MoMo goes to Australia

It is Better to Give than Receive

2010-12-10T09:27:00.000-08:00

This statement is always true and with the holidays here its time to give to others. This time Team In Training and our past participants are on the giving side. In most cases we are the ones asking for donations for our cause. This time Team In Training staff and participants are coming together to help out someone in our family in need, Regan Andrews.

Regan Andrews has been a long time participant with Team In Training and is also one of our Triathlon coaches. She gives so much to Team In Training in more ways than one, she really exemplifies what we are all about. Now it is time for us to give back to her. Just before our seasons Kick Off celebration we learned that Regan's house had burned down. She lost everything. Living in a log cabin in Holmes, NY her house was quick to ignite and wouldn't let up until the fire had consumed everything. This was devastating to her and her family. Thankful everyone with the exception of 2 family pets walked away un harmed.

She is now leasing and apartment and putting her life back together. Team In Training and other friends she has made through her years of Triathlons have come together to help her sift through the rouble, move her into her new apartment and donate clothing and other house hold items.

It is very touching to see how her triathlon family has been there every step of the way to help her and support her. This is what family is for and we are happy to help out!

If you would like to help, donations are welcomed and can be made out to Regan Andews and mailed directly to her at 1107 Route 292, Holmes NY 12531

Go Team!

BULA! From Fiji!

2009-08-09T12:31:00.000-07:00

I am the last one standing of Apartment 20. Everyone moved on out and got on a plane to head to Fiji. Me on the other hand didnt get to go until the day after. I spent the night at Mouses house with my fellow straggler Ali. We had a fun night of hanging at the Bronte Surf club and drinking "scooners" (beers) and watching the sun set. We had our farewell dinner at Ali's favorite Indo place. ( a brave step for me)

The next morning I said my final goodbyes to Australia. I can't believe this day has come! On the bright side I'm headed to Fiji for one last trip and a chance to rap my head around the fact that I the most memorable experience of a lifetime has come to an end. On the 5 hour flight to Fiji I am sitting next to two New York boys who also happen to go to Indiana! Small world huh! I arrive in Fiji around 10pm and navigate my way through customs and try and figure out how to meet up with the rest of my roomies at the hotel. Everyone in Fiji is super friendly with big smiles and "Bula" which means Hello (this is a word I herd close to 5 million times! Bulas left and right) An airport employee asks me if I need a taxi and I do, so he runs out and calls someone for me. This guy takes my luggage and says he will be right back with the car. He pulls up in a station wagon, no taxi sign anywhere! It was his personal car, there wasn't even a meter! He is speeding through the dark, the roads are barely paved, not lined, and no lights. We driving through some pretty seedy places and I start to think this is how the movie "Taken" starts and I'm panicking inside but keeping cool on the outside (I think) But all goes well and I get dropped of at the beautiful hotel and then totally get ripped off by paying in Oz money and getting Fijian back...oh well small price to pay for making it there alive!

We stayed at the Westin on the island of Denaru which is basically an island of resorts. But very pretty! I meet up with my roommates and Sasha has been eaten alive my mosquitoes and Britty has a horrible sunburn! Looks like I missed out on a good day lol! We ate some dinner and then promptly passed out in our ultra plush beds. The next morning we did some more sneaking around because again we were only paying for 2 guest and there were 3 of us. Breakfast was included so we did this shuffle so all of us could still get the free breakfast! My first day there it was rainy and yucky but it turned out to be the best day I had. The hotel recreation director asked us if we wanted to try some cava, a traditional Fijian drink. So we all sat in a circle and watched him prepare it. Some powdered root and water were mixed together to make dirty water and that's what we drank. It tasted just how it sounds, like dirty water with some sand in it, and the effects make your tongue go numb for a few seconds. In the background there was a ukulele band playing and we end up singing along and dancing. That night we ventured out of the resort island and found a traditional Fijian restaurant. We were the only ones in there and the food was amazing! We inhaled our dinners and deserts and the chef came out so we could thank her, she was the cutest little lady ever! Also at the restaurant they had a cd of some awesome drum music and one thing lead to another and there was a big dance party with all us girls and the two women who worked there. They showed us traditional dances and we laughed and danced all night. A very memorable experience.

The rest of the stay in Fiji was low key, the weather got better and we sat by the pool and reminisced about the last few months. All we did was eat, sit by the pool, eat some more and sleep! It was very relaxing and just what I needed before I came home. Sasha and I had a few Pina Coldas at the bar and then headed off to the airport. I slept the whole way to LA and finally arrived. I was super jealous of Sasha because this was her last stop. I had a 6 hour flight back to the NY, I fought to stay up the whole fight in hopes that it would beat the jetlag. I landed in NY around 1:30am July 3. I was greeted by my whole family! Mom and Dad, Maggie and Erin and James too! They were all holding signs, Dads was the funniest saying "Party's over!" I immediately started crying as soon as I saw them, it had just been too long!

Its good to be home and now it all feels like one wonderful dream!

The End is Near

2009-06-25T00:09:00.000-07:00

We are fitting in all the last minute things we haven't done yet. Wednesday we went to see a show in the Opera House, we saw "Cabaret Decadanse" it wasn't in the main hall, but in a smaller venue but the show was great. It was a puppet show, but done it a unique way, you could see the humans controlling them and they often interacted with pupets, it was really clever and fun. At first I didn't think I would like it and wondered what I got myself into but after I got over the initial shock of the quirkiness I really enjoyed it! The songs were entertaining and some were really funny and I also enjoyed the how random it was.

Since the winter weather has lightened and it feels like spring we went on the Hunter Valley Wine Tour. Hunter Valley is a wine country about 2 hours out of Sydney, we booked a tour and we got picked up in Sydney and drove out there by our very charismatic bus driver, who talked the whole way there. Oh did I mention that we got picked up at 7:30 am! The tour took us to small boutique wineries where we learned a bit about the wines, got to taste them and see the winery and vineyards. We had lunch in the little town that was really cute and small, we got some home made fudge that was great and we also did some cheese tasting. It was a fun day and we were all exhausted after, not to mention a bit tipsy. Hunter Valley was beautiful, the vineyards were so pretty and perfect and we were lucky to get such a great day!

After learning about some bad news that my grandfather had passed away and seeing the beautiful day outside, I was desperate to get out of the apartment. Brit and I walked down to Bondi Beach and ventured on the Bondi to Coogee Coastal Walk. Its about 2 miles up hill along the coastline looking out to the Tasman Sea. Walking from Bondi Beach we passed Tamarama Beach and sat on the rocks and watched the waves crash in and the surfers catch wave and be crashed by waves. I could have sat there and watched them all day. We then ran into our Spring Break guide Matty Dee, it was good catching up with him. We walked on to Bronte Beach and further trucked our way to Coogee. It was a tough walk with hills and steps and a cemetery detour. We made it to Coogee and were exhausted, we caught the bus home and took long naps! When I woke up my roommates had surprised me with flowers in condolences of the grandfather. It was really touching , I have such great roommates and friends!

First Class Passports

2009-06-18T23:43:00.000-07:00

Our flight to New Zealand was nice, the flight was empty and we were able to all have our own rows so we could sleep, and we needed it. We arrive in Christchurch at 12:30 am and we get right into our rental car for a 6 hour drive to Queenstown. We get to our car and it is a clown car! We cant fit all of our luggage in it so we had to put a seat down and pour Brit and Sasha crammed in the back. There are no such things as major highways in NZ just one laned country roads and they are not many of them. While driving through the night we drove up and down many twisty and turny roads in the dark, we came prepared with cds tho! We didn't see another car for hours, but what we did see was 100's rabbits darting into the road. Unfortunately I ran one over....we had a moment of silence for the bunny, it was sad. We finally arrive in Queenstown, and check in to our hotel at 6 am we laid down to take a nap until 10 but we all slept through the alarm and woke up at one.We got up to explore and find some lunch, and its FREEZING! since we still had the car until the end of the night we tried to drive over to Deer Park to do some sightseeing especially some Lord of the Rings spots, even though none of us would have known what we were looking at since we haven't really seen the movies. (sorry Maggie and Erin, hate to break it to you but I not a Lord of the Ring nerd like you two! j.k) But we got the directions wrong and ended up driving the wrong way. But no big we still saw some beautiful sights and drove up to Lake Wanaka and saw a beautiful sunset. That night we ate at Winnies and ran in to JP a friend from our spring break trip.

