Back In Amurica

I've been home for almost 3 weeks now, and getting here was not an easy breezy experience. Here's a play by play of my journey from Sydney to Seattle.  Pick up shuttle to airport, we thought it 34 total, funny joke its 34 per person, I have like 24 in my wallet, I think the guy felt bad for us. Longest check-in line I've ever seen, it took 2 hours to check in, Qantas's machines went down globally so no one could check in, so my flight got pushed back. Had to run to the gate because I heard the final boarding call. Made it on the flight and about 13 hours later landed in LA. Waited in a super long customs line, missed my connection and waited 5 hours in the airport for the next flight and finally made it home. Oh I got patted down in Australia, I've officially been patted down in 3 countries, I bet few other people can say that :)

Since I've been home, I've started my internship, I'm a marketing intern at a consulting firm in Seattle. I sit in a cubicle all day and do marketing things. I can't talk about what I do at work so I feel kind of like a secret agent. I celebrated the 4th of July with some of my school friends. It felt good to be at the Puge, since the 4th I've been down 2 more times. I've met my grand little and caught up with so many lovely people. I've also seen my little and my big, in case you didn't guess I'm in a sorority.

While I've seen a lot of my school family, I've also seen my real family. My mom's brother's family road tripped from their house in New Jersey to my house in Seattle. They have 3 boys and there's no DVD player in their mini van, I thought that was pretty impressive. It was fun seeing my mom's family, both my aunt and my uncle are jounalists so its always fun watching them interact with my very conservative father.

Some family friends of ours visited from Chicago for the 4th of July, we had a great time, they have two boys who are the same age as my brothers so I was the only girl. But somehow I'm old enough to be included in with the mom talk and treated more like a girlfriend, I don't know how I feel about this.

This weekend after I get paid, I have about $5 in my bank account right now so this pay check is highly anticipated. I will be going off for a ladies weekend in the San Juan Islands with my mom. I'm sure it'll be a lot of fun.

Laters!

Slowly Saying Goodbye

I'm really in the final countdown... I have two more weeks left in this beautiful place that's become my home over the past 4 months... and its going to be a bitter sweet two weeks. However I'm going to get into the sappy stuff another time.

Over the past few weeks I've had a lot of adventures and misadventures. So I'm going to give you some highlights.

There is an area in Sydney called Kings Cross, its the nightclub hot spot. It can be a little shady but mostly its a lot of fun. There is also a super tasty kebab place right across from the club called the Goldfish. Really I kid you not, best place ever... anyways the Cross has been quite the hit or miss place for me. A couple of Fridays ago my friend and I were denied entry to a club because apparently I have a fake license. I was angry, apparently I also don't sound American... I'm not really sure what I could be then. I wish the bouncer had clarified my nationality for me... My friend yelled at the bouncer that her dad owns the club. Needless to say the bouncer wasn't going with us. We sneaked in anyway and when we left we were xed out from the club. And ate a whole lot of mackers, we had fun but I'm pretty sure everyone else thought we were completely off our rocker.

Round 2 in the Cross, we got into the club we were going to on the first try (win 1), we danced the night away and got a lot of free drinks, my American accent and my friend faking a British accent got us far that night. However on the way home we tried to grab a cab, the first cab wouldn't take us, the second told us it was $60 (its not $60 to go from the Cross) and wouldn't go anywhere until he saw that we had the money, nor would he turn on the meter. Mega sketchy. The third cab took us and got us home safe and sound.. So semi win for the Cross.

I've also gone to pro rugby game, which was fun, although the home team got their butts kicked. I noticed that most of the fans tend to clear out when the team starts to lose, pretty fair weather. Even my uni fans stay till the end of our football games, and we lose all the time. Last night I went to a free comedy show with some friends. The show was actually really good, especially because it was free. After we went to a pub in Surry Hills, ordered some cider and watched a different rugby game. My friend and I have noticed that the team we're not supposed to root for always has more attractive players. Not fair much?

Today I hiked around Ku Rung Gai National forest with a friend of mine, and after we enjoyed some chili hot hot chocolate. Its the best thing ever. Today was a beautiful day and I'm happy I got to spend it hiking around with a good friend.

My final two weeks will hopefully be filled with more quality time with friends, a trip to the south coast, one more final, and more misadventures.

Until then...

