Australia Zoo

Went to the Australia Zoo with my terrestrial class yesterday...it was sweet. Got to pet a koala and a wombat...and saw cheetahs that weren't even supposed to be on display yet. Lots of crocs - obviously, because it was Steve Irwin's zoo. Currently sitting in the library trying to work on a paper that's due in 3 weeks so I don't have to worry about it when the fam is here.....fun stuff.

Melbourne.

Well, I figure I've put this off long enough...here's the deets of last weekend.

So I went to Melbourne with my friends Michelle, Kelly, and Robin. Our friend Andy was there too - he planned his trip alone though so he was in a different hostel than us. Basically, Melbourne wasn't exactly what I expected - when I was deciding where to study abroad, it was between Brisbane and Melbourne. I chose Brisbane because it is warmer here - but I'm so glad I chose it for more than just warmth. Melbourne feels like much more of an American city than Brisbane does. It also has deciduous trees, which were changing color and losing leaves, which was really weird. Our hostel was also in a kind-of-sketchy area, so that wasn't the best impression. We didn't have nearly enough time to see everything we would have liked either.

So here's the run down. Had a MARS exam on Thursday at 1, then peaced out directly after. (I talked to my Mom while she was in L.A. on her way to Sydney with the fam - I was so excited!!) We landed around 7 30, took a bus to our hostel, checked in, and did a little exploring. We saw Federation Square, and went to a few bars around the area. We went to this place that had infused vodka....including vegemite. Robin got it - I stuck with caramel. Good stuff. It was an overall good night.

Friday, we woke up early, and started at the aquarium. We are all bio nerds, so it was sweet. After, we went to the Rialto tower 360 view...basically a lookout over the city from the 55th story. It was cool...but it was a bit smoggy, which I wasn't expecting (photos on FB). After that we shopped around the funky/pricey area, which was pretty cool, but looking back I wish we had done some more sightseeing. We came back to the hostel exhausted because we were walking allll day, then headed out to find some dinner. We found this cute little street that had a Little Italy feel, and found some really good food. Only problem was that our waiter took forever and a day to bring our food, without any kind of apology or anything. So that was frustrating/a waste of time, so we ended up coming back to the hostel and watching a movie with some other people there. We watched Wolf Creek - about these kids that go on a road trip through the outback and get killed. It was based on a true story. I'm glad I'm not going to the outback now...

Saturday was a REALLY early morning for our Great Ocean Road tour. It was really cool - and our bus driver was hilarious, as most tour guides here have proven to be. The only thing that wasn't so cool was that it was a ton of driving, with little short stops. That's the only way to do the whole thing in a day though. So we saw the coast all day, last stops at the Twelve Apostles and the London Bridge, and we saw a bushfire on the side of the road!! It was MADNESS. Then, we got dropped off for dinner, and our bus wouldn't start back up. About half the people on our bus got put on buses with other tours, but my friends and I weren't so lucky. So basically we sat in this noodle place for an hour and a half pissed off without anything to do, until our driver got another bus and took us back. We got back around 10 30, pissed off and exhausted, so went to bed shortly after.

(Oh, and this whole trip happened without an iPod. Which blew. Mom's iPod arrived Monday, thank god. It has been absolutely killing me.)

Sunday we got up really early again because we only had until 2 to do stuff. We went to Max Brenner for breakfast - a chocolate restaurant. We all got Belgian waffles with melted chocolate, fruit and ice cream- which were amaaaazing. Then, we took the free tourist shuttle to the Queen Victoria Market. It's this huge roofed in market area with tons of vendors set up selling really cheap stuff. You can get lost in their for hours....which we obviously did. We planned to go to the Royal Botanical Gardens afterwards, but the tour bus took waaayy too long so we just rode that back for about and hour and a half or more, then it was time to grab lunch and head home.

Also, realized on Friday that I had 80 dollars left in my bank account, and made it out on Sunday with literally $ 0.20 AU. It was impressive.