The next day we rented another car and drove to Milford sound which is about three hours away on a treacherous little road that went to the top of some mountains and through a mountain by a mile long tunnel. It was a pretty drive, although this rental didnt have a cd player, so we were stuck listening to Brit and Sasha singing the whole way. We caught a cruise tour boat that took us around the sound. Most beautiful snow covered mountains everywhere! The boat driver would take us almost right under some waterfalls! Nuts! The high light of this day was seeing the herd of dolphins leading our boat, so cool! Nicole was also in NZ and we kept just missing each other, when we got to our car in the parking lot I made a guess on which camper van was Nicole's because I knew they were there too, I left an note on my subway wrapper and put it on their windshield!
Our last day in Queenstown we just hung out in the town, which is super cute it felt like Aspen or Lake Tahoe. It was a cute wintery ski town right on the lake. We took the gondola up a mountain to get a beautiful view of Queenstown and the lake. There is a old myth about the lake called the Maori Legend, the giant Matau burnt to death while he was curled up sleeping after stealing the chiefs daughter. This is why the lake is "S" shaped and Queenstown sits on his knee. This myth is also used to explain the mystery of the rising and falling of the lake every 5 minutes, this is said to be Matau's heart still beating. Anyways, it was so beautiful, this entire trip we kept gushing over the views and the landscape, we probably said Wow hundreds of times. That night we decided to go out for one drink and ran into our friends again who were on the bar crawl so we ended up tagging along and then made a late night stop at the famous Fergburger.

The next day we packed up and headed towards Christchurch but we decided to stop half way in Lake Tiekapo. This was the smallest whole in the wall town ever, there was 2 hotels and 300 people living there. The reason we stayed there because we herd there were hot springs but they were man made but it was still a pretty nice spa. While in Tiekapo at 3 am Brit realized that we had left our passports in the safe a Queenstown! We frantically tried figure out what to do and what would be most cost effective. Turns out that we ended up getting our passports flown first class to Christchurch so we could pick them up before our flight. So scary and dumb!
We arrive in Christchurch with barely any money left, we drove around got some lunch and tried to kill some time. It was a cool city but not much to do there, so we went and saw a movie The Hangover. It was sooo funny! Since we spent $160 on getting out passports to us we decided to get the cheapest hotel possible...the airport. We slept in the airport since our flight as at 6:30 am it was a very eventful 5 days. This was definitely a trip we wont forget!

Boys are Back in Town

2009-06-12T17:19:00.000-07:00

It seems were attached at the hip. Two weeks after spring break we went to Melbourne to visit our friends we meet on our trip, Benny, Chris, Jason, Dubs, & Tyler. Now two weeks after that trip they came to visit us in Sydney. Tuesday we were chatting with them about possibly coming and then all of a sudden they are coming on Wednesday! There is a mad dash to get all of work done so we can be free to play while they are here, clean the apartment, go grocery shopping and figure out what to do with them!

Wednesday they came and we have a family dinner of pasta and some ghetto chicken parm made of frozen patties and American cheese (made by Jason and Dubs) We ate and drank and then headed out to our favorite Wednesday spot, the Eastern. Its only our favorite because its across the street! It was a long night of dancing and drinking and then we all crammed into our apartment trying to find a place to sleep. We have four single beds and one couch, 7 people sleeping here. Next day I had class bright and early and all day. I come home to see everyone still in PJs at 4 o'clock, watching movies. So cute the boys had went out and got us flowers! It was their "rent" we payed had payed them in snickers bars. We spent the long weekend partying and occasionally sight seeing. All the boys had been to Sydney but Chris so we took him down to Bondi Beach, the rocks, the opera house and harbor bridge, all the must sees. One night we ate in the rocks at a cute little Italian place that was out side. We were enjoying our dinner when it started to down pour on us. We were under a covering but with the gusts of wind we were all still getting soaked. Chris ate his dinner under an umbrella. It seemed that every time we stepped out of the house it started to rain. Just our luck. One day it was so yucky we stayed in and watched the Sex and the City Movie, this wasn't the girls pick in movies lol. We went to the rocks market and looked around there, it was my first time there too. Its a cool market with some really unique stuff and some good food too, like the 5 chocolate covered strawberries on a stick! yum!

It was so good seeing the boys but also kinda sad since we wouldn't be seeing the again in Australia. But since most are from Boston and Dubs in Connecticut we made plans to see each other this summer. And of course we still have our long skype conversations, so its not "see you never"

:::Market, Mice, Road Trip::: Melbourne dos!

2009-05-31T05:22:00.000-07:00

The day after the footy game me and Court woke up semi early and went out to explore some more, by this point our trip was coming to an end and we hadn't seen much of the city, we have been having an awesome time, we just hadn't seen much. The boys had told us that we needed to go to the market and check it out. This is where they did most of their grocery shopping, for the fresh foods at least. It was crazy they were auctioning off meats and vegetables, it was very hectic. There were some stands further in that reminded me of good old Italian delis and home with the meat hanging and the cheese display. It was cool to see and funny to hear the Italian Aussie accent! Also in the market there were cheap vendors selling clothes and other junk, it always fun to look at. I actually bought a purse I bargained in down $50! I probably was still getting ripped off but I like it and its still holding together! There was a small doughnut stand that brought back some childhood memories of the Oak Park Farmers Market, the cinnamon sugar doughnuts...yum! they smelled just the same but they were sold out and my hopes and dreams were crushed. We settled for Krispy Kremes later, eh, close enough.

We wondered the city and took in the cool architecture. There was an interesting mix of classic old building and incredibly modern and artistic buildings right next to each other. I really felt like a tourist because I walked around looking up all day, I couldn't get over how cool some of the buildings were. I really enjoyed the feel of Melbourne, it felt very European and small, much more cultured than Sydney. I love them both, they just have very different feels. Me and Court did a bit of souvenir shopping, walked around and rode the tram. Public transit here with the trams is so much easier than Sydney! Also is was so much cheaper, aka it was free! Actually I don't think it really was, but we never figured out how to pay and we weren't mad about it!

That night all of us ladies met up for a dinner together in St. Kilga. Along our travels there were came across a very interesting character, this 70 something man was telling us a story that he had written, cant really remember the story expect that were was lots of killings and "boos!" in it, interesting guy. We ate at this really cute pizza restaurant. It was small gourmet pizzas and the menus was written on a chalkboard on the wall. The pizza was phenomenal as well as the hot chocolate and wine! We had a nice dinner and we all enjoyed our selves and felt very satisfied. This was all until at the end of our meal we spotted the cutest little thing....a baby mouse! Cute but freaked us all out, it was running around the fire place which we were sitting pretty close to. We all sat with a feet picked up off the ground in fear it might run up our leg or something!Yuck! That night we stayed in, which was a good choice because we had a big day ahead of us. Although we didn't go out, I still only got one hour of sleep...bad moves

It was bad moves because we were up at 6:30 to go pick up our MINI VAN! yup! Monday we rented a car to go drive the Great Ocean Road. Guess who was elected to drive, me. I was so nervous, not only was I driving on the wrong side of the road, I was driving this big old minivan! I got the hang of the other side of the road thing pretty quickly, just a little difficult with turns, but most of the driving was on a highway. phew! It took us about two hours to get to the Great Ocean Road, which was basically a road that drove right along the coastline on cliffs that twisted and turned everywhere with steep drops and hill with amazing views. It also took you through the rain forest too. The drive was beautiful, and I love to drive so I thoroughly enjoyed it. It only took me 2 coffees and a can of coke to get me going! We drove the the 12 Apostle which is the main tourist attraction. The were pretty cool, you wouldn't think so because they are just big rocks in the water, but they were pretty cool! It reminded me of the Cliffs of Moore in Ireland! We basically saw the apostles took some pictures had some laughs and hopped in the car to race back to the airport to make our flights. We made it with 25 minutes to spare! yessss! It was a full day of driving though and I was exhausted!

It was great seeing the boys and seeing the city! We came back to Sydney and back to reality and heaps of home work! That's why these posts have been few and far between. Too much work to do :(

:::Travel Mishaps, Adrian, Footy::: Melbourne

2009-05-26T00:02:00.000-07:00

Our trip to Melbourne start a bit turbulent, our flight was scheduled for 6:30, we had to be at the airport at 5:30, we had to catch two trains to get the airport at 4:20, and I got out of class at 3:00. To top it all off, I hadn't packed or showered. I ran in the door after class around 3:25 to jump in the shower and I find that my lovely roommate Courtney has laid out clothes for me and a packing list as well. We make our train, mostly because of Courtney's help with the packing and make it to the airport where we can finally relax, I was so rushed that I had to blow dry and straighten my hair in the airport bathroom. Security in the airport is incredibly lax, I didn't have to show my ID once! Going through the security I didn't have to take off my shoes or show them my boarding pass! crazy! We arrive in Melbourne and of course things cant go too smoothly, we were scheduled to take a bus 1 hour to Melbourne and we thought we had 20minutes before the bus left. So we went to the bathroom to freshen up and guess what, we missed the bus! We had to take a $100 cab ride....ugh! Oh well we made it and it was nice to see the boys from spring break waiting with bottles of wine for us!

