i feel home...

Australia seems just as much like Home as my real Home does. However, there are a few things I miss about the States...
1. hulu.com- the website to watch TV shows if you missed them on TV. I'm falling behind on House... Add netflix to this category as well.
2. pandora internet radio- pandora is perfect for doing homework to, or pretty much anything. However, 8tracks.com is a decent substitute.
3. Cheez-Its- enough said.
4. My car, Patrick the Passat- I miss the freedom of having a car. Even if I didn't go many places, knowing that I could was nice.
5. Free Laundry- DLC laundry is only $1 for the washer and $1 for the dryer, so it's actually not a big deal, but laundry at Marist is FREE.
6. Stick Deodorant- everyone here seems to use spray deodorant and I can't find anything other than that. Spray deodorant tickles me.
7. Skippy Peanut Butter- The main peanut butter brand here is Kraft. Not the same as Skippy. Not even close.
8. Bananas- at 93 cents a pound, bananas are the least expensive fruit in the States. Due to the flooding in Queensland a few years back, bananas are ridiculously expensive and do not taste the same.
9. Cheese- yes, they have cheese here. It's called Tasty Cheese. It is indeed tasty, but I wish I could find some cheddar or mozzarella. I found American Cheese- here it's called "Processed Cheese"....
10. Target- now I know that they do actually have Target here, but it's so very different. It's just a tease.

I absolutely love it here, but I do miss a few things. I guess I also miss my family.

Just call me a GLOBAL LEADER.
Macquarie University has a program called the Global Leadership Program. International students can participate in this program for the time they are here, and leave with a certificate and something nifty to put on their resume.

The program entails attending 5 different colloquium that we get to chose ourselves, and one Distinguished Speaker Service in Sydney. The Distinguished Speaker Service was a few weeks ago. We listened to someone in Australian government talk for a while, when in reality she was just using this as a way to receive votes from the younger population. I stopped listening at that point because I don't vote in Australia and I had no idea what she was talking about.

DLC Presents: The Sound of a Musical
Dunmore Lang College puts on a musical each year. This year was an adaption of The Sound of Music. Our musical, was a musical about DLC putting on a musical. It was really clever and witty. I played the part of a nun. Our nun costumes were large black trash bags and black pillow cases with a little white fabric sewed to the top. Extremely realistic. If I find photographs I will absolutely share them.

Parents and friends showed up to watch the musical. It went off without a problem at all. It was great. Then we had our after party, which was also fantastic. The end.

Coldplay. Music geniuses. 
The new Coldplay album came out last week. It's wonderful. Every single song. Listen to it.

I bought it on iTunes because my iTunes account is the American one, which is way cheaper than the Australian one and any Australian stores. It still hasn't showed up on my bill, so uh, whatever!

Travelling the World...
...at least New Zealand. I am beginning to plan my trip to New Zealand for after exams! Some friends of mine from DLC and I will be leaving for New Zealand on December 2 for about 5 days. I have a rough itinerary planned out, nothing is set in stone though. I'm so excited, if everything works out the way we're planning it I'll get to swim with seals and go bungee jumping! I certainly hope so.

Happy Birthday! ...and Thanksgiving, and anniversary, and Merry Christmas.
I sent my dad's birthday card in a package with almost all of the cards I will need to mail home before I get there. The package included Dad's birthday card, Michael's birthday card, Julia's birthday card, Sara's birthday card, Devon's birthday card, a Thanksgiving Day card and present, an anniversary card for my parents, and a Merry Christmas card! Did you know they add an extra $9 just to send something over 300 grams to the United States? Overall it wasn't as much money as I thought it would be, and it got there quickly, but that just seems silly to me.

Never Going Home.
As many people know, I will not be returning to the states until January. I have started planning my month travelling around Australia and I can't wait to see more of this wonderful place. I only have up to mid December planned out so far, as well as Christmas and New Years. For Christmas I will hopefully be doing Charity work in Sydney with the Wayside Chapel, but I have to sign up on December 5th, and I hear spots get filled quickly!

I will be spending New Years with the one and only, Rhys Alan Hobbs, which will be fun. I think we'll go into the city and see the fireworks that I keep hearing so much about, but it's really up to Rhys what we do.


If you have any suggestions on where I should travel or what I should do let me know! I'm up for any adventure I can do.

Cheers, mate!

sorry, i am alive.

What I've been doing instead of updating my blog:
-Uni
-Babysitting
-Conception Day (see description below)
-Spring Break
           -Road Trip! up the coast
           -Cairns!
                  -jumping out of a plane
                  -finding Nemo(s)
-Weekend in the Boonies
           -kangaroos!
-Uni
-Babysitting, for the last time ever, for that family at least.
-Searching for a new job
-Uni

So I mean, I've been pretty busy.

Conception Day: Hello hangover, fancy meeting you at noon?
Conception Day is the day Macquarie University was founded. The Uni has a big music festival with actually well known artists for only $10. It was a lot of fun.

Dunmore Lang College has it's own tradition. On conception day, your RAs wake you up around 5:30 am. And then you start drinking. Heavily. Each floor started out together with their own floor punch, and then we had breakfast, and shortly after the bouncing castles showed up. For lunch there was a BBQ and Beers. Some people took naps after lunch, others headed over to Uni for the music, I had to go to a doctors appointment. That said, I missed out on some of the fun, but not too much! :-).

That weekend started our two week break!
We left college with 10 of us in three cars.

