a day trip across Moreton Bay to Straddie. Once again, I got to take the vehicle ferry. Once we got to the island, we parked and had a boomerang workshop. This included painting boomerangs and throwing them. Once we got done there, we headed out to point lookout. The views were awesome. Thankfully, it was clear and not as rainy and muggy as Friday. While there, we saw two whales breaching and 6 dolphins catching waves. It was awesome. After that we headed back to the park where we were throwing boomerangs since there was a beach there for us to swim. We were there for about an hour and a half and I continued throwing boomerangs and played catch with both a rugby football and an American football. I had a great time.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
10
10.10.10
Well,
Once Erica flew back to Denver, I flew back to Brisbane. Since then, I have just been working on homework and going to class. The weather has been continually getting warmer, when the sun’s out. But, summer is the rainy season and as summer approaches, so does the rain. Today is the fifth day of cloud cover and almost constant precipitation. Not a whole lot happened this past week, thus, the super short blog. This was week 10 of school. Normally, I would be getting ready for finals but since it’s a semester that I am here, I have three more weeks of class.
Time of posting: 10.10.10 10:10:10pm
Well,
Once Erica flew back to Denver, I flew back to Brisbane. Since then, I have just been working on homework and going to class. The weather has been continually getting warmer, when the sun’s out. But, summer is the rainy season and as summer approaches, so does the rain. Today is the fifth day of cloud cover and almost constant precipitation. Not a whole lot happened this past week, thus, the super short blog. This was week 10 of school. Normally, I would be getting ready for finals but since it’s a semester that I am here, I have three more weeks of class.
Time of posting: 10.10.10 10:10:10pm
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Final Days in Sydney!
10.1.10
Well,
Thursday, Erica and I planned to stay in Sydney and wander the city. First we got to the Botanic Gardens for a free tour. The tour was more specific information about different plants than an actual tour. We stayed for an hour before going off on our own to check it out. We walked around and saw loads of plants and took tons of pictures. We also found a gorgeous view of the opera house and the Harbour Bridge. After that we walked around the opera house and walked to the front to find a stage set up for “The Footy Show.” This is basically a very popular sports show that they were filming live from the Opera House later that night. We walked around hoping to find a kebab place for lunch but failed and ended up grabbing some food from a food court at Circular Quay. Then we walked through the Rocks to cross the Harbour Bridge. The walk took about 20 minutes. The bridge is 1.2km long. We walked across and back and then headed to Town Hall and QVB. That is when we met up with Cathy Lam. We walked around QVB for a while before heading to the Sydney Tower. We were hoping to eat at the bar or the restaurant in the tower but where not dressed up enough for it and just went to the observation deck. We were there at the perfect time just before sundown so we could see Sydney in the light and after dark. Once we went back down we went to OzTrek. This was a virtual reality type video at the bottom of the tower. It was about 20 minutes and went all over Australia but made me a little motion sick. At this point Erica and I said bye to Cathy and headed toward the observatory. On the way, we stopped at a place called Pie Face. We both had meat pies with faces drawn on them and they were delicious. We ate them at the observatory while waiting to go in. When we got in we walked around the exhibits before going into the planetarium. The planetarium was basically a big umbrella with the start projected on it. We had to sit/lay on the floor to see it. Then we walked up to the towers to use the telescopes. Since it was cloudy, all we could see was Jupiter. And it was cool since we could also see four of Jupiter’s moons. We got to see them both on a new digital telescope and an old manual telescope. Once we got done in the towers, we went down to see some 3D videos in a theater they had. Then we headed back to the hotel.
Earlier in the week, we decided to make Friday, ‘beach day.’ We got up and headed to Bondi Beach. It was a little depressing that it was cloudy, windy, and a bit chilly. We still got to lie on the beach and dip our feet in the water. For lunch, we kind of had a picnic of sandwiches we picked up before leaving. There was also a little aquarium that we stopped by and looked through. And when I say little, I mean little. We also walked along the shops and such along the beach before heading back into the city. Continuing with the relaxed atmosphere of the day, we chilled at the hotel for an hour before going to services. Erica found The Great Synagogue and headed there while I went to the Hillsong church in the city. It was really lucky for me to be able to go since they normally do not have services on Friday but since Oct. 4th is a public holiday for Sydney, it got moved to Friday. The mass was a lot different than what I thought it would be. The band played three opening songs, then the pastor came out and gave announcements and and such. Then, a video feed was opened that connected the city campus (where I was) and the Hills campus. Over this, the Word was given and also the sermon from a pastor from Miami.Then the videos were closed and the serviced finished with one last song before everyone dispersed. After the services, Erica and I met back up to grab dinner at Curve. This was a higher class restaurant. We both got barramundi and chardonnay. This was our final dinner together since we leave Sydney tomorrow. After packing, we went to bed.
Well,
Thursday, Erica and I planned to stay in Sydney and wander the city. First we got to the Botanic Gardens for a free tour. The tour was more specific information about different plants than an actual tour. We stayed for an hour before going off on our own to check it out. We walked around and saw loads of plants and took tons of pictures. We also found a gorgeous view of the opera house and the Harbour Bridge. After that we walked around the opera house and walked to the front to find a stage set up for “The Footy Show.” This is basically a very popular sports show that they were filming live from the Opera House later that night. We walked around hoping to find a kebab place for lunch but failed and ended up grabbing some food from a food court at Circular Quay. Then we walked through the Rocks to cross the Harbour Bridge. The walk took about 20 minutes. The bridge is 1.2km long. We walked across and back and then headed to Town Hall and QVB. That is when we met up with Cathy Lam. We walked around QVB for a while before heading to the Sydney Tower. We were hoping to eat at the bar or the restaurant in the tower but where not dressed up enough for it and just went to the observation deck. We were there at the perfect time just before sundown so we could see Sydney in the light and after dark. Once we went back down we went to OzTrek. This was a virtual reality type video at the bottom of the tower. It was about 20 minutes and went all over Australia but made me a little motion sick. At this point Erica and I said bye to Cathy and headed toward the observatory. On the way, we stopped at a place called Pie Face. We both had meat pies with faces drawn on them and they were delicious. We ate them at the observatory while waiting to go in. When we got in we walked around the exhibits before going into the planetarium. The planetarium was basically a big umbrella with the start projected on it. We had to sit/lay on the floor to see it. Then we walked up to the towers to use the telescopes. Since it was cloudy, all we could see was Jupiter. And it was cool since we could also see four of Jupiter’s moons. We got to see them both on a new digital telescope and an old manual telescope. Once we got done in the towers, we went down to see some 3D videos in a theater they had. Then we headed back to the hotel.