First night there we hung out in their closet of an apartment, literally a closet. The room only contained a bed and a desk built against the wall and a narrow walkway to get around. It felt like solitary confinement!But it didnt matter, it was nice of them to squeeze us in there and it was good to see them! After draining a few bottles of wine we went out to find a place to party. No such luck, we ended up at a super swanky place where we had a few cocktails and stood out horribly. We decided to go back to the rooms and make it an early night (you know around 1 or so) We were met with a surprise when we got back. Apparently the boys were supposed to sign us in as guests and they didn't. So when we got home we were met by Adrian the bodyguard who wouldn't let us in because we weren't on the list. This begins a most interesting night of being chased around the building by Adrian trying to get in and hide from him. We were hiding in alleyways, attempting to climb in windows and scale walls, and borrow other peoples IDs. Finally around 3am we finally got in the rooms. Needless to say we were signed in for the rest of the weekend.

Our first full day there was kind of a waste. Me and Courtney tried to find Sasha and Brittany but were unsuccessful. We walked around Brunskwick and ate at the most cutest and bestest breakfast place! We rode the tram and explored a bit, but we were exhausted so we meet up with some of the other girls who had gotten a hotel room and took a nap while they finished their last minute papers. That night we went to Transport Bar and stopped for a late night snack at Lord of the Fries, the best fries place ever (apparently, I didn't eat em)

The next day we got up early and started to grill out in their courtyard and drink beers around 11. Benny cooked and we tried to pitch in here and there, but mainly just watched. We all hung out and got ready for the AFL game, which we were really excited about! The Tigers and Lions were playing and we got tickets as high up as you could go. This is a totally different type of rugby than what the Waratahs play, this field is round and you score and pass by kicking the ball. It is still incredibly rough, 2 players got seriously injured during this game. It was really cold this day and no matter how many layers I put on I was still freezing! Our friend Tyler's parents were in town and they came with us to the game, Tyler's mom gave me a Bentley Football sweatshirt to wear since I was turning blue. I was really embarrassed and tried to not to wear it, but eventually I couldn't feel my fingers and put it on. That night we went to Billboards which was a wild dance club. I enjoy going to these because its soo much fun to watch the Australian boys dance to techno, its a style of dance unlike anything I have seen before, its very entertaining! And of course the night isn't complete without a late night Kebabs. Again I have yet to try one.

Oh I almost forgot! Speaking of me and being to big of a wuss about food, on the way home from the AFL game we stopped at the boys favorite place to eat, a Indian food place! Me and Courtney were really wary about trying this since neither of us have before but the boys encouraged us to try it. We split Buttered Chicken because that's what they ordered for us. Surprisingly it was really good! We both enjoyed it and were proud of ourselves for trying it. But when we got back to the apartment someone told us a little secret about that place....that it was recently written up for being the dirtiest place in Melbourne! The boys new this but took us there anyway they don't seem to care, to them its a cheap good meal! Yuck!

Sorry I'm going to split this into 2 post, for some reason these days my posts are getting to be longer and longer. And i know that you wont read 5 pages worth of my chattiness in one sitting! Tomorrow will be the second half!

ANZAC Day

2009-05-12T02:57:00.000-07:00

ANZAC Day is an important day in Australian history. ANZAC stands for Australia New Zealand Army Corps. It is celebrated on April 25 in order to commemorate those soldiers who fought in Gallipoli, Turkey during World War I. Gallipoli could be compared to D-day in the US because there was a massive loss of Australian lives during that battel. The ANZAC legend is born from this, it created a sense of national pride for the Aussies and a sense of national identity away from Great Britain. Now ANZAC day is a national holiday much like Memorial Day back home, but of course with different traditions.

We got to experience of the biggest ANZAC Day tradition, gambling and the horse races! We decided to go to the Royal Randwick Races and it felt like the Kentucky Derby. We woke up early and started drinking wine. Courtney also had a friend from Indiana staying with us for the weekend. So we all got dressed and head off to the race tracks. We got their and even though we were in nice summer dresses we were pretty under dressed. The girls were wearing fancy cocktail dresses and extravagant hats. All the guys were in 3 piece suits or in their fancy uniforms all decorated with medals. We made our way down to the race track to watch some of the races. the race track was a cross country type of course (I dont know the proper name for it) not the typical circular race track. Some of us made bets on the horses, I didn't. I learned my lesson in Ireland betting on Yankee Pride who came in dead last! No more betting on the ponies for me! But it was still fun to root for the horse that was the prettiest or the coolest jokey colors and people watch.

After the races we were all really tired and hungry. Everyone passed out on the couches and I stayed up and watched Miss World and ate McDonald's haha!

To Mom and Grammy

2009-05-10T01:09:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day from Melbourne Australia! I'm spending a long weekend in Melbourne with all my girl friends and were staying with some friends we made on spring break. Its funny because all of us girls were prepared for mother's day and all the boys had forgotten and had to scramble to do something nice. The funny thing is that they would say, "I should send my mom some flowers, so she will send me more money!" Silly boys, Melbourne is amazing but I'll post about that when I get home.I'm a bit behind on my posting and this is going to be out of order, but I wanted to make sure Mom and Grammy got a shout out!

Today makes me a bit home sick, I wish I could be home with my Mom and Grammy, especially since this is the first year that I would get to spend Mother's Day with my Grammy. This bums me out because my mom and Grammy are like my best friends in the whole world and I know it would be a fun day. Also why I'm homesick is that my whole family (Mom Dad Grammy & Maggie) are in Florida for my cousins wedding and they are meeting her brand new baby Abbie! I'm soo jealous!

My favorite memory from Mother's Day is last year when Dad Maggie Erin and I went to a nursery and picked out a tree for mom, she really wanted this tree and orchard blossom or something! We picked out a good one and got it loaded into the car by the people that worked there. We get it home and get Mom out of the house so we can store it for the big day. Well when we tried to get it out we were unpleasantly surprised about how heavy it was! We also couldn't get to the wheelbarrow because it was in the back shed which is spider land, so we found a rolling lounge chair and dragged it on to that. Then came the dilemma of how to wrap it or present it. So Maggie came up with the idea of putting it in the back yard right in front of the kitchen window. Every morning Mom comes down to the kitchen to have her cup of coffee and looks out that window. So we put a sign on the window says "Good morning Mom, Look out side!" and right out side the window was her tree. To top it all off we decorated it with tags that the three of us daughters made. Each tag had a childhood memory of her or a funny story. One of the favorites were Maggie's which said " I remember when you threw away my dead hamster before I got home from school and told me it ran away" and Erin's, "I remember when we used to rock out to Shade in the car"...The day was a success! --Heres a link to my Mom's blog about it
http://housewrenstudio.typepad.com/charlotte/2008/05/my-darling-girl.html

To the whole family- I miss you tons and I know this Mother's Day will be just as special as the last one! Spending my love across the world!
P.S Mom and Grammy a little something will be arriving soon, just want you to know I'm thinking of you! Love Love Love!

Spring Break Saga: Chapter 5 The End

2009-04-30T21:49:00.000-07:00

The next morning, bright and early we headed off to the Great Barrier Reef to go snorkeling and scuba diving! I was really excited about this part, I almost forgot that we were doing this! We walked to the harbor and got on our boat. It was a huge boat and really nice. We all crammed onto the deck to get some sun. Then something rare happened. I got sea sick, it may have been a combination of being hungover and sea sickness but it was bad! I was so miserable, I tried sleeping up on the top deck, inside in the cabin and out on the bow. The bow was the best, but there was no where to hide from the sun. I never get sea sick, I love being on boats! I was kind of embarrassed about it. Then we got there and I was told that because of my sinus problems that it was recommended I don't scuba dive, which I think is a load of crap but they have to cover their butts. That's okay though I still got to snorkel and it was truly amazing! We were only at a small part of the reef but still, it was amazingly vibrant coral and some of the most beautifully colored fishes I have ever seen. It was just how I imagined it and think it could be one of my favorite places I have ever been. I wanted to see more, I wanted to see the whole reef! This is something I will remember for my entire life!

