Best Weekend Ever!

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

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!

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

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

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!

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

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 :)

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

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

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...

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!