Earlier in the week, we decided to make Friday, ‘beach day.’ We got up and headed to Bondi Beach. It was a little depressing that it was cloudy, windy, and a bit chilly. We still got to lie on the beach and dip our feet in the water. For lunch, we kind of had a picnic of sandwiches we picked up before leaving. There was also a little aquarium that we stopped by and looked through. And when I say little, I mean little. We also walked along the shops and such along the beach before heading back into the city. Continuing with the relaxed atmosphere of the day, we chilled at the hotel for an hour before going to services. Erica found The Great Synagogue and headed there while I went to the Hillsong church in the city. It was really lucky for me to be able to go since they normally do not have services on Friday but since Oct. 4th is a public holiday for Sydney, it got moved to Friday. The mass was a lot different than what I thought it would be. The band played three opening songs, then the pastor came out and gave announcements and and such. Then, a video feed was opened that connected the city campus (where I was) and the Hills campus. Over this, the Word was given and also the sermon from a pastor from Miami.Then the videos were closed and the serviced finished with one last song before everyone dispersed. After the services, Erica and I met back up to grab dinner at Curve. This was a higher class restaurant. We both got barramundi and chardonnay. This was our final dinner together since we leave Sydney tomorrow. After packing, we went to bed.
Syndey Opera House!!!!
9.29.10
Well,
Sydney has been awesome so far. On Tuesday, we headed back to Town Hall to meet for a free city tour. The tour lasted about 3 hours and we walked all over the city and learned a lot. After wards, we took some more pictures of both the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House since it was during the day and we were in a sweet photo taking spot. Then we walked back through the city looking for lunch and found a salad place and tried to take the free bus back to hotel. Unfortunately, it was super packed and not worth using. We finally made it back and enjoyed the food before changing for the opera. We found that there is a train station less than two blocks from the hotel that goes straight to Circular Quay with one stop in between. We took it and were at Circular Quay in less than 10 minutes. At 4:30pm, we had a tour through the Opera House. We learned history and saw the intimate theaters on the lower floors along with the opera theater. Once we got done with that we went and grabbed some calamari and wine at East Bank before Rigoletto. We sat in the balcony 6 levels back and off to the right. The opera was kind of strange but the singers and orchestra were awesome. The weirdest thing was that the bows had no music and only the main characters bowed and not the entire company. It was almost surreal that we were seeing an opera in the Sydney Opera House. We finally got back to the hotel around 11pm.
Wednesday morning came very early at 6:30am. We were supposed to meet our shuttle at 7:10 outside the Travelodge, but found out about 7:30 that the shuttle had a flat tire and wasn’t going to arrive until 8ish. When it picked us up, we were heading to the Blue Mountains. Our tour started off b stopping at the Featherdale Wildlife Park. This is very similar to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane but a little smaller and a little less organized. Then we went to one of the national park to learn how to throw a boomerang. After a few attempts, both Erica and I kind of figured out how to throw it but did not throw it successfully all the way back before we left. Then we headed up to the Wentworth Falls Country Club for lunch. We had fish and chips and it was tasty. Then we were off to Scenic World. This was the rain forest in the Blue Mountains. We rode the cableway (super steep) down to the walking path. We walked up around through the forest, passed the mine and to the train. The train took us back to the top of the mountain. This is the steepest train in the world that runs at 52º. The seats in the train car were actually tilted back so when we were at the 52º mark, we were basically sitting straight up. It was cool. Then we loaded the shuttle and headed to Leura. This was a small mountain city and we did some walking and shopping. Then we took a riding tour of the Olympic site. It is still in use constantly. From there we went to the ferry station to get a ferry back to Circular Quay. The ferry got back into the harbor just as the sun went down and the city was gorgeous. After returning to land, we went and found a sushi place for dinner. Erica had three goals while in Australia: 1) hold a koala, 2) go to the Sydney Opera House, and 3) go to a night club. Since we had completed the first two, it was time for the third one. We went searching for a place called the Side Bar. We thought it was near the museum so we wandered for a bit. Upon not finding it, we stopped at the Strand Hotel for a drink. We decided to ask for directions and ended up finding it about 6 blocks on the other side of our hotel. We navigated our way that and stayed for about an hour. They had a band playing and a DJ for when they took their break. It was really loud and like every other night club I have been too since I got here.
Well,
Sydney has been awesome so far. On Tuesday, we headed back to Town Hall to meet for a free city tour. The tour lasted about 3 hours and we walked all over the city and learned a lot. After wards, we took some more pictures of both the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House since it was during the day and we were in a sweet photo taking spot. Then we walked back through the city looking for lunch and found a salad place and tried to take the free bus back to hotel. Unfortunately, it was super packed and not worth using. We finally made it back and enjoyed the food before changing for the opera. We found that there is a train station less than two blocks from the hotel that goes straight to Circular Quay with one stop in between. We took it and were at Circular Quay in less than 10 minutes. At 4:30pm, we had a tour through the Opera House. We learned history and saw the intimate theaters on the lower floors along with the opera theater. Once we got done with that we went and grabbed some calamari and wine at East Bank before Rigoletto. We sat in the balcony 6 levels back and off to the right. The opera was kind of strange but the singers and orchestra were awesome. The weirdest thing was that the bows had no music and only the main characters bowed and not the entire company. It was almost surreal that we were seeing an opera in the Sydney Opera House. We finally got back to the hotel around 11pm.