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Well if you hadn't taken a guess from the title that this post is going to be about gambling then you haven't seen the movie 21 yet and well I just don't know how I feel about you any more...

Anyway last night (Friday night) I went to a casino for the very first time! It was so exciting, all the machines whirling and the flashy lights. My eyes were definitely as big as saucers and I was definitely over stimulated. My friends and I scoped out the various tables, looking for the cheaper minimum bids and the hot dealers. The Star casino is huge, and there were tables everywhere along with slot machines and electronic roulette. Fun fact, slot machines are called pokeys in Australia. Anyways, with our vouchers in hand (we got $20 vouchers for signing up for a rewards program and a free chicken parm dinner #win) we hit up the roulette tables. I have never played roulette, or really gambled ever, so luckily for me I was with a pro and I was able to figure it out. After a couple of rounds of roulette and few hands of blackjack, I walked away a very happy camper. I won $50, and lost 0 because of the voucher. Maybe it was beginner's luck, but I'm secretly hoping I have a gift because I'm definitely hitting up Vegas once I'm legal.

That's about it, going to a casino is fun but I can see how it can get addictive and you should always gamble responsibly :)
Adios!

Post Break Boredom?

It occurred to me last night, that I only have 57 days left of being in Australia, its week 8 at uni and I'm pretty sure there are only 12 weeks in a semester, which is a rather sad thought. So it means you'll only get a grand total of maybe 5 posts from me, unless I get super responsible in the next few weeks, unlikely.

Anyway, after New Zealand I've been trying to catch up on a lot of the colour I lost while I was there. My family still thinks I'm super tan, thanks Skype. I look at myself and I look super pasty, I think I'm tanorexic. If you don't know what that is then you need to start reading @SororityProblems. Anyway, I've been trying to tan however its SO cold out! Its not actually cold but the difference between 80-90 and 60-70 is huge when your in your swimmers. So I've given up on full on laying out and instead just spend as much time in the sunshine as possible.

So I essentially spend all day in class or outside, or hiding in my room because I think its too cold. I'm also sick currently so I've been spending a lot of hours indoors. An upside of my sickness is that I bought some lavender scented toilet paper. So now when I blow my nose it at least smells nice, and it makes my bathroom smell better, double win!

I went to Luna Park a couple of weeks ago, and it is the COOLEST place! Its a mini amusement park right in Sydney. I went with my friend Monique, and we went on all kinds of nifty rides! We went on this really dodgey slide, where you just stick your feet into this burlap sack and slide down this really steep slide. Totally safe right? There was also a spinny octopus ride and this tango train, which were both super fun. I love rollercoasters, big ones, small ones, twisty ones, ones that go backwards and forwards. There's a roller coaster at Luna Park , and it doesn't look particularly scary nor is it big. It does look old and sketchy as fuck. There was an 11 year old ahead of us in line so Monique and I were like if she can do it we can. We got on and I have never screamed so much before because every time we turned I thought we were going to fly out and die. The little girl made fun of us when we got off, which was embarrassing, but I'm never going on ever again.

This weekend is Cinco de Mayo, which I'm hoping will be better then St. Patty's. To kick it off I'm going toa rugby match and will probably eat some disappointing Mexican food. The burritto doesn't need to go in the oven and guac is not supposed to be liquidy. That's all I'm saying...

That's all for now! Ta!

Oh Look a Sheep

After about 2 long months of strenuous nights of studying and writing essays break was finally on the horizon... this would be how I would describe the weeks leading up to American spring break, but in Australia I essentially do nothing. So for my two week spring/fall break I decided to visit Middle Earth... aka New Zealand! I spent the last 7 days on a bus tour all around the north island... here are some highlights: I'm also gonna throw in a map so you can attempt to keep track:


Day 1: we boarded the Stray bus in Auckland to head out on our 7 day New Zealand adventure. We headed south east towards Hahei Beach, but first we stopped off at a different beach where there are really hot stones underneath the surface and if you dig a little you can create your hot pool. It was pretty popular location the day we went as you can see here:

As you can see it was a pretty popular spot.... after we got to the beach hiked up to Cathedral Cove and camp back down just in time for a barbie :) if you don't know what a barbie is... its a bbq and clearly you'be never seen an Outback steakhouse commercial.