That night we did a Pub Crawl on a double decker party bus! This was heaps of fun but kind of silly because Cairns is a small beachy town and all the bars were seriously one or two blocks away! But we drove around pumping music and having a good time. I think we did a total of 5 bars and there were some awesome drink special, 2 for 1s and half priced drinks. We were getting drinks for $2.50 AUD. Also at each bar there were silly competitions that were good fun to watch, I didn't participate in any but a lot of my friends did, they also won a few of them!

The next day we got to sleep in, till 10! whoo hoo! and then we climbed back on the party bus (we rode this bus everywhere, even on the high ways, and naturally we made a scene everywhere we went) We drove over to a small town and arrived at Trinity beach. So beautiful! There were some amazing condos that lined the beach and one day I hope to have one of them! The beach was so quiet and relaxing. It was an incredibly hot day so we all layed in the shade and took naps, relaxed and ate coconuts we knocked out of the trees. Courtney and I walked into the town and had an amazing lunch at a little outdoor cafe. We got the Fisherman's Basket, that came with calamari and calamari rings, a large piece of fried fish, shrimp (prawns) and some other unidentified fried item of fish that neither of us recognize and were too scared to try. It was nice to have some fresh seafood,yumm!

Then came what we are all dreading, our last night! We had a pregaming party in Mouses room where Matty made "the elbow" because "its stronger than a punch" and in it went 6 boxes of goon both red and white, 3 bottles of vodka, 3 bottles of champagne, 3 bottles of Malibu and some orange juice. He wasn't kidding when he said it was strong than a punch! We polish off the elbow and hung out and recapped on highlights of the trip, took heaps of pictures, and got one of the girls to sing for us all. She was amazing, it gave me chills! She even has songs on Itunes. Then we went one last time to the WoolShed, where awards were given out to some of us. I got one and I turned incredibly red! We had a great last night and were all sad when it came to an end.

The next morning everyone dispersed and it was difficult to say goodbye because everyone was leaving at different times. We however booked our flight for the afternoon, so we had nothing to do all day. But it was nice we went out to brunch with our new group of friends and then we said our goodbyes. This was sad because by the end of this trip we felt like we had know them all our lives, but on the bright side were going to visit them in Melbourne in a few short weeks!

We get to the airport early and are ready to go! Then we run into a problem, Andrea finds out that she is not booked on the flight, she by accident booked it for a week from the day we were leaving! This was a disaster!Unfortunately she had to stay another night and fly back the next day. Nothing like a bit of drama to end our trip!

Spring Break Saga: Chapter 4 Lengendary

2009-04-28T19:24:00.000-07:00

Finally in Cairns, our last stop on the trip, but also the most exciting. We stayed in Cairns for 3 days and 3 nights at our sweet hostel Gilligan's. This place was the ultimate backpacking hostel I have ever seen. There was a club in the front and a bar in the back that was outside on a deck that looked over the pool. Also on each floor there was a kitchen and tables, a lounge, and a computer area. There were heaps of different people there, I would listen in on other peoples Skype sessions that were in all sorts of different types of languages while I checked my Facebook. Best of all, it was clean! There were clean towels and we were all pumped to shower and straighten our hair.

First night there we went to the WoolShed, our favorite hangout for the next three nights, and had a nice meal. Then we got to the partying. The WoolShed is a big bar and the drinks were pretty cheap, our group all sort of stayed together in one area and just had a good time. It turned out to be a late night but a fun one.

Next morning I woke up in a panic, I remembered what was in store for the day and then the fear set in. Today I'm going skydiving! A group of us signed up for the 12 o'clock time slot. Around 11:45 we wander downstairs to get some brekky before we go. Matty our tour guide told us not to eat, in fear of us throwing up (which was comforting to me, not!) but we did anyway. We get to the skydiving place and start filling out paper work. While we were doing this we got to watch Mouse's video from this morning, he went when he was still drunk and the skydiver messed with him and jumped out of the plane backwards and caught Mouse off guard. Again this didn't put me as ease. We continued to sign our lives away and then paid for it all, the skydiving, video and pictures, thanks mom and dad! lol I got fitted with some sweet pants and then got strapped into my harness...which I though was mighty loose! My skydiver was GJ, he was a bit older and short but a really nice guy, my fear must have been really apparent because he kept reassuring me that it would be okay. He would tell me "happy days" and he also tried to reassure me by telling me that this was his 4 jump today and that he has done it over 500 times. This made me feel a bit better but I still thought I was going to pee my pants! The car ride over was fun I almost forgot about what I was about to do, we listened to Allstar by Smash Mouth and we all sang along. We arrive at the airport find our dinky little plane. We pack ourselves in and then he starts clipping me to him. Then we take off and start climbing higher and higher. I said to him, "you know planes make me nervous" and he replies "no worries, if anything happens, we just jump out!" yikes!! The sights were beautiful though, we could see all of Cairns and the sugar cane fields. There were beautiful mountains that came right up to the waters edge. The water was blue and beautiful, I couldn't stop looking out the window. Since me and GJ were the smaller than the rest we were put at the back of the plane, and all the while the are shouting out codes to each other about the wind conditions and that it was all clear to jump. The door is pulled open and I was given some quick instructions on what to do and then all of a sudden people are jumping out of the plane. It was crazy to see, a group would be sucked out of the plane and it made a wooshing noise and the plane was getting lighter. Then its my turn, I'm the second to last to jump and now I was in a state of panic! I was breathing really deeply and kept trying to reassure myself. We scoot to the edge and he tells me to put my feet out of the plane, I try to tell him no way, but before I can he jumps out of the plane, and I go with him!!!!!! I scream my head off and then realize how amazing it is! You don't feel like your falling, but just suspended in the air. I'm trying to taken in the sights while I free fall, we free fall for 60 seconds which is the longest. Then I started to get nervous about when he pulls the chute, but he does and it all goes smoothly. I feel so accomplished of what I just did, but its still not over! He let me hold on to the chute and control it. We did 360 spins in the air and took in the sights, it was so peaceful. Then of course I started to get nervous about the landing, which again went smoothly. Then I was done and felt like I was on top of the world! So proud of my self and I wanted to do it again! I have video of it all and it is the funniest thing ever! The entire time I look like I just saw a ghost I am sooooo scared! After all that adrenaline I was spent, we walked around Cairns a bit but then went back to the place and took a nap. There was more extreme action ahead of us that night.

That night we went night bungee jumping. I didn't bungee jump, which I kinda regret now, but I felt I pushed myself enough for one day! The bungee was cool though it was over a lake and some people got dipped into the water! I still had a good time, a lot of us wussed out and so we drank tequila and laughed at all the terrified faces that were being shown on the screen before they jumped!

I wanted to get the whole three days in here, but it was way too long. I know no one would read it all, I know I wouldn't! So there will be one more chapter, Ill post it tomorrow! Sorry!

Spring Break Saga: Chapter 3 Sweet

2009-04-25T18:14:00.000-07:00

After we picked Alix up from the hospital we drove a few hours to our hostel for the night. We got in at 1am and we all disperse into our rooms, no partying or socializing for us tonight everyone was exhausted. The majority of the group stayed in this one hostel and since we were sitting at the back of the bus and got the room list last, we had to stay in the hostel across the street. We lucked out! This place wasn't the nicest, but it has clean towels and soap! (this was amazing because the last three days we have been using our wet beach towels as our shower towels as well...gross!) Apparently the place that everyone else stayed at was nasty! lucky us.

The next morning at 5am we were up to go white water rafting, something I was most scared of doing! We were going to try and get out of it, but that wasn't an option. We were nervous because I have a family friend who almost drowned doing this in Australia! So we listened closely to the safety instructions, double checked our life vests and pretended to look excited. We all got helmets, life jackets, a paddle, and a pair of Crocs! Our raft guide was nicked named the Ginger Ninja but his real name was Joe,He was tall and skinny and very soft spoken, he had long red hair in a ponytail and a long red beard that was braided.

We did a flood run because the Tully River was flooded recently. A flood run is when you do the bottom part of the rapids first and then go to the top and do the top half second (sometimes if its too bad you do the bottom half twice) Tully River is in the middle of the rain forest and is on the World Heritage List, it really was a beautiful place(to bad I didn't get to take in too much of the scenery, I was too busy clingy to the boat with all my might) We learned some basic instructions like"to the left" "to the right" these meant for us all to slide over to the left or the right side of the raft (this is difficult for me since I'm not so sharp on my left and rights, embarrassing, I know) We also learned "Get Down" and "Hold On" Get down was the call for us to pull in our paddles and get in the raft and hold on was meant for us just to hold on to the sides of the raft but still be ready to paddle. Our raft was nick names Team Get Down. This is because no matter what call he gave us when it came to any mildly big rapid we all jumped into the raft! I found it funny that we would paddle a bit and then Joe would tell us to relax as in stop paddling, this was funny choice of words because we would never relax, we were terrified!