Wednesday morning came very early at 6:30am. We were supposed to meet our shuttle at 7:10 outside the Travelodge, but found out about 7:30 that the shuttle had a flat tire and wasn’t going to arrive until 8ish. When it picked us up, we were heading to the Blue Mountains. Our tour started off b stopping at the Featherdale Wildlife Park. This is very similar to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane but a little smaller and a little less organized. Then we went to one of the national park to learn how to throw a boomerang. After a few attempts, both Erica and I kind of figured out how to throw it but did not throw it successfully all the way back before we left. Then we headed up to the Wentworth Falls Country Club for lunch. We had fish and chips and it was tasty. Then we were off to Scenic World. This was the rain forest in the Blue Mountains. We rode the cableway (super steep) down to the walking path. We walked up around through the forest, passed the mine and to the train. The train took us back to the top of the mountain. This is the steepest train in the world that runs at 52º. The seats in the train car were actually tilted back so when we were at the 52º mark, we were basically sitting straight up. It was cool. Then we loaded the shuttle and headed to Leura. This was a small mountain city and we did some walking and shopping. Then we took a riding tour of the Olympic site. It is still in use constantly. From there we went to the ferry station to get a ferry back to Circular Quay. The ferry got back into the harbor just as the sun went down and the city was gorgeous. After returning to land, we went and found a sushi place for dinner. Erica had three goals while in Australia: 1) hold a koala, 2) go to the Sydney Opera House, and 3) go to a night club. Since we had completed the first two, it was time for the third one. We went searching for a place called the Side Bar. We thought it was near the museum so we wandered for a bit. Upon not finding it, we stopped at the Strand Hotel for a drink. We decided to ask for directions and ended up finding it about 6 blocks on the other side of our hotel. We navigated our way that and stayed for about an hour. They had a band playing and a DJ for when they took their break. It was really loud and like every other night club I have been too since I got here.
SPRING BREAK!!!!
9.27.10
Well,
This was the weekend that Erica finally arrived in Australia. Her flight landed at 6:20am Friday morning. After meeting her, we took the train back through the city and a bus back to King’s. Luckily, King’s had an extra room for her to stay in while we were in Brisbane. Once she got settled in, we headed out to check out campus and the city. In campus we went to the main places I knew including: the music building, the Great Court, the books store, etc. Then we headed out to the UQ lakes. We spent a while at the lakes being entertained by the ridiculousness that is the birds of Australia. For lunch we went to the Pizza Caffé on campus and had pizza. Once we finished our campus tour we boarded the CityCat to ride to the city on the River. In the city, we had fun taking pictures with large silver hands and walking around Queen St. Then we crossed the bridge and got a look at Southbank. After this long walking adventure we went back to King’s and crashed.
On Saturday, we got up, had breakfast, and headed to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. We spent about 4 hours looking around, feeding and petting kangaroos and emu, holding chicks and guinea pigs, and of course, holding koalas. Once we finished there we were hoping to get up to Mt. Coot-tha but unfortunately, missed the last bus up there. Instead we headed back into the city to walk around. We headed for the botanic gardens but were unaware of the music festival that was happening and instead walked back to Queen St. There we went to O’Malley’s Irish Pub for dinner and had some steak. Once we were full, we went back to King’s and watched The A-Team on my computer. Once again, due to exhaustion, we crashed.
Sunday came and we were able to make it up to Mt. Coot-tha. Thankfully, the weather cleared up a bit and was not cloudy and gloomy like it had been. We took in the gorgeous view and headed back to King’s. For lunch we ate in the Vil at La Porchetta. We both had some pasta and it was delicious. Now, it was finally time to head to Surfer’s Paradise so Erica could see the beach. Our journey was supposed to only be bus-train-bus but that was not the case. Due to construction and repaving across the tracks, we had to transfer to a bus halfway to Surfer’s and bypass the construction. Because of this, the hour and a half trip took about 3 hours to complete. At around 5pm, we finally were at the beach. We both dipped our feet in the ocean and played some Frisbee for a while. Then we walked around the little malls and adventured. We had dinner at a Chinese and Malaysian Cuisine place called Ocean Seafood. We had Mongolia beef, honey sesame chicken, and fried rice. It was really good. We then get back to the bus station for the journey home. Once again, we were hoping for bus-train-bus but, again, were wrong. We managed to easily get back to the train station we started at but the buses that went back to UQ stopped running 3 hours before. We then went adventuring and managed to walk back. When we got back, I went to do laundry and pack my suitcase for Sydney while Erica packed stuff and cleaned up here room. Once everything was done, it was time for sleep.
Monday Morning came bright and early so we could catch our 10am flight. We grabbed some food and Erica said here good-bye’s to King’s. We managed to time the bus to train transfer perfectly; we had no layover or wait at the train station. On the way to the airport, we talked with another train passenger and found out that Virgin Blue had a computer failure of their flight schedules and everything. Therefore, we transferred to Qantas. Because most of the Qantas flights were full from the Virgin Blue crisis, Erica and I were booked on two different flights an hour apart. She flew out at 3:15pm and I flew out at 4:15pm.
After we both landed in Sydney, we grabbed a cab to the Travelodge. We dropped off our stuff and started walking around the city. By this point, it was dark so the city was lit up. We passed Town Hall and continued walking to Circular Quay and to the Opera House. We spent a long while walking around and taking pictures of both the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. Seeing the Sydney Opera House has been one of my life goals that I am happy to say I have checked off my bucket list. Then we figured grabbed a train back to Town Hall to the Woolworths to shop for dinner. We ended up getting some Ramen noodles, pitas, and hummus. It was delicious.
Well,
This was the weekend that Erica finally arrived in Australia. Her flight landed at 6:20am Friday morning. After meeting her, we took the train back through the city and a bus back to King’s. Luckily, King’s had an extra room for her to stay in while we were in Brisbane. Once she got settled in, we headed out to check out campus and the city. In campus we went to the main places I knew including: the music building, the Great Court, the books store, etc. Then we headed out to the UQ lakes. We spent a while at the lakes being entertained by the ridiculousness that is the birds of Australia. For lunch we went to the Pizza Caffé on campus and had pizza. Once we finished our campus tour we boarded the CityCat to ride to the city on the River. In the city, we had fun taking pictures with large silver hands and walking around Queen St. Then we crossed the bridge and got a look at Southbank. After this long walking adventure we went back to King’s and crashed.
On Saturday, we got up, had breakfast, and headed to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. We spent about 4 hours looking around, feeding and petting kangaroos and emu, holding chicks and guinea pigs, and of course, holding koalas. Once we finished there we were hoping to get up to Mt. Coot-tha but unfortunately, missed the last bus up there. Instead we headed back into the city to walk around. We headed for the botanic gardens but were unaware of the music festival that was happening and instead walked back to Queen St. There we went to O’Malley’s Irish Pub for dinner and had some steak. Once we were full, we went back to King’s and watched The A-Team on my computer. Once again, due to exhaustion, we crashed.