Day 2: We left rainy Hahei and headed all the way to the other side of the island to the beautiful Raglan. Raglan is like the surf capital of New Zealand and apparently it has the longest left-hand break in the world. Since you only live once I decided to try surfing (I'm pretty terrified of deep ocean water, something about not being able to stand after wading in like 10 ft freaks me out), I slipped on my water sausage casing, i.e. wetsuit, and headed out to catch some rad waves. I eventually stood but it wasn't without numerous knockouts and a couple surfboard smacks to the face. All in all I think I may stick to snow sports.

Day 3: We left beautiful Raglan and went through Waitomo to Maketu. Waitomo is famous for their caves, which have sorts of neato geology things in them. I get claustrophobic easily and the thought of roaming around caves in the dark freaked me out, so instead I wandered around some nature trails and wandered into a few caves. I also saw cows! I was a little too excited to see the cows, I secretly really want to tip one one... but so you can live in my joy here's a picture of a cow:

I know your jealous that you didn't get up close to these beauties...

After Waitomo we drove to Maketu, where we went to Maori lodge and learned something about the Maori culture. We performed the haka and poi, well I only performed the poi because I'm a woman. It was pretty fun, although the Maori are really good at making these scary faces which they make during the dances, I can't make the face.... I just look like an angry fish... I'm glad I can just intimidate my enemies with my sheer strength.

Day 4: We ;left the Maori behind and drove to Rotorua... which is the smelliest place I have ever been. Rotorua is the biggest geothermal spot in New Zealand. There are geysers everywhere, it'd be pretty easy to roast someone here, get pissed and just throw them in. We spent a little time in the city, mostly souvenir shops, and then drove to a boiling mud pit, that was extra smelly. We also went a "secret" place and swam in a pool where hot and cold water met. After Rotorua we drove to Taupo and spent the night there. Taupo was really cool and laid back, we hit the town that night. Hostels do discount drinks which if your poor like me are a life saver. Going out in New Zealand is a lot more laid back then in Sydney, for starters the bouncers are actually friendly... and its more of a hang out then dancing. I made some new friends and had heaps of fun.

Day 5: We left civilization and drove out to the Blue Duck Lodge which is up in the middle of nowhere. The goal of the lodge is to help save two endangered species: the kiwi and the blue duck. The lodge is also situated on land that was originally given to returning soldiers from World War I to thank them for their services. However, the land is out in the middle of nowhere and almost impossible to get anything to and from it. Its no surprise that the success rate was very low. The property was beautiful even though it was pouring rain outside. I made a facial out of the mud, and I think my friend and I would have scared an unsuspecting passer by... that night my trip and I congregated around the fire and enjoyed each others company, no ones electronics worked so we actually had to talk to each other... weird right?

Day 6: We left Blue Duck lodge to go to Tangareo crossing, which is about an 8 hour hike, and another hour and half if you want to try and summit. Being me I never turn down the opportunity to make a mountain my bitch, but it was pouring rain and visibility would have been nada so I whimped out and did a short 2 hour hike around instead. Did I mention that everything looks like Middle Earth?? Well they filmed where I was hiking around and I could have summited Mount Doom, ya I'm that cool... Instead I hid out and watched Lord of the Rings instead, I had a nightmare about Orcs... it was terrifying.

Day 7: We left Middle Earth behind and drove to Wellington. Wellington was a cool city its pretty small compared to American and Australian cities but it still has a vibrant city life. We went out that night and had a pretty grand time. 

The end of the adventure: so I can't read schedules and I thought the trip ended on Saturday, funny story is it ended on Friday. Our flight back to Australia was bright and early Sunday morning. Being poor college students we ruled out paying for another hostel... so we explored Wellington during the day. There's a free museum Te Papau and it was SO COOL! It was completely free which is so rare, and it was HUGE. We spent hours there and then putzed around some more and then went to the airport. It is technically illegal to sleep in the Wellington airport because it closes at 1am. You can sleep there if you can prove that you have an early flight. So we crashed on some lounge chairs that we pushed together and slept for about 3 hours. Sleeping in the airport is not ideal and I would recommend avoiding it as much as possible. But we didn't get kicked out and we all made our flights the next morning.

That's the end of my New Zealand adventure... a couple of remaining thoughts:

1) fun fact: small New Zealand towns build a statue of what their known for, so there was ton with a huge carrot statue, it was pretty funny.