Originally we thought we'd have to squish the three of us in Alison's toy car. Luckily another car found room. But we did miss Jessie :-(

The first day we drove from Sydney to Port Macquarie, about 6 hours north on the coast, and stayed with Craig, on of the drivers on the road trip. His family was so nice. They made us a delicious dinner, that we ate without breathing, and we all had a place to sleep. Interesting fact: a lot of Australian's have random mattresses laying around their house. Convenient when 10 Uni students show up at your house for the evening... 

The next day we spent some time at a beach in Port Macquarie, and then left for our next destination. We stopped at Coffs Harbour, another 2 hours north, to pick up three others who were joining us for the rest of the road trip, and then continued to MacLean. We stayed at Clare's house (again, on mattresses) that night. The next day we went to the Yamba beaches for a little and then left for Byron Bay. Byron was amazing. We saw dolphins in the water, the town was really cute, and the beach was beautiful. We stayed at our first hostel that night, not too bad, but far from the nice home cooked meals of the two nights prior.

After Byron Bay we left for the Gold Coast and checked in at our new hostel. Once again, not glamorous but for $20 a night I'll take it. We were at the Gold Coast for 4 days, so we got to see a lot, even though there really isn't much to see there... I wouldn't go as far as to call it the Jersey Shore of Australia, but definitely a step away from the beaches we had been at the days before. 

There was a ride called the Slingshot at the Gold Coast, here is a video of Jessie and I on it. 

On Sunday we split up into the three groups doing different things for break. One was going back to Sydney, One was going to New Zealand, and Molly, Jessie, Eric, Colin, and I were headed to Cairns Australia. The five of us left Monday morning at 8:10 A.M. I was the only one not sitting with everyone else, and was lucky enough to be in the middle seat in the middle aisle of the plane. Surrounded by strangers. Needless to say, I was glad it was a fairly short flight. 

We checked into our Hostel right when we got there, it was really nice, and air conditioned. That first day we didn't do much, we walked around the city which was very cute, and then went to bed early to prepare ourselves for sky diving the next morning...

14,000 feet. 

Imagine being 14,000 feet in the air. And then imagine jumping to the ground. Well, that's what we did.

Sky diving was the greatest thing I have ever done. It was so much fun. Everyone's first question is "Weren't you scared?" and well, not really. It was nerve wracking. The flight up was a little unnerving, but that was more because we were in a very little plane, not because I was about to jump out of it. The way I saw it was you never talk to someone who just went sky diving who hated it. No one lands thinking, "well, that was a waste of time." So no, I wasn't scared. 

When you jump from 14,000 feet you are in free fall for anywhere between 60 and 75 seconds, and then you float down for around 5 minutes when the parachute opens. The view is unreal. Yeah everyone has seen birds eye views before, but have you ever BEEN the bird? It's completely different way of seeing the world. A way that I cannot wait to see again.

Option B: when Option A fails.

On Wednesday we went snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef! We started the day off bright and early and took a two hour boat ride out to the first Reef location. Anyone that has ever gone on a Whale Watch with me (sorry family) knows I don't do too well on boats. I took Option A: the ginger tablets as soon as I got on the boat and spend the majority of the first two hours laying down on the front of the boat. I did very well, and couldn't wait to get into the water and off of that miserable boat. I threw my flippers and mask on and embraced the water. I was amazing. The coral, the fish, everything. We say a sting ray! And the most fantastic colored fish in the world.

...And then all of a sudden I wasn't feeling too hot. Eric and I were going to go back to the boat to have some water, so he went to tell the others where we were going. At that point there was no denying it, I was going to need Option B: the barf bag. Unfortunately, there was not enough time. Eric was coming back over to go to the boat and I quickly told him to stay away, and puked while still in the water. For those of you who are wondering, yes it is very difficult to tread water and throw up at the same time, and no, I did not throw up into my snorkel. Eric and I then went back, avoiding the "puke area", I grabbed a real Option B and took up camp back on the front of the boat. Covered in everyone's towels.

After that I was feeling much better and once again embraced the water when we arrived at the second Reef location. I might be biased, but I think this one was MUCH better. 

See, look how happy I am!

At this location I even found Nemo! A couple of him, actually.

Unfortunately, our time in Cairns came to an end and we headed back to Sydney.

The Boonies

Jessie and I traveled out to the Boonies. One of her friends parents live here! They were unbelievably nice! Home cooked meals for another three days, and they had two cats to play with! We went to the Blue Mountains the first day we were there and went for a little hike. The second day we went to a Wildlife Park and then for a drive down the South Coast. The Wildlife Parks are always my favorite. We got to feed kangaroos, and play with koalas! 

This goose bit me. Rude.

After our weekend in the Boonies Jessie and I came back to college and I'm pretty sure I slept for two days straight.

I had an amazing Spring Break with amazing people. I'm lucky to have such great friends.

Coconut Shampoo

The family I babysat for has moved, and I couldn't be happier. When I first started babysitting for them, the kids were great and I thought I was lucky. After a week or two I realized I was horribly wrong. The kids were dirty, the house was dirty, the kids were mean, I could go on. What really did it for me was when they all had lice. All three children had lice. I was very clearly disgusted. Remembering a trick from summer camp, I bought coconut shampoo and conditioner, because according to urban myth or something, lice don't like coconut oil. This was preventative measures for me, and I'm proud to say I am still lice free. 

Although I miss the weekly income, I wouldn't go back to that family. Lucky for me they liked me though! And she was able to get me another job with the family right next door. I haven't met them yet, but I have high hopes for these kids being better. Cleaner, at least. 

I'll update far more frequently!

Cheers, mate!