Oh yeah did I mention that this was a grade 4 rapids out of a scale of 6! Each rapid we named something different, like Shark Fin, Spiral, and Hells Gate. My friend Jen fell out of the raft twice and one time was particular scary. We just went off a ledge aka a mini waterfall and Jen falls out. We are stuck at the bottom of this rapid and the water is forcing her under and dumping into the raft, were trying to pull her out but the force of the water on her is making it too difficult! We are all freakin! But we managed to get her into the raft and she was fine, a bit embarrassed because as we were pulling her up she lost her shorts shoes and paddle. She was funny about it she didn't want to be saved out of the water because her bathing suit bottoms were falling down, she rather drown than moon her fellow rafters. But everything from then on was smooth rafting (that's an oxymoron)

A couple times in the day we got out of the raft and floated down the river and the also got to do a bit of cliff jumping (they were really just tall rocks) but they were pretty high and kinda scary! I got up to the top of one and decided it was too high for me to jump and was trying to back out, and the instructor up there (a crazy Canadian) pushed me off...glad I did it tho! Oh yeah! also we were asking Joe about the river and if there was anything in there that would eat us, and he told us no. Then at the end of the day he told us that there actually Salt Water Crocs in the first part of the rapid we did, we also went swimming there! SCARY!

We went back to their headquarters had a beer and some food and got a good laugh at the pictures that were being snapped of us at different points down the river. We got back on the bus to head for Cairns, our final stop. We all passed out immediately on the bus, we were bumped bruised and tired. Glad I did it though.

So I apologize for the lack of pictures, none of us were stupid enough to bring our camera, Andrea however brought a waterproof disposable camera but it hasn't been developed yet. I will post them as soon as I get them!

Spring Break Saga: Chapter 2 Bizirk

2009-04-23T21:38:00.000-07:00

After our epic drive to the Whitsunday Islands we wake up to a wonderful gourmet breakfast...Mackers (McDonald's) yum. Its a beautiful day and the scenery is breathtaking. We store our big bags and pack 3 days worth of clothes and wine. We thought it would be nice to take a shower at the place we were storing out bags at the Koala Adventures...but when we arrived at the bathrooms and showers we were overcome with a stench and found some hefty frogs chillin out in the showers...needless to say, there was no showering for us, in fact it was so gross that we changed out side under the cover of each others towels and the next chance I got, I washed my flip flops of in fear of a disease!

After that debacle, we headed down to the dock where three yellow jet boats were waiting for us. We were given stinger suits and packed our stuff tightly away and then we took off. Our boat boys were Ben and Ben, easy to remember and they were nuts. As soon as we were of the marina we off doing 360's and catching air off the other boats wakes. We would catch up with the other boats and try and splash them, and they would do the same to us. After racing we stopped to go snorkeling! We had to wear these sexy stinger suits because its stinger season. They were basically long sleeves and pants wetsuit. It was pretty cool, we saw some cool fish and coral. We all looked pretty funny in the water because the gave us noodles to help keep us afloat and there were tons of us clumped together with our noodles sticking up in the air.

We jumped back on the boat for so more racing and splashing, we went to White Haven Beach and it was soo beautiful. But of course it starts down pouring when we get there. Unlike Fraizer Island we decided to make the best of it. We all grabbed our bags of goons and jumped out of the boat. The beach was beautiful with white sand for miles and beautiful clear blue water. We goofed around in the water for a few hours, drained our goons and froze our butts off! We were getting pelted with rain and every ones lips were turning blue and our teeth were chattering. Then Matty and Mouse would throw some fish food at us and these HUGE fish would emerge all around us to get a feed. They were cracking up laughing listening to our shrieks of horror when the big fish were splashing all around us! This day was one of my more favorite days of the trip!

We then arrived at our resort that we would call home for the next three days. South Molle Island and it was beautiful, we had it all to our selves. We found our little cabins and dropped our stuff to explore. There was a pool, bar, cafe, dinning hall, and gift shop. There was also a golf course too. The second day we were there it rained all day, so we sat under the cabana and drank pitchers of beer, played cards and just talked about everything and anything. Occasionally someone would get tossed into the pool, and Matty put one of our bathing suit cover up dresses on. Fun day of just relaxing in the rain.

Our last day was a beautiful one and thank goodness because we spent the day sailing around the Whithsundays and it would have been miserable if we had more bad weather. Luckily the sun was out and it as HOT! we camped out all over the boat and got some sun. Again we stopped to snorkel at another beautiful spot. We did a bit of snorkeling and then swam to the beach. Me and Ari went exploring and climbed this huge rock that had an amazing view. It was such a relaxing day and so fun to just lay out on the luxury sailboat and listen to good tunes.

Unfortunately a wonderful day ended on a sour note. When we got back to the main land to get our luggage we had stored for the last few days, some people found that their stuff had been gone through. Then heaps of people realized their ipods were missing, and some girls laptop was taken too! While everyone was filing police reports our friend Alix tripped on a curb and gashed open her knee...It was soo gruesome, most of the boys were freaked out about it. It was almost down to the bone and there was blood everywhere! I of course had to stay away in fear of passing out! She was such a trooper tho she didn't even cry until she realized that she would be holding up the group! She had to be taken away in an ambulance and got 7 stitches in here knee. But she rejoined the group later that night with a smile on her face.

Next chapter WHITE WATER RAFTING!

Spring Break Saga: Chapter 1

2009-04-21T19:28:00.000-07:00

I have just had the most amazing 9 days and 9 nights possible. Spring Break 2009 could not have been better. Courtney, Brit, Sasha, Andrea and I booked a trip through Extreme Adventures called One Fish Two Fish. We debated a while whether we should do it or not because we wanted to try and do our own thing, but we decided it was the most cost effective trip. We would see the most places and do the most, man this was the best decision ever!

It was so action packed I don't know where to start and how to even do justice to the experience. Im going to try but I'm splitting it up into chapters so I don't write 10 pages in this post! And I have some amazing pictures as well.Sunday morning at 4am we set off to the airport. We each brought a LARGE suitcase packed full. I was so tired on the flight I fell asleep immediately after sitting down, I didn't even get to put my seat back. We arrived in Brisbane and we were cutting it close to our meet up time with the trip. We are greeted by a guy running around the terminal with a blown up Kangaroo asking "are you one fish two?!?!" we then ran to the bus and we were the last ones (we were an hour late...woops) Since we were late we had sit scattered around the bus, but this way we got to meet some of the other people on the trip.

Our first stop was to the Australia Zoo (aka Steve Irwins Zoo) I was really excited about this part because me being the nerd that I am love zoos and love watching the crocodile hunter! I got to feed an Elephant a banana and he slobbered all over my hand..still pretty cool. We saw all the crocs and gators! We then went to the crocoseum and watched Terri Bindi and Bob feed crocs, they also brought out a HUGE anaconda and all types of birds.

We then hopped on the bus and took a long bus ride to Harvey Bay to stay at our first hostel. We had a booze cruise in the harbor and we all got a chance to meet each other and relax a bit. And we got to know our tour guides a bit better. Matty and Mouse are two of the craziest guys I have ever meet. In Aussie terms "off their head" both funny and outgoing and always down to do somethings crazy and they did do many crazy things on this trip! They are actually a bit of celebrities, the are rescuers are Bondi Beach and are on the show Bondi Rescue, Matty showed us an episode that features him and his incredible number of saves this summer ( a big zero!) Good news is that they live right near us and we will be seeing them again soon that's for sure.