Sunday came and we were able to make it up to Mt. Coot-tha. Thankfully, the weather cleared up a bit and was not cloudy and gloomy like it had been. We took in the gorgeous view and headed back to King’s. For lunch we ate in the Vil at La Porchetta. We both had some pasta and it was delicious. Now, it was finally time to head to Surfer’s Paradise so Erica could see the beach. Our journey was supposed to only be bus-train-bus but that was not the case. Due to construction and repaving across the tracks, we had to transfer to a bus halfway to Surfer’s and bypass the construction. Because of this, the hour and a half trip took about 3 hours to complete. At around 5pm, we finally were at the beach. We both dipped our feet in the ocean and played some Frisbee for a while. Then we walked around the little malls and adventured. We had dinner at a Chinese and Malaysian Cuisine place called Ocean Seafood. We had Mongolia beef, honey sesame chicken, and fried rice. It was really good. We then get back to the bus station for the journey home. Once again, we were hoping for bus-train-bus but, again, were wrong. We managed to easily get back to the train station we started at but the buses that went back to UQ stopped running 3 hours before. We then went adventuring and managed to walk back. When we got back, I went to do laundry and pack my suitcase for Sydney while Erica packed stuff and cleaned up here room. Once everything was done, it was time for sleep.
Monday Morning came bright and early so we could catch our 10am flight. We grabbed some food and Erica said here good-bye’s to King’s. We managed to time the bus to train transfer perfectly; we had no layover or wait at the train station. On the way to the airport, we talked with another train passenger and found out that Virgin Blue had a computer failure of their flight schedules and everything. Therefore, we transferred to Qantas. Because most of the Qantas flights were full from the Virgin Blue crisis, Erica and I were booked on two different flights an hour apart. She flew out at 3:15pm and I flew out at 4:15pm.
After we both landed in Sydney, we grabbed a cab to the Travelodge. We dropped off our stuff and started walking around the city. By this point, it was dark so the city was lit up. We passed Town Hall and continued walking to Circular Quay and to the Opera House. We spent a long while walking around and taking pictures of both the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. Seeing the Sydney Opera House has been one of my life goals that I am happy to say I have checked off my bucket list. Then we figured grabbed a train back to Town Hall to the Woolworths to shop for dinner. We ended up getting some Ramen noodles, pitas, and hummus. It was delicious.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
One more week 'til break...
9.19.10
Well,
After such an exciting weekend in Cairns, it was time relax and focus on school. Basically, I have trying to write papers all week. I turned one in on Tuesday. Wednesday was the excitement for the week. QUEST had an Aussie movie night. We watched The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. I was not in favor of watching it but was outvoted. This is the movie that made both Hugo Weaving’s and Guy Pearce’s careers. We also had pizza from the campus pizza café. So far, this pizza café has the best pizza around. Then the next big excitement was on Saturday with the King’s College vs. St. Leo’s College rugby game. This is the last intercollegiate game of the year and one of the most built up and competitive. These are the two all guy’s colleges on campus. King’s beat Leo’s and I am pretty sure the gives King’s the intercollegiate cup for 2010; this cup is won by King’s more times than not. Once the game was done, everyone came back and started partying and creating a ridiculous mess all around the college…I am not too happy about it but I can’t really do anything about it.
Now I have one more week before mid-semester. But more importantly, less than a week before I see my sister!!!
Well,
After such an exciting weekend in Cairns, it was time relax and focus on school. Basically, I have trying to write papers all week. I turned one in on Tuesday. Wednesday was the excitement for the week. QUEST had an Aussie movie night. We watched The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. I was not in favor of watching it but was outvoted. This is the movie that made both Hugo Weaving’s and Guy Pearce’s careers. We also had pizza from the campus pizza café. So far, this pizza café has the best pizza around. Then the next big excitement was on Saturday with the King’s College vs. St. Leo’s College rugby game. This is the last intercollegiate game of the year and one of the most built up and competitive. These are the two all guy’s colleges on campus. King’s beat Leo’s and I am pretty sure the gives King’s the intercollegiate cup for 2010; this cup is won by King’s more times than not. Once the game was done, everyone came back and started partying and creating a ridiculous mess all around the college…I am not too happy about it but I can’t really do anything about it.
Now I have one more week before mid-semester. But more importantly, less than a week before I see my sister!!!
Monday, September 13, 2010
Cairns!!!
9.14.10
Well,
Last week was an exciting week since I was anxious to actually leave Brisbane for a weekend vacation. The week started out like every other week. Except, Thursday, I had a percussion sectional for Wind Symphony instead of regular rehearsal. That was the last school related obligation I had. Once I was done with that I started packing for Cairns [pronounced ‘Cans’].
On Friday, Kirsten an my flight left at 6:40am so we had to be at the airport about an hour before. The taxi came at 4:30am. It was the earliest I have woken up wince I got here. The airport is kind of small. Security is super fast and easy compared to DIA; we were through within minutes. I did get “randomly selected” for bomb test because I got through security and was putting my stuff away and it was taking longer than everyone else. Then we found our gate. Surprisingly, it was not the one furthest away from everything; it was the first one we passed. We grabbed some breakfast (I had that closest thing to a breakfast burrito I have had here) and then boarded the plane. The flight was about 2 hours long. Once we landed in Cairns, we got our luggage and waited to be picked up by the Calypso Inn Backpackers Hostel. This is where we stayed over the weekend. The place was nice; it had a pool, a pool table, a bar, and a kitchen. The front desk was a certified Raging Thunder booking desk. This is the company we booked all of our tours with. Once we got settled in, we hopped onto the free shuttle ride to the city. At this point it was not even 10am so a lot of shops were either just opening up or not open yet. We wander around to figure out where everything was. We found Cairns Central which I guess is the main mall. We had lunch there and continued walking around. I decided it would be a great idea to forget my water proof disposable cameras in my room at King’s, so I picked up a water proof case for my digital camera. We headed back to Calypso to drop stuff off before heading to dinner. Once we got back to the city it started getting dark and we saw hundreds of bats. We had no idea where they were all coming from, they just kept appearing. Then we went to dinner. We ate at a place called Barnacle Bill’s. I am proud to say that I have eaten barramundi, alligator, and kangaroo. This was a fantastic dinner, super expensive, but worth it. Then we headed back to Calypso and crashed.
The Next morning we had to be up to catch the 7:10am shuttle to the Reef Fleet. The Reef Fleet is the terminal at the marina that has stations or all of the dive/scuba/glass bottom boat/island tours. We went with Down Under Dive and Cruise to go scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef. The boat ride was about two hours to get to the reef. On the boat ride, I found out that due to my asthma and the fact I have used an inhaler within the last 5 years, I legally was not allowed to scuba dive. So, I did a lot of snorkeling while Kirsten dove. We first went to Saxon Reef and then to North Hastings Reef. Both of the places had awesome fish and reef life. At North Hastings, I also got to ride a glass bottom boat out along the reef where we weren’t allowed to snorkel. That was probably my favorite part. After that we headed back to the marina. On the long ride home, Elvis broke out his guitar and PVC pipe didgeridoo for us. Elvis is a Torres Strait Islander and one of the guides on the boat. Once we got back, we headed to a pizza place for dinner. We then caught the shuttle back to Calypso and crashed, again.