So yeah...not the best trip, but I'm glad I went. The parents/Megan are coming on Saturday, and I CAN'T WAIT!! I've been talking about it constantly...I'm probably being really annoying. Whatevs, it's going to be bomb. And we're going to New Zealand.

I have crazy amounts of internet left (I didn't realize how little I was actually using)....so video chats are more than welcome! Miss you all....one month left! :(

Other fun.

I bought an awesome pair of red Ray Bans yesterday at Market Day and they are amazing. (Every Wednesday is Market Day on campus - there's usually some live music and a bunch of tables set up with jewelry/clothes/sunglasses/fish/artwork, etc. It's awesome.)

People here don't say "how are you" or "what's up"...it's always "how are you going?"

I went to a yoga class the other night that was mostly partner stretching...kind of awkward but I was with this cute little Asian woman named Tatima. She gave me a bomb massage at the end, and then we chatted for like 20 minutes. She's from Pasadena and just moved here with her husband, and is looking for good yoga classes. She was awesome, I don't know why I chose to include that story, hah.

I know I was thinking of other things I wanted to say, but again I can't remember so will add later.

Whitsundays! Sailing!

Well, now it is Thursday and I got back from the Whitsundays Monday night, so I feel it is getting to be time for an update. I have huge amounts of work to do, but I will put my efforts into trying to describe my trip instead.

In summary, one of the best weekends of my life. We had very considerable amounts of rain, but nothing got my spirits down (not even a broken ipod!) Here's the play-by-play (taken from accounts in my journal, my memory isn't nearly this good):

Friday, 1/5/09
Took a bus at 9 30 to the city, got a cab to the airport, and arrived approximately 2 hours before our flight. Note: Flying in Australia is amazingly easy. They never ask for ID, if you check in online you can go straight to security, the only things you can't have in your carry on are sharps and aerosols (which you just have to take out and then they give back to you), and you don't have to take off your shoes or show your boarding pass through security. It's awesome. So we flew from Brisbane to the Prosperpine airport, and got to Airlie Beach around 3. We thought we'd have some time on the beach, but it took forever to check into the hostel and then check in for our sailing tour (which had hidden local fees...bummer). So once that was all done, we walked around a little...Airlie is basically just the beach and a street with some shops, restaurants, and bars. The area around there is all for tourism - our bus driver told us there is really no other businesses there. That night I bought some sweet Havaianas - I've been wanting them for so long, and I got a green pair that have an Aussie flag and lists all the beaches in Aus on the bottom! They are sweet. We got dinner and ice cream (and Macca's, because my friends are huge) and then we just played cards/Bananagrams (yes!) in the hostel and went to bed really early, for an early wake up on Saturday.

Saturday, 2/5/09
Woke up early, had "free breakfast" at the hostel, which was just toast and PB. It was hilariously pathetic. We got picked up at 8 40 for a ride to the marina, as our boat was supposed to leave at 9 30. Our group was: me and 8 of my friends, a 26 year old girl from north of England (Charlie), a German couple who never spoke, Mark (our captain) and Jess (our cook). Jess and Mark were awesome - they really made the trip. Jess is 21 and from New Zealand - she studied marine biology, then became a dive instructor, decided that was boring, and decided to work on boat tours. Mark is an older guy who used to race sailboats professionally - kind of a hippie dude, he told me about a bunch of really good health foods and is supposed to email me some info. Anywho, the boat was kind of small, with beds in the hallways and stuff, but it was sweet. So we sailed out in the morning and went for a snorkel. It was pretty good, but not nearly as good as at Heron Island! I was playing my iPod through the speakers on the boat, and after we went sailing for a bit (I don't remember which time) I came downstairs to change the song, and it was soaked! I have no idea where the water came from, but it wouldn't turn on the rest of the weekend. (So obviously I was pretty freaked. I brought it to the apple store on campus yesterday, and apparently the battery is shot and it got sent in for service. Will keep you posted.) The rest of the day I think we just hung out on the boat and sunbathed/chilled downstairs during little rain squalls, which were on and off in the afternoon. (It was also pretty cloudy, but not horrible). Later we had some dinner and some drinks, and I went to bed early after reading some Twilight...(yes, I am embarassed).