Next day we headed off the Frazier Island. Unfortunately it was raining and a yucky day and we were all tired from the festivities of last night. We took an hour ferry over to the island which we all fell asleep on. We then got on a bus that was suped up on some crazy off wheeling tires and took off into the rain forest. We were bouncing around on the bus made me think of ace ventura. Funny thing was that every time I got on that bus I couldn't help but fall asleep, it was soo soothing. We went to two lakes that were made of only rainwater and it was beautiful. Every time we got out of the bus it started to rain tho and so we sat on the beach miserable in the rain. I packed a rain jacket, and of course I left it home this day (after that day I brought my rain jacket with me every where we went...even on the hottest days) Some interesting facts about Frazier, it has 7 of the 9 most deadliest snakes (including the deadliest), the island has tons of dingos and there are heaps of attacks, also the beach is the most dangerous place of all...its a shark breading area and if you are in knee deep water you are at risk of being attacked by a shark. Also the beach is a registered highway so there is no sunbathing there but that's okay because it rains 250 days in a year here. What a lovely place :)

At the end of a lovely day on Frazier we got back on the bus for an epic drive. Instead of staying at a hostel and loosing a day to travel we drove 12hours through the night to our next destination. We stopped every four hours and stretched our legs and got snacks. Naturally sleepin on the bus was uncomfortable...so I slept on the floor, wasn't too comfortable but atleast I got to stretch out and get some sleep. We also watched Role Models and that gave us some good laughs...this bus ride reminded me of the days of teenscape and all the bus rides we took, I miss those days :)

Next chapter- Whitsunday Islands and South Mole----check back soon :)

Fire Fun

2009-04-04T04:37:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posting, but to be honest we haven't been doing to much lately. We all have had alot of homework so we haven't been able to travel and nights out are just nights out.

I felt this was something worth posting though. Today was a rainy yucky day (which is quite unusual) so we all slept in and stayed in our pjs and watched Sex and the City. Around 2 a very odd noise came from our ceiling. Now its wasnt our fire detector, it was coming from what looked like an intercom. We call down to the front desk to see what was going on and no one answered, we were starting to get worried. Then the loud speaker starts speaking to us telling us to evacutate the building. We scrambled to grab our phones, keys, and sweatshirts and ran down the stairs. The whole building was standing out side on the curb and funny things was that we werent the only ones who slept in. Mind you most of our building is college kids that came in our program, so everyone was out side in thier pjs. Rumors were that there was a fire on the 4th floor, which was freaking us out becuase were on the 3rd! But it turns out that it was nothing, just a faulty alarm. But it was a big to do in the Tiffany buildings

But this is a good lead into another run into with the fire department. A few weeks ago me and Courtney went on a exploring adventure. We hopped on the train and took it to Kings Cross. We walked around there a bit and ate at a horrible burger place. We then walked by one of the cutest firehouses ever. (I know those firefighters would cringe if they knew I called thier fire house 'cute' but it was) Courtney said I should walk over there and ask for a picture witht he firefighters, and I told her no way they would do it and I was too embarresed. But she persisted and finally convinced me. So gald we did, the firefighters were so nice, they let us into the fire house and let us into all the truck bays and even let us in the trucks. I felt like a little kid again, it was so cool! It was cool to see the diffrences between thier trucks and ours. The fire house used to be an old convent and had beautiful courtyards and open patios. Makes me miss mine!

Best Weekend Ever!

2009-03-25T07:19:00.000-07:00

As you know I am terrified of water, I don’t like being in it or the things in it. Surfing is the one thing I said I would absolutely not do. Well this weekend I claim temporary insanity... I got talked into surf camp! Friday night we traveled into Sydney to meet up with the bus that would take us 3 hours up the coast to Seal Rock where we would experience the intensity of surfing. We were greeted by 2 tan, beach blonde boys on a shabby old bus packed with other brave people. We cranked up the tunes and partied all the way there!

Soon I realize that there is nothing insight but trees and dirt roads, we have arrived. First thing I notice when I get off the bus is how many freaking stars there were! Never in my life have I seen so many and there were "heaps" of shooting stars! Amazing. Surf Camp consists of a cabana that is made up by a bar, patio and, pool. All exposed to the elements, no need for doors here, but bug spray was a must! I got eaten alive! We partied way into the night meeting all the other wanna-be surfers and all the surf instructors. Then it was announced that we had to be up at 7:30 for breakfast (aka brekky no joke) so we all dispersed to our cabin full of bunk beds with the blankets we rented for 5 dollars...good thing I was so tired or I wouldn’t have slept in fear of bug attack!

Up at 7:30 and ready for brekky...which was cereal that tasted like cardboard yumm! then we split up into groups and met our instructors. Naturally our group was the coolest and we had the hottest instructors :) We were nicked named team tough crowd because we weren’t laughing at any of their jokes because most were too hung over or asleep on the bus on the way to our surfing beach. When get to our beach, (Booti Booti Beach) we get our surf boards and carried them down to the water. This was the most un fun part of the trip because the board was double my size heavy and awkward to carry. We practically had the beach to ourselves and it was totally secluded from everything. We had some on the beach instruction of how to catch waves. We then headed out and just attempted to catch waves without trying to stand up, baby steps. I was so proud of myself I just walked right into that water like I do it all the time and didn’t even think about how scared I was. While learning how to catch waves I took many nose dives into the sand. The surfer term for falling is "eating shit" and that’s what I wanted to title this post, because thats basically what I did all weekend, but I know Dad wouldn’t like it. Later we attempted standing up and this was difficult let me tell you! I probably drank half of the ocean and got sand in every where possible and got nailed by my board about a dozen times. Wow this is fun! But finally I got the hang of it and got up! now these waves were nothing to write home about, but I was proud it was a good start until my surf instructor Donny told me that his three year old daughter stood up on her surf board when she was 2! We spent the whole day at the beach from 9 am to 4pm we had a small picnic in the shade but that was the only shade of the day. Dont worry mom we applied ALOT of sunscreen

We repeated this the next day after another long night of fun with the instructors and team tough crowd. This day I actually paddled out past the breaking waves, which was insanely difficult because they kept crashing on me! But when I got out there with the help of an instruct and with a little push I felt myself rise up on a huge wave and down the big slope, I dont even really know what happened because it was so fast but I stood up and rode down the wave and then it crashed on me and I whipped out hardcore!! and that was my last wave, but it was a successful one!

We said our goodbyes to our instructors that we all developed massive crushes on and got on the bus for the three hour trip home. Unlike the trip there the bus was completely silent. Everyone was passed out and exhausted for one of the best experiences of our lives! I didnt leave camp with out any souvenirs to remember it by. And they are, 1) A large scrape on the inside of my arm thanks to the coarse surfboard 2) A sweet wetsuit tan and board burns on both knees 3) a mini sharkbite ( not really but it looks like it) on my finger that is now looking very gruesome 4) sunburnt feet 5) and heaps of sand and dried saltwater (because we didn’t shower all weekend...fresh)

And to conclude I just thought it would be fun to let you in on some surf lingo...a wetsuit is called a "wettey" a rashgaurd is called a "rashey" your leg rope is called a "leggey" sunglasses are called "sunnys" and of course breakfast "brekky"

Sorry this is so long but it was an action packed weekend and it was the most fun I have had to date in Australia!

Four Leaf Clovers & Green Beer

2009-03-23T02:04:00.000-07:00

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY! (a bit late) this is my favorite holiday of the year! A year ago I was in Ireland on my spring break with my mom and dad. This was the best spring break ever! (so far...this spring break I'm doing an East Coast tour) We flew into Dublin and rented a car and started our grand tour of the green country. We went to Kilkenny, Kinsale, Killarney, Doolin, Galway, and then back to Dublin. We left the day before Paddy's day but we still witnessed some of the Irish craziness! I loved every minute of the trip and looking forward to my next trip back!

This year in Australia we celebrated in good fashion. Me and Courtney went out and bought a case of beer for our celebrations and attempted to carry it back to the apartment. We got so many funny looks because it was little me carrying the case and Courtney directing me, we looked like alcoholics. We bounced around from room to room and saw some crazy Irish outfits! We then went to a local Irish Pub called Cock and Bull...you can imagine what everyone actually calls it. It was PACKED! just as it should be though and there were tons of Irish people there and a live band. We then ventured to the Gaff in Sydney, one of the girls in our group works there so we got in free and drank for free too...great! It was really fun but kind of rowdie there were a few fights. All and all a good Paddy's day!

One thing that was missing was my favorite event of the year, the White Plains St. Patrick's Day Parade with my fire department. This is the second year in a row that I have missed it, but this year I was especially sad since its the first parade that I'm 21 for. Its my favorite parade and made me a bit homesick thinking about all the fun they were having together.I missed being in the BlackBear with my wild firefighter friends and listening to good Irish music and the bagpipers that make an appearance in the crowded bar!But I know there are many more parades to come. :)

Goodbye Sweatpants and Comfy Clothes!