On Sunday, we checked out and had to catch the 7:10am shuttle again back to the Reef Fleet. Even though we had checked out, they had a place for us to store our luggage so we didn’t have to carry it all day. This day we went to Fitzroy Island. After grabbing breakfast, we boarded the boat and headed for the island. The ride was just under an hour. Once we got to the island we walked around before having to meet up to go kayaking. We kayaked for about 30-40 minutes to get to Little Fitzroy Island. This was a tiny island about 100 meters from Fitzroy. This is where we went snorkeling again. I saw much different marine life here than out at the Great Barrier Reef. After snorkeling for about a half hour, we kayaked back. At this point we walked around a little more and then found a shady place to just relax. At 4:30pm, the boat headed back to the marina in Cairns. We got back in enough time to catch the shuttle back to Calypso so we could grab our stuff and get to the airport for our 7:40pm flight back to Brisbane. We finally got back to UQ around 10:30pm.
Now it’s time for Week 8. Two more weeks until Spring Break!!
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Riverfire!
9.5.10
Well,
Once again, I had a fairly uneventful week. However, I forgot to mention in my last blog that I went and saw Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. The movie was fairly entertaining, but not the best movie I have ever seen.
Now, to this week. I spent the majority of my free time working on my MBRS write-up that was due Thursday. Then since then I have been working on my paper for the History of the Supernatural. I decided to compare/contrast how the Archangel Gabriel is portrayed in Legion and Constantine. That has been my irregular school activity.
This weekend was the start of the Brisbane Festival. This meant Riverfire. Riverfire is basically a fireworks show off of the Brisbane River. There were thousands of people sitting and standing by the river waiting for the show. The show was about 25 minutes. It started with a sweet flyover by a jet that had like super after burn. Then there were fireworks being shot from the river, from tops of buildings, fountains, and , for lack of a better term, a waterfall of fire from underneath one of the bridges. It was cool that they had the show being fired at intervals along the river so that everyone saw the same show, no matter where you were standing. Overall, I was not too impressed with the display, except for the flyover. I would have to say the 3rd of July fireworks display in Edgewater, CO is definitely a better show than the “Third Largest Fireworks Display in Brisbane” that I saw Saturday night.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
"Free" weekend
8.29.10
Well,
This week was a bit uneventful. I had my classes like normal and rehearsal. Friday night I went to the ABC Symphony Australia’s 2010 Young Performers Award. This was a free concert. The concert hall was a bit smaller than I expected, but it was still not very full. The concert consisted of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30; Ross Edwards’s Clarinet Concerto, in one movement: Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto, Op. 14; and Zoltàn Kodàly’s Dances of Galànta. Three were the three finalists competing for the award and the fourth was an additional piece conducted by a guest conductor while the judges made their decision. The winner was Oliver She, the pianist and that’s who I thought should have won as well. The most exciting part o this was that it was broadcast live on ABC radio and videoed for broadcast on Sunday, October 31st.
On Saturday, I went to the museum in Southbank. This was also free, which was nice. It had 4 floors, on the first floor, they had a kid’s science centre; the second floor had some historical and pioneer-y type things and exhibit of marine animals; the third floor was the “Australia Museum Zoo,” they had tons of animals, birds, reptiles, and bugs on display; the fourth floor had an Aboriginal exhibit. It took about an hour and a half to get through everything. Then we walked around south bank for a while. I finally saw the man-made beach there, and we walked through a little open market type place. After that we headed into the city to grab lunch at the Irish pub there.
On Sunday, I locked myself out of my room for the first time since I have been here (6.5 weeks). I went to go brush my teeth and left my keys on my bed. After wandering around for an hour or so, I finally found someone that could let me in. I now have some papers due in some of my classes so that will be my task in the coming days.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Moreton Bay Research Station
8.23.10
Well,
Last week was not too exciting. I had class and started to get a little sick but only had symptoms and never really had a bug or anything. This was the first week I had my complete schedule with lectures and tutorials. I definitely like how my schedule has turned out.
Over the weekend, I had a field trip to the Moreton Bay Research Station on North Stradbroke Island. Unfortunately, it poured on the first day. We met at 7:30am to board the bus at the campus bus stop. There were 47 of us total. After about a 45 minutes ride we got to the ferry station. This was the first time I rode a ferry that carries vehicles. I was expecting to have to unload everything and transfer but we just chilled on the bus and at the little café they had. After that the bus drove a little further to the research station. After a 20 minute orientation and introduction, we found groups and moved into our rooms. I was in room 4 with 7 other people. The room was basically big enough for 4 sets of bunk beds and a little room between them to walk. Then we met for morning tea, a briefing, and broke into groups to meet our tutors. We then took a trip out to the beach to see what animals we could find and just explore the area we had so that we could do a research project on Saturday. After about 25-30 minutes I was drenched. We saw tons of crabs, oysters, an eel, and some sponges. Then it was lunch time. After lunch, another briefing and then out to do a “seine net activity.” A seine net is a large net where you go out into the water and create like a U starting at the bottom and then once getting to the shore make it into an O. I was one of 8 people picked to go out and actually pull the net. The bottom of the net has weights on it that have to be pulled along the sand so the fish don’t escape so we had to drag our feet. It took about 20 minutes to go out and pull it back in. We caught 2 sting rays and a bunch of fish. We let all of them go since the point was to observe and not keep. Then we headed back to the station for afternoon tea. Since now we have seen what we can do and where we can go for our project, we decided what we were going to do. We were broken into 12 groups. My group decided to check species richness under and on the rocks at the rocky shores or sponges (the ones we passed on Friday) and see if rock/sponge size matters, aka bigger rocks have more species on them. This took all the way until dinner. After dinner was the “Aussie Film Fest.” We had the choice of like 15 Australian movies and we picked “Muriel’s Wedding.” We realized that this was a bad choice after watching it for a bit, but still finished it. Then off to bed.