2) I ate an obscene amount of mackers(McDonalds)... I'm still disgusted with myself

3) I suffered some causalities on the trip, my ray bans and nook are no longer with us

4) if you're Canadian, I just have one question: why do you wear your flag on your bags and sweaters?? Can someone please explain that to me.

Adios!

It's good to leave the Village

Its week 5 or 6 of Aussieland, if this were a high school relationship we'd be moving into the serious relationship... you know facebook official that kinda thing...

But I'm not in high school, I'm in college, and I'm not in a relationship and but Oz and I are defs facebook official. And we've got a pretty solid routine going right now, Monday I have a super scary tutorial and Tuesday and Wednesday, I pretend to be productive during the day, but it really amounts in nothing. Wednesday night is the start of my weekend which usually is like a roller coaster of successes and fails... its a new pattern every week.

So Wednesday night is for the Ranch and Thursday is Ubar, I still haven't made it there... I don't know I guess Thursday isn't my night. Friday is always a toss up, this Friday me and some of the girls headed to this place in Kings Cross called "the Club", I know its a creative title. Usually I roll up in the party bus, but this week we got a lift... lift there was comfy... lift back was terrible, 5 people don't belong in the backseat of a 5 seater, ever. I've never missed my SUV more. "the Club" is a cool place, however I think I may need to move on.

Saturday was the best day tho, I went with some of my neighbors and their friends and my friend up to the Blue Mountains. it  was a day filled with mud, trash talking, lots of walking, good food and good company. The Blue Mountains are beautiful, and a great place to hike around in. There's talk of renting a house for a weekend and then climbing all around the mountains, forging our own trail... maybe we'll see a koala... or we'll die by snake bite. But I'm excited none the less....

Well I;m off to go be a hip kid and fall asleep before midnight with my hipster music playing. If you want to see pictures, then you should check my facebook. And I realized because of the blog title people probably think its some sort of porn, so sorry, but I'm no porn stat. All my photos are G rated. I would try Vegas for the reak "Thunder Down Under".

Later Gator!

A very early spring break

Ah its been quite the week... and I'm not sure where to begin... Jake got in on Saturday, I was expecting an extremely jet-lagged American, I was wrong... it was beach time. We had a bus adventure, the train was closed for repairs. We hit up Manly beach, I thought after a month in Sydney I could go sun screen free... nope I burnt like paper, and once again was a lobster troll, with better tan lines. Sunday was a nature hike which was a lot closer to my campus then I thought. Google maps said it was an hour away, maybe people crawl to get to places at Google cause it defs only took like 10-15 minutes to get there.

My attendance of lectures this week was pretty poor, good thing there's ilecture. I went to the Sydney Aquarium on Monday, We saw the BIGGEST crabs... personally I'm more scared of these things then any shark

I'm pretty sure that thing could easily snap my leg off. But I truly love fish and going to the aquarium it was like being a 5 year old in a candy store. I think Jake was equally fascinated...

Tuesday and Wednesday I don't have class, so we went down to Coogee beach to see a friend of mine from UNSW, Now I love Manly but Coogee is just better. Its smaller and its beautiful, its legit paradise. The water is blue green and the sand is white. Sorry America you have nothing on this:

That's right be jealous....

Wednesday I was domestic and made dinner for my neighbors and my housemates. I made some fried chicken. It was the first time I ever fried something and it turned out pretty well. I didn't like it but everyone else did. I was told it was better then KFC so I guess I have a future as a housewife after all. Wednesday night it was the usual Ranch shenanigans. No one got kicked out or barred entry so it was an over all success. The level of eye contact on the dance floor is still a little overwhelming for me...

Thursday is my long day, so it was lots of class and then out to Darling Harbor for dinner. It was easily the best dinner I've had since I've been here. I paid for none of it which may have made it even better. The company was pretty great as well. Darling Harbor is beautiful at night, I was a tard and forgot my camera so you'll just have to come see for yourself.

Friday, I have my 3 hour lecture. It was Jake's last night so we were going to go to King's Cross, but someone spent too much time in the sun and was too tired to go. King's Cross is kinda like Sydney's red light district. I've only been once, but I sure wanna go again. :)

Today is St. Patrick's day! And I'm off to find some green and see how the Aussies celebrate it :)

Some things I've learned the past few weeks:
Ice coffee has ice cream in it... gross
There's no such thing as drip coffee
And I have yet to meet someone that I can't pick up... maybe I'm secretly the Hulk :)