2009-03-16T01:37:00.000-07:00

At school in Indiana I barely make any effort to look nice for class. Most of the time I roll out of bed and throw on my baggy sweatpants and a sweatshirt and I'm off to class. Which is not that big of deal, a lot of people dress that way at school too. But not here, that's for sure, everyone gets really dressed up for their day at school. Probably more dressed up than I would if I was going out! Its crazy, heels and everything. So unfortunately I cant roll out of bed and go to class, I need to get incredibly dressed up therefore get up early. Yuck!Anyway I have completed my first week of classes at University of New South Wales (UNSW) and other than getting dressed up, it has been great! I am taking some very interesting classes and I really like the campus. I am taking four classes, Intro to film studies in which I have watched "Do The Right Thing" and "Rebel Without a Cause" and I am also taking an Australian Cinema and TV where we watched a very interesting movie "Ten Canoes" --for you artsy movie buffs that want to see a good Aussie film I suggest looking it up. I am taking two more classes, Intro to Criminology and Australian History class, both are interesting but we havent learned much yet since its still so early in the semester. I really like my criminology teacher, hes from England and very fabulous!Campus is beautiful too, it has large courtyards and grassy areas that students sit and hang out in between classes. The campus is very green, there are tons of trees around campus and fountains down hidden pathways, and also cool modern sculptures (my fav one above). I really like how the campus is full of very modern new buildings but its littered with trees and green spaces. I'm unsure if UNSW campus is much bigger than IU it feels like it. But there is defiantly more people on the campus, most students stay on campus all day and hang out, where at IU that doesn't really happen.

All classes have two components, a lecture and a tutorial aka "Tuts". I am usually the only American in the Tuts which is interesting because they always ask me about the American point of view, which sucks because I was hopping to blend in. I am really self conscious about my accent here because there is no hiding that I'm an outsider. And everyone whips their head around to hear the American! scary! I haven't yet figured out the homework yet, which I should hurry up and do because I think I have some due tonight! ekk! So I better go and plan my outfit for tomorrow (joking) and get my homework done!

Whatever Nemo....I like the Big Fish

2009-03-11T04:44:00.000-07:00

Sunday was a rainy yucky day, we stayed in our PJs all day and were recovering from Mardi Gras. Then at the end of the day we got our act together and braved the rain and went to the Sydney Aquarium in Darling Harbor. We took a bus to the city, but I made the group hop off at what I thought was our stop, but it wasn't we weren't even close. So then we were wandering around the city looking for the aquarium or something recognizable. And did I mention that it was pouring rain! ops, my bad. We hailed a cab and got front door service!

The aquarium was cool, but it really annoys me that its nearly impossible to take pictures! You cant use the flash because it just reflects back and if you don't use the flash its too dark or blurry. But I managed. Anywho I enjoyed seeing the crocodiles and all the exotic fish. There were some stairs you could go up to get an over head view of the croc, and with that there was the funniest sign ever! "if the fall doesn't kill you...the crocodile will" it even illustrated it! I saw the biggest lobster ever! although it probably wasn't a lobster because I have never seen one this big! It had to be the size of a small child! At this point I started to develop a huge crazing for seafood, especially a lobster of that size! There were three special exhibits that were really cool especially the design of them. We went to see the Dugong aka the Mermaids of the Sea. They are almost identical to Manatees, but Alexis really wanted to see them. The tank was an extension of the building and built right out into the harbor. You walk down a ramp for seemed forever and then you end up in these glass tubes and you are basically walking through the tank and the Dugons are swimming above you! So cool! This was also the set up for the Sharks and Great Barrier reef exhibits too. It was really cool/scary to see these mean looking sharks gliding so close to me! Ekk! but it makes for good photo ops!

Of course we found the Nemo's and Doris, but I though the Bruces (aka sharks), stoned sea turtles and Steve Irwin's favorites... the massive sting rays were much cooler! Glad I got to check that off my list of things to do!

Mardi Gras...Aussie Style

2009-03-10T01:19:00.001-07:00

Early Saturday night we got ready for the annual Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade in downtown Sydney. We got all dressed up in bright colors and glitter, although, we looked like squares compared to everyone else. I guess anything goes outfit wise for this parade, there were people with angle wings and face paint, to full on Halloween costumes, to tall sequined boots paired with sparkling underwear and wigs. It was WILD! There were tons and tons of people there more people than I have ever seen at a parade in NYC! We got there a bit late but surprisingly we were able to again manage our way to the front of the crowd and get a good view. The parade started with the lesbian bikers on their Harley's trailing rainbow flags, then the techno started...the crowd was so lively everyone singing and dancing, even the security guards were gay and they were dancing along with the crowd while we waited for the floats to come. Then the floats started to come, we only saw 5 or 6 but they were extravagant! I liked that some of the people walking in the parade had choreographed dances and themes. Some were odd and not very distinct but my favorite one was the lifeguard one, there background music was beach boys and they were all wearing their Speedos and they had water guns and were spraying the crowd. We didn't stay the whole parade because it was getting a bit claustrophobic...but all the restaurants around the parade grounds stayed open late and set up outside stands, smart move. We grabbed some pizza and jumped on the bus to go home (we are getting pretty good at this bus and public trans thing) All and all it was such a fun night!!

Unfortunately I had an awesome video that I spent quite some time editing and making and now I cant up load it! Ugh! Ill try again tomorrow but I really hope you guys get to see it! I worked really hard on it and I'm really proud of it!

Go Tahs!

2009-03-09T00:32:00.000-07:00

Friday very spur of the moment we decided to hop up off the couch and go to a rugby game! We had little under an hour to get dressed and out the door, which was quite a task. This reminds me about the time when my friends from Indiana came to visit me over the summer and we went out on my Dad's boat in Connecticut and had to race home, drop a friend off, and then get dressed for the Yankees game which we did in a matter of 15 minutes, nobody thought we could do it! But anyways we hopped on the bus and begged the bus driver to let us off near the Sydney Football Stadium. We bought our concession tickets (aka student tickets) for $16 and then went into the huge stadium. I'm sure that our seats were way up in the nosebleeds but the stadium wasn't packed and there were lots of seat in the front row, so of course we sat in the first row right in the end zone (I don't know if its even called that)! It was so much fun, we had a few beers and cheered for the home team, the New South Wales Waratahs. I get the general rules of rugby and can follow for the most part but I don't know a lot of the rules and penalties, so I kept leaning over to the guy next to us and asking him questions. He was a good sport and answered my questions and explained lots to me. It was a lot of fun to watch, its such a hard hitting game and there isn't much stoppage time so its pretty fast paced. So since we were in the front row we got great views of the rugby players who were warming up just in front of us, and I think I found several of my next husbands! They were sooo cute!! all of us girls fell in love, especially with # 19! The Waratahs won 15-11 and it was their 10th straight win at home which was awesome and so much fun, every time they scored they shot off these fire cannons all around the field its was pretty exciting. At the end of the game the players threw little rugby balls into the crowd and Brit caught one! We are all going to go out and get us some Waratahs apparel and go back to another game! I'm really looking forward to it!

Making Big Changes

2009-03-07T21:11:00.000-08:00

So while I'm here in Sydney I'm all about being adventurous and stepping out of my comfort zone. I have done that big time... I have ditched my beloved blonde hair. With the encouragement of my roomies we went out and bought some brown hair dye, then we dyed my hair brown in my bathroom before we got ready for our night out. I was sooo nervous and almost wimped out several times. Courtney and Sasha took turns putting the gloves on and covering my hair with the brown dye, and Brittney documented it all... its funny to see the fear in my face. Half way through we realized that I was probably going to need two boxes but by then none of us wanted to go out and get another box, so we cut open the bottle and scrapped out the little that was left. A half an hour later I was a brunette, but a brunette with streaks of chunky blonde because we did indeed need that second box of dye! I sucked it up and went out, many people didn't recognise me, but everyone loved it! the next day I fixed it and got the last of my blonde out, which was kind of sad. Its definitely weird to me, I don't recognize my self! Although my eyes look 10 times more blue! Its a big change but its a change I had to try, and I'm gladI did. Who knows I may stay a brunette but I have to admit I do miss the blonde! So tell me what you think.....

on our own :)

2009-03-05T04:44:00.000-08:00

My apartment is conveniently located across from one of the biggest and nicest malls ever! Courtney and I walked around and explored it the other day. Fortunately the stores are lots of high end stores that you can find in the States like A|X Ed Hardy, Ralph Lauren, so this way we wont be tempted to waste our money in there. But there are some really cute restaurants and food carts. There was this little chocolate shop with beautiful chocolates in the shapes of penguins and different animals they even had chocolate fountain yum! I wish I could have taken pictures of how beautiful the mall was but I felt a bit silly taking pictures in a mall. We went over to the directory to see what else is in this massive mall and there was touch screen menu that you typed in the store you were looking for and then it would give you directions to it, you could even pick the fastest way...we thought it was pretty cool.