On Saturday we got up bright and early to grab some food before heading to the shores for the project. It was bright and beautiful outside, unlike Friday. First, we did some research to try and figure out where we would find the largest number of sponges. Then we had morning tea and then made the decision to only check rocks. We set out a Transect (and area marked with measuring tape) 10 meters long and 2 meters wide on the rocky shores. We started to pick up rocks and count the number of animals. We measured the size by placing the rocks in a bucket filled with water and measured the displacement of the water. We were out for over an hour and a half and checked 32 rocks of different sizes. We then collected everything and grab some lunch and headed back to the computer lab to do more research and get our PowerPoint ready for the presentation that night. We worked from after lunch until dinner, with a break for afternoon tea. After dinner we did our presentations. All 12 groups presented and we were there for about 2 and a half hours sitting and listening. Afterwards, I was exhausted and went straight to bed.
7am Sunday morning was breakfast. After breakfast we packed up and cleaned the station before we left to Point Lookout. Point Lookout is a lookout over the ocean with huge rocks and it was gorgeous. I took tons of pictures. After that we headed to get some gelato. I had lime and coffee (two different scoops, not mixed). It was really good. Once we all ate that we walked along the beach to get over to Cylinder Beach. This was the beach where it was safe to swim and I certainly did. We spent 2 hours there and then headed back to the ferry to come back to campus. Once back I had some dinner and crashed.
It was a very fun and work filled weekend. I am glad that I don’t miss morning and afternoon tea, but I do miss the little snacks (cookies, cake, biscuits) that accompanied the tea. I am not looking forward to the write-up I have to do for the project but it’s for class so I have to do it. I am very happy to be back in my room that I am not sharing with anyone.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Week 3
8.16.10
Well,
I have actually been doing a lot recently. Last week I essentially had a 5 day weekend. I had regular days on Monday and Tuesday and then Wednesday was the Ekka. The Ekka is “The Exhibition.” This agricultural showcase started in 1876. It has turned into a public holiday and was basically a state fair on steroids. There were tons of exhibition halls with different types of conventions in them. One was boats, RV’s, and campers; another was quilts; they had one for community service and joining; and one with food. It was ridiculous. That’s only the indoor part. Outside they had tons of tents with food or pamphlets. And on top of that they had livestock ranging from cows (including a show on milking), birds, llamas, reptiles. And they had horse racing, horse jumping, a monster truck show, wool shearing contests, size contests…it was ridiculous. That was only half of it. The other half consisted of an amusement park. And not just a small one with a few rides, but a regular sized amusement park with roller coasters, a log ride, carnival games, and more food. The entire park had like four Ferris wheels, too. I was absolutely shocked at how much stuff this place had. While there, I had to get food so I got a Dagwood Dog. This is basically a huge corn dog covered in tomato sauce; it was good.
Then Thursday came and that was the day I was having lunch at the head table with the Head Master of King’s. There were 7 international students, the Head Master and two other guys from the office at King’s. We were served a two course meal consisting of some kind of soup and salmon. The food was delicious. It was strange sitting at the high table while everyone else was eating at the regular tables in the dining hall. But once we started eating and talking I didn’t really notice.
Saturday, John and I headed down to the Gold Coast. Being the tourists we are, we took huge backpacks that could carry all of our stuff like sunscreen, towels, flip-flops, etc. Once we got there, after an hour and a half train and bus ride, we realized that having the backpacks were a bad idea. The gold coast is a very large city that sits on the coast. The place we went, specifically, was Surfer’s Paradise. They had areas on the beach for swimming and surfing and it was fairly packed but not as packed as it will be as the weather gets warmer. We also went to the top of the Q1 building. This is the tallest residential building and 20th tallest building in the world. We were on the “Q-Deck” which was the 77th floor of the building. Thankfully, it was a clear day so we could see from one end of the beach to the other and miles into Queensland; I think I took a picture of Brisbane but I am not sure. They also had a bar up there and I would love to go back at night but I would have to be dressed a little better than t-shirt and cargo shirts, along with a massive backpack. Before heading back o the beach, we walked around all the shops and mall type area that they have right at the beach. I was upset right when we arrived because I puller my sunglasses out and they broke upon being opened. Thus I was in search of new sunglasses, and what better place than the beach. After finding sun glasses, it was time for the beach. The water was still fairly chilly but swimmable. We didn’t swim but did walk so our feet got wet which was entertaining and scary when random high waves would come and freak us out. And after sitting for a bit we headed back to Brisbane.
Then, on Sunday, I headed to an AFL (Australian Football League) game. There is an international group on campus called QUEST (Queensland University Exchange Student Society). They organized a group to go to the AFL game. I sat 12 rows from the field and one section off to the side of the posts. The game was between the Brisbane Lions and the Adelaide Crows. I didn’t realize how fast paced AFL games are. I had seen rugby games on TV before, but this is nothing like that. I am not going to go into detail since I am still not completely sure about rules but I am getting there. Unfortunately, Brisbane lost 97-104. After the game, the field becomes open to the public and there is a mad dash out to it. Everyone seems to be kicked or handballing back and forth. It seemed hectic and I was afraid of getting hit in the head with a rogue ball. Luckily, I did not. While there, I did buy myself a football since I don’t know if I will be going back to a game. I hope I do, I had a lot of fun.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Whale!
8.8.10
Well,
Week two is finally done. I am getting ready to start tutorials. My first one will be in World Religions on Monday.
Over the weekend, I was fairly busy. I ventured again to the Indooroopilly mall in search of a few things. I was successful in buying another outlet converter and some waterproof disposable cameras. I was there for like 2-3 hours just finding m way around and getting used to what was there. They have inclined moving walkways called travelators. I really like them.
On Saturday I headed down to Byron Bay with Kirsten to go whale watching. The bus left the city at 8am and arrived at Byron bay at 10am. This gave us around an hour and a half to walk around and check out the area before meeting at the whale watching place. There were tons of little shops and restaurants for about a four block stretch leading out to Byron Bay. We stopped at the beach and watched the ocean for a little bit. This was the first time I saw the ocean after landing in Australia. At 11:30am we got to the whale watching place, called Byron Bay Whale Watching. After getting fitted with spray coats and lockers for valuables, we headed out to the bay. Once there, our group of about 12 people boarded a small boat and we headed to find some whales. About 10 minutes in, our guide Rob, spotted a blow and we headed towards it. Unfortunately we lost that whale but found another and followed it for a little bit. We ended up fairly far from the beach and since the East Australian Current (EAC) was fairly strong, the waters were fairly choppy and rough. Fortunately, I took some motion sickness pills before headed onto the water so I wasn’t getting very sick. Then we managed to pass a couple more whales and saw a few up close blows and tails. Then we headed back towards Julian Rock. Here we saw a lot of birds on the rock and a few turtles (YAY!) swimming around. After that we headed back to be let off so another group could board and find some whales. On the way back we saw a fairly large jelly fish. Once we finally got back to the shop we gave back the coats and were off. It was about 3pm and we had about an hour before we had to grab the bus back to Brisbane. We grabbed some subway and walked around a little more before getting on the bus. We left Byron Bay at 4pm and got back to Brisbane at 6pm and both of us slept basically the entire ride back. Once we got back to campus, we parted ways and I got dinner at a sushi restaurant in the Vil. It was tasty and will probably being going back there to get more.