Sunday, 3/5/09
Didn't sleep at all! Woke up around 6 30 because we had to head out early because of the tides. We were motoring rather than sailing, and I felt really seasick. After breakfast we went to Whitehaven Beach - probably the most popular spot in the Whitsundays. When we got there we walked up to the lookout point, took a few pics and then got poured on for about 10 minutes. The weather cleared up after this though, and we had a nice hour or so on the beach. The sand there is white and very fine - and can be used to polish jewelry! I didn't know this so I didn't bring anything, but I was wearing silver earrings and I tried to polish them. It seemed to work pretty well...it was impressive! Then it started raining again so we booked it back to the boat. Then we sailed a bit, I got seasick-ish again (but still having a great time!!) and we had lunch, then went for another snorkel. (The weather cleared.) We saw HUGE fish off the side of the boat - one was seriously about 3/4 of my size. It was absurd. I stole two pictures from Brynne, which are at the top of the post because I can't figure out how to move them. There were a lot of soft corals there unlike at Heron, and those were pretty sweet. Some looked like spaghetti. After snorkeling we chilled on the boat and sunbathed, but got more rain as well. We sailed to our next stop and it was pouring rain the whole way (and I was nauseous). It ended up clearing up, and we saw a beautiful sunset (photos on FB...too many, sorry I swear I deleted some). I layed out for a bit on the deck and watched the moon/stars/clouds....the moon was amazingly bright. We chilled and drank for a while, and it turned out to be a really nice night.

Monday, 4/5/09
Slept like a baby, after taking an Ambien. I woke up early, around 6 45, but I was wide awake so I just went up and chilled on the deck for a while. It was absolutely gorgeous, and really peaceful because no one was up yet. I could tell we were going to have perfect weather for the day. So we had bfast, then motored over to Blue Pearl Bay. We had the option to snorkel again, but JK, Michelle, Kelly and I passed up on it so we could hang on the beach. Mark took us out on the dingy to this small, deserted beach - we had it to ourselves for at least an hour, and it was absolutely gorgeous, and perfect weather. We hiked a little bit up the hill there and it was so beautiful. We had a Le Tan photoshoot - it is the sunscreen we bought in Airlie, and made jokes about all weekend, just in case anyone was curious in reference to my facebook album name. We spent all morning on the beach, then went back to the boat for tea, chilling, and lunch. We got a lot of sunbathing time - I am probably the most tan I have ever been in my life. It is absurd. Around 1 30 we sailed back to Airlie - it took about 2 hours. And it was gorgeous. And perfect. I didn't want the trip to be over! Then we took the bus back to the airport (which was very similar to the airport in Belize - very small building, gates outdoors). The sun set while we were waiting for our plane, and it was beautiful. The plane ride was only an hour and a half but painful because I didn't have my iPod and I finished Twilight! When we got back, it took way longer to get home than it should have because we had to wait an hour for the bus back to school from Brisbane, and I was absolutely pooped when I got back.


So now I am back, and have outrageous amounts of work to do. But, this weekend I don't really have any plans so I have a lot of time to work. Oh, a side note about the boat: the "shower" was just the sink faucet that pulled out, and there was just a drain on the floor of the bathroom. HOWEVER, Jess told us that we shouldn't wash our hair, because there was a limited amount of freshwater on board and we would have to go back if we ran out. So, I didn't wash my hair for 4 days (same with everyone else), and my shower when I got back was phenomenal.

That's it for now, I'm starting to get sad that I have to leave here in less than 2 months....so I have to make the most of what I have left!!