Also in the mall is the grocery store, Coles. My grocery shopping experiences have been interesting, I hate grocery shopping to begin with but it is worse here! First off, things here are much more expensive and to be honest I rather be spending my money on other things! Second most of the brands arnt the same here and everything has different names. I couldn't find apple sauce because they only had apple pure but it was pink...I was very confused. Also I don't know what I need to cook things with, because to be honest I'm not the best cook because I do it very infrequently. To say the least I miss my home cooking and of course Bruce (our beloved cook at Alpha Phi) Also to add to the stress of us living on our own, our washing machine keeps overflowing! But to our defense it not our fault, the thing is broken, all four of us know how to use it and have done laundry before but our machine has overflowed at least 4 times and we have had maintenance up here tons! Wow who ever knew this would be so much fun! Im sure well get the hang of this soon!

Shrimp on the Barbie

2009-03-02T23:09:00.001-08:00

This ones for you Mags! I hate to burst your bubble but there is no such thing as "shrimp on the barbie" in fact they don't even use the word shrimp, they are called prawns. I had grilled prawns today with a chili sauce. It was really good but a bit spicy! Then we got some ice cream on the way back to our apartment. We stopped at this Swedish ice cream shop and it was unreal! Now this is going to sound weird and gross but you have to try it...I had gingerbread ice cream and it actually had pieces of ginger bread in it! yummmmm!

No Worries

2009-03-02T00:16:00.000-08:00

If I pick up any Australian lingo I want it to be the phrase "no worries" which they use as a response to thanks or "cheers".

Speaking of no worries, that really is the lifestyle here. Today we spent the day at Bondi Beach again. We took the bus and walked around the beach town to find some food. We ate at Bondi Fresh which was amazing! I had a schnitzel sandwich (which is basically fried chicken with cheese lettuce and mayo) It will probably be my dinner too :)

Bondi beach is amazing! Today it wasn't really crowded but that's because its Monday and people were at work, which I forgot people have to do that! I'm so not in the real world here its more like paradise. I was really proud of myself I went into the water for the first time today. I went all the way up to my knees! I'm still terrified of the water and all the things that can kill me or eat me. I got some good sun today, and yes mom I wore sunscreen!

I made it...

2009-03-01T00:38:00.000-08:00

Sorry, but I haven't had Internet since I got here. So I have lots to update because these last few days have been jam packed. Me and my roommates Courtney Brittney and Sasha arrived in Sydney on Tuesday and moved into our temporary apartment for orientation. We Stayed in the World Tower which are apartments that were made into hotel rooms. We were on the 72 floor of the 5 star hotel and had an un-real view of the city.

So in this week of orientation we started off with dinner on Darling Harbor where I was going to get the Kangaroo steak but I wimped out and got the burger instead, and it for sure wasn't like the burgers at home. The next day we went on a walking tour of Sydney. The director of our program Russ was really knowledgeable about the history and cool places to visit. During the walking tour we walked along the harbor and saw the Opera House for the first time and it was so beautiful!! I cant wait to go see an opera there...this is when it really hit me that I'm finally here in Australia. So after all the fun we hopped on a bus and drove to an animal park where we got to pet and feed kangaroos even a baby one aka a "joey" we also got to pet a koala bear! I also saw a GIANT wombat or at least that's what I think it was. The next day we went to the Blue Mountains and went abseiling aka repelling. It was really cool but also really scary, we went first face of a 16 story cliff...I was terrified but I'm glad I did it! Friday we went to the university (UNSW) to get our ID cards and schedules, I have Friday classes which is a bummer because I'm going to want to take long weekend trips. Then we went on a harbor cruse, which was cool because of the awesome views of the harbor and the opera house, but other than that it was just okay. So basically that was orientation in a semi short version.

We moved into our apartments that are not as nice as the World Towers but it will do. Were only on the third floor so we don't have a great view and there is really no where for us to put our piles upon piles of clothes. We 10 minutes from the beach by bus and we went to Bondi Beach and I'm in love! I would be happy with a sleeping bag on the beach! but today there was a shark attack YIKES!!!! Today we went to the Sydney Wine Festival in Hyde Park and it was a beautiful day! There were tons of winery's set up in the park and we got a wine glass and walked around and tried different wines and listened to music in the park. Then we went to the beach....this is the life for sure!! I could do this everyday :-)

I will post pictures very soon....I'm just overwhelmed by the amount of pictures i have taken already!

Saving the Land

2009-02-13T07:49:00.000-08:00

As many of you know Australia is dealing with one of it's biggest natural disaster in its history. Wildfire's have been burning away Australia's beautiful landscape and devastating many lives in its wake. My heart goes out to all of those that have lost homes and loved ones and also to those who are doing so much to help. I am a volunteer firefighter and wish there was something I could do to help, although I'm not going to Australia to help with the wildfires, maybe I could find a way to get involved and help the victims.

My cousin on the other hand is a professional wildlife firefighter out in Montana she is involved with fire-jumping (which is so bad ass) We don't talk on a regular basis so I don't know if she has plans to go and help, but I wouldn't be surprised to run into her down there, while shes there saving the day!

So keep thinking of those in Australia who have lost so much and the everyday heroes that are putting their lives one the line to help. I hope to find out about ways to help and will post that information here.

College Road Trip

2009-02-09T17:11:00.000-08:00

This weekend since I have all this time off I went to see one of my besties Kiera at Roger and Williams in RI. Its a cute little beachy town, I bet its beautiful there in the summer.So much fun. She lives in this tiny little house that is nicked named the "dollhouse" and it really is! Its a two bedroom with one bathroom, and the living room is upstairs since downstairs is really only the kitchen and Kieras room. Her roommate and friends were really cool too. She also lives with her cat Oscar...he has one eye...but im allergic...that sucks.....anyways we partied hopped Friday night and I was wearing the cutest heals...but....we probably walked like 100 miles and my feet were hurtin!! Kiera and I are some of the biggest losers I know and are easily entertained, we had a BLAST with the macbook photo booth. We are great at embarrassing ourselves!

Saturday night we went to Brown University, our high school friend Matt plays football there and is in a Frat. So we went to go party with him, we didn't know what we were getting into! It was a marathon of drinking....we went out to dinner and polished off three pitchers of Bud Light then picked up a few 12 packs and drank at the frat. Matt is seriously like BMOC and has some cool frat-tastic friends....then we went to a highlighter party and drank some more then went to some bar thats underground and hot and sweaty...matt ordered shots of Gold Schlagger for the three of us...seriously who orders that? lol then to top it all off we went back frat and drank with all the boys till the early morning. We woke up and had some greasy bellybombs aka bacon egg and cheeses (my favorite) then kiera and I went back to her place and slept the rest of the day!

My trip wasnt over yet...Sunday night I drove to Boston to see my oldest sister Erin. I got there around 8 and I was still hungover and she was too. We were just two peas in a pod all hungover on the couch watching Shrek and addressing and stamping Save the Date cards with her fiance John Paul. They apartment is soo cute she has such good design sense...so does baggie....I hope that when I have my own place I can pull the cuteness off. Erin and I had breakfast together. It was fun chit-chatting about wedding stuff...im excited. I cant wait for wedding time!

okay gotta go BACHELOR time!!! woot woot!
13 days until Australia!

Can you see me now?

2009-01-25T10:01:00.000-08:00

Yesterday my Dad and I went out and bought webcams! One for me and one for our home. So this morning still in my PJs I set it up. No less than 5 minutes of having it my friends Sarah and Lucy skyped me from Vienna! This is so much fun, although thier video feed wasn't set up it was still so nice to hear thier voices! Now the next challenge is set up my mom's skype and teaching her how to use it!
28 days until lift off! It still doesnt feel real, but with each new prepartion its starting to feel a little more real by the day. Next in store for me is luagage and thinking about packing UGH! my biggest fear! Packing and unpacking is not my forte...mom asked me last night what I was going to bring, and my answer was...everything with a childest smile....this is going to be a disaster!
check back soon!

In The Cold Still

2009-01-21T17:12:00.001-08:00

So I am sitting here with my mom watching American Idol, which is the standard in this household. It 21 degrees in New York and I have 32 days until I hop on the longest plane ride of my lifetime! and I couldn't be more excited! Now I am just preparing myself for the journey, I have been going to the gym everyday (with the exception of today because I'm being just plain lazy), I have ordered myself three new bathing suits. Also I have taken an interest in learning how to cook, and I have started to build a cookbook of all my favorite recipes, which is not many, I am very much a picky eater. And of course I started this blog, my mom is a professional blogger and I'm hoping I got that gene too. We will see though! Stay tuned!