Now it’s time to get ready for week 3.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Weekend adventures 1
8.2.10
Well,
This past weekend was a very exciting one. I was able to make my way out to Beerwah to Steve Irwin’s Australia Zoo with Kirsten (from DU). To get there, it was a 20 minutes bus ride and just over an hour train ride. Once we got to Beerwah, we had a 5 minutes complimentary ride to the zoo where we were told to meet at the bus stop at 2pm, 3pm, or 5pm. At the zoo, there was statues of the Irwin’s, birds of prey, reptiles (including turtles and giant tortoises) , wombats, kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, elephants, tigers, red pandas, alligators and of course crocodiles. This is also the location of the Animal Planet Crocoseum. This is where they have the “Wildlife Warriors” show. We went to see it and they had elephants, birds, snakes, and crocs in the show. It was a little disappointing. They also had a place to get food for feeding kangaroos and a place to hold a koala. Since we had already done that at the koala sanctuary, we skipped it. The zoo also had a free shuttle that went around the park because it’s fairly large. At this point we went to lunch and had “America Burger’s.” In Australia, a burger is basically meatloaf on a bun. They also had a wildlife hospital “sneak peek.” Inside they had an operating table and recovery areas. At the point we headed back to the bus stop at 3 so we could get picked up for our train at 3:09. This is when the ‘fun’ began. We found out that the bus driver lied to us and gave us the weekday schedule for busses and not the Saturday schedule. The Saturday schedule was 2:40 or 4:30. The next train was at 6:30 so they were dropping us off at the station 2 hours before the train. We were not about to wait around for 3 and a half hours because the stupid bus driver misinformed us. Luckily, there was a bus that ran straight from the zoo all the way back to Brisbane at 4. So we caught that, had to pay a little extra but had an in-transport movie and got dropped off at a bus station. We managed to get back to campus by 6:15.
Then Sunday came and it was time to recover from a very long day at the zoo. So I slept in and got a late breakfast where I met up with John, one of the Americans on study abroad as well. We decided that we were going to try to do something that afternoon/night. The final decision was go to Mt. Coot-tha. This is one of the places where you can see the entire city. We spent an hour taking photos, and walking around the little shops/restaurants, and on one of the hiking paths. Since it was starting to get dark, we didn’t go far on the path. Unfortunately, the public transportation doesn’t run late enough for us to have gotten night pictures of the city. I am kind of upset about that since I love seeing cities at night. Hopefully, I will get back up there with someone who has a car so I can stay after sunset and take pictures.
Now it is time to get back to work at school for week number 2.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Week 1
7.30.10
Well,
The first week of classes is finally done. I have met all of my professors but am not sure where my tutors are for the classes; I will find out in week 3. My official classes are: World Religions, Australia’s Marine Environment, History of the Supernatural, and Wind Symphony.
In World Religions, all we pretty much did was the general “welcome to this course” and then had mini discussions and group discussions about religion. I found out that religion is taught in more schools than I thought. This part of the discussion I could not put in any input. One of the requirements is that I go study three different religious worship services. One of those will be to the Hillsong church. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it is a mega church (from what I have been told) with a group call Hillsong. The peeps from the church I play at were bugging me that I have to go meet them while I was here. Thus, I will try!
In Australia’s Marine Environment, I got another general “welcome to the course.” This was followed by explanations of the two field trip options. The first one is to the Moreton Bay Research Station on North Stradbroke Island. This is a three day trip. This is the trip I will be going on. The second one is to Heron Island on the Great Barrier Reef. This is a five day trip. Both trips will include a small research project and then some fun things. If you are wondering, “Brian, Why aren’t’ you going on the one to the Great Barrier Reef?” well, it’s because it is twice as expensive, I already have plans to check out Sydney during that trip, and I will be going to the Great Barrier Reef anyway. We also learned about the scientific method…oh joy!
In the history of the Supernatural, we once again we had a “welcome to this course.” Then the professor started making us think differently about words like just (i.e. “oh, that is JUST a myth”) and how words like “History” can be put in the title of a course and it count for credit but if the course is called, “Angels, Ghosts, and Vampires,” will get rejected.
In Wind Symphony, since this is basically a year long course, we dove right into playing. We are playing ‘Four Scottish Dance’ and ‘Symphonic Dances from West Side Story.’ And then we played through some other pieces. This is where I met quite a few people. This ensemble seems like it is going to be a blast.
Other events that happened this week include: QUMS, Market Day, and the Williams Dinner. I will start with QUMS, the Queensland University Musical Society. It is a non-auditioned, mixed choir. They are singing Handel’s Solomon. I did not get the greatest vibe from the group and I doubt I will be joining for reasons stated later. Now on to Market Day. Market Day is the day when all of the clubs and sports and everything set up booths around the Great Court and get people to sign up and get e-mails and such. Similar to the one DU has during Discoveries Week; I can’t remember what it is called. I signed up for the Club Golf team, we’ll see how that works since my clubs are at my house in Denver; an international group called QUEST; and the Ultimate Frisbee team. I am hoping that I do not injure myself again at the first practice like I did at DU. This is the conflict with QUMS. Both Ultimate and QUMS meet on Wednesday nights. Since I would rather do Ultimate Frisbee, I must forego QUMS. Now to the Williams Dinner. This is annual formal dinner at King’s. We all were given Harry Potter Gowns for the dinner and had to wear shirt and tie under it. At this dinner, the high table had the Governor of Queensland, The chancellor and Vice Chancellor of UQ, the Head Master of King’s, and a few other people along with significant others. At the dinner we were served spicy carrot soup, rotisserie chicken and polenta, and lemon-lime cheesecake. This was one of the most delicious dinners I have had while here. This also was the time for the Williams speech in honor of Dr. Williams, hence the name of the dinner. This lecture was given by the Chancellor and since 2010 is the Centenary for UQ, it was about UQ’s past 100 years and looking forward to the next 100 years.
That was my first week of school. I am hoping that the folowing weeks are just as exciting!
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Checkin' out Brisbane
7.24.10
Well,
Classes are slowly approaching. This is my last weekend before the semester starts. With my last few days, I got to check out the city a bit more. There is a large walking mall similar to 16th street mall but without a mall ride and much bigger with a couple indoor malls as well. I am starting to learn the bus system but am nowhere close to mastering it. I am feeling more and more comfortable exploring and not needing to keep track of where the bus stop is that I need to be at. I have also used the City Cat which is basically a water bus. Since the river runs from campus to the city and to suburbs, it is a fun way to get back and forth.
The other night I went to the RE and got my first drink. I also checked out the bar scene in Fortitude Valley and have decided that I am not a fan of the bars, so I doubt I will be going out on the town very much, if ever.
On Friday, the DU gals and I headed to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. This by far has been the best thing I have done since I got here. This place was like a zoo. There were birds, snakes, reptiles, wombats, kangaroos, emus, and of course Koalas. I took over 280 pictures and like 5 videos. The ones that aren’t blurry or anything will be posted on Facebook. While there I got to feed emus and kangaroos, and hold a koala. I just had a blast while I was there; it was absolutely fantastic.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
O Week
7.21.10
Well,
I am finally done with orientation. It was only three days and it was nowhere near as intense as DU’s 8am-10pm Discoveries week…thank goodness! I have a couple international welcomes and required lectures about the school and about Australian culture. The first one was kind of boring but necessary telling all the international students what “O Week” (Orientation week) is and how to enroll in classes and how to find out what the events for the week were. The next one was the official welcome but the vice chancellor of the Uni (university) and some other department heads and speakers. Again, they told us about enrolling and how to find out the events of O Week. Then there was a break for morning tea. That was followed by a special lecture for study abroad and exchange students. This is where I learned about Tim Tam Explosions, which are supposed to be amazing, I didn’t get to try it, and about how to get cheap flights for when I travel the rest of the country. Then it was time for the BBQ. The next session I went to was “Safety Down Under.” This was entertaining. They talked about how to be safe on campus, at the beach, where not to go late at night, what animals are around and what to do if for some reason we encounter them, and we got lots of phone numbers and contacts for poison control or emergency help. Then I went to an “Exams at UQ” lecture that was super boring and unhelpful. Then I went to a “Learn to Enroll and Read Your Timetable” session which was the shortest and most helpful session I have gone to all week. I think I finally figured out my schedule which I will list later. And lastly, I went to the Bachelor of Creative Arts session which I thought was going to be more talking about the music school, based on the description that talked about the head of the music school coming to talk, but it was worthless to me since I will only be here for a semester.
Around King’s, more people are showing up and I am meeting more Australian’s. The kitchen staff is amazing and the nicest most talkative people I have met. I finally tried vegemite! It looks like chocolate frosting and when I initially tried it, that’s what I thought it was and was sorely mistaken. Then I was shown the proper way to eat it and am still not a fan. I tried it and that was one of my goals checked off. I have met a couple more Americans, a guy from Pakistan, a guy from Seoul-South Korea, and many more Australians since the QUT guys are back from break. The meals are slowly getting better as more people arrive. I am told that by this weekend, everyone will be back and that means about 200 people in the College. The lady that works at the front desk, Sue, is awesome. If I need anything, she knows who to talk to and/or where to get it. It has been very nice having a resource like that.
I have slowly been talking to the DU girls a bit more and we are heading to the city for lunch tomorrow and hopefully the koala sanctuary this Friday! I am really excited for that. This weekend I will also hopefully make it to either the Gold Coast or the Sunshine Coast. But we will have to wait and see.
So my class schedule is tentatively:
Monday:
World Religions Lecture 10-12
World Religions Tutorial 12-1
Tuesday:
Marine Environment 1-2
Wednesday:
The Supernatural Lecture 10-12
The Supernatural Tutorial 12-1
Marine Environment 1-2
Thursday:
Marine Environment 1-2
And then depending on which ensemble I get into, I will have rehearsal either Tuesday night or Thursday night.
I have posted pictures on my Facebook page in the Album called Aussieland!
Saturday, July 17, 2010
And So It Begins...
7.17.2010
Well,
I have been in Brisbane for three days now and it has been pretty sweet. I arrived on Thursday morning at 6:45am local time which was 2:45pm Wednesday afternoon on Colorado. After going through customs and getting searched by three police dogs, I was taken to my Residential College…King’s College. I was given a little tour, with another American, and shown to my room, J3a. In the process of settling in and unpacking, I realized my computer was having issues recognizing the power cord being plugged in. I looked at the converter and my plug and then realized that all of the outlets had their own on/off switch. Upon further exploration, they are like this in the entire building and not just in the rooms. I find it fascinating.
Then it was time for lunch. In the Dining hall, I met a third American. The three of us quickly became friends due to the fact we are all basically the same age, at UQ for study abroad, and pretty much the only people residing at King’s at the moment. There have been guys slowly moving in and filling the rooms, but not too many right now. By Sunday, the QUT guys will be back since they start school next week but the other UQ guys have one week left of break before they have to be back. I have met some people who are living in King’s houses that are around the college. They all seem really nice, welcoming, and willing to help.
After being accepted into King’s, I learned it was the Res College that was furthest from campus…oh well. But, literally right across the street is an area called the Village or “The Vil”. It is like a block of restaurants, a post office, a grocery store, and a Subway. I mention a Subway because I assume the Aussies love it since I have seen more of them than Starbucks and McDonalds, combined. That I never expected.
The time change has been a little rough. The first night I went to bed at 7ish and woke up the next morning around 7am; last night went to bed at 8pm, and woke up at 7:30am; and tonight am amazingly up past 9:30pm with high hopes of finally sleeping past 8am. But by the time school actually starts, I will be fine.
I will be posting pictures soon onto my Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/profile.php?id=1073370092
I am just waiting until I have a bunch to post at one time.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
I made it
Well,
After a 2.5 hour flight from Denver to LA and a 14 hour flight from LA to Brisbane, I am in Australia!!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Heading out!
Well,
Today is the day I leave the country. I can't tell if I am scared or excited..all I know is the adrenaline is pumpin'!!!
Monday, July 5, 2010
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