It's Been A While...

no rain this time!
Chrissy and Laura tubing!
i actually didn't make this black and white, it just came out this way
My tattoo! (It's upside down in this picture. The bottom of the cross is closest to my pinky toe). This is a little information about The Southern Cross: The Southern Cross is the best known and most represented star group in the Southern Hemisphere. The group's distinctive shape is easily located because of its brightness and close proximity to each other. It can be seen all year round from almost anywhere in the Australia. The constellation is not visible in the northern hemisphere. It is also on the Australian flag.

So believe it or not, I actually have been kind of busy lately and haven't made time to sit down and update this silly thing. It's hard when I feel like no one reads it except Laura (who happens to experience everything I write about).

Last week was a pretty dull week because we didn't go on any adventures and Laura and I decided to go on a diet. It was the Mayo Clinic Diet, or the "Grapefruit Diet." We all have felt really disgusting and haven't been eating very well here, so we agreed we needed something to help us out. I have done this particular diet before, so I know it works. Unfortunately, you are not allowed alcohol on it (or carbs, or sugar). I held out longer than Laura, but not the whole 12 days we were supposed to. By the time the weekend rolled around I just couldn't turn down any more free alcohol. Of course, once the alcohol started flowing, I was talked into eat Mcdonalds AND ice cream (Magnum white chocolate bars- seriously the best ice cream I've ever had) and the diet went out the window. While I am not on the strict, strict diet anymore, I am still making a serious effort to eat better now. Living with new people got me into habits I was not used to and it got me frustrated. Laura loves carbs and fast food, and Chrissy loves sweets. I actually do not like very many sweets OR fast food, but have been eating them here more than ever. I actually began to crave dessert which I never have before. I'm going to the store later tonight and I'm going to make an effort to buy fruit so that when I crave something sweet, it is also something healthy. Let's hope I can avoid the temptation from now on!

One VERY interesting thing did happen last week... I GOT A TATTOO!! I have no idea how many people read this thing or how many of you have facebook, so this might not be news to most people (plus if you know my dad I'm pretty sure he told everyone he knows). PLEASE do not comment on this post about what a mistake I made or how stupid this was. This is on my body FOREVER, so I can't take it back. And I don't want to for that matter. I am VERY happy with it, I love the design and it isn't something I did on impulse. I thought long and hard about this before doing it- trust me. For some reason I wasn't scared to show my parents (probably the oceans separating us) but I am terrified to hear Mimi's reaction. No one tell me what she had to say.

We got to spend another lovely weekend in Waratah. Since making more and more friends from the area we have learned Waratah is kind of a ghetto in Newcastle. That kind of sucks, but we don't plan on spending more time than we have to here anyways. We went out on Thursday night (Laura and I didn't drink) to a bar in Hamilton called The Kent. It was an experience to say the least. Definetely not a crowd I have ever seen here before. Laura and I only lasted a few hours before calling a friend to give us a lift home. We ran into Rosey and Kris (friends from the boating experience) there, so Chrissy and Caroline hung around to have fun with them.

Saturday we got a call from one of the boys who told us they were coming to get us to go boating in 15 minutes. We are all still sleeping when the call came through. It was a mad rush, but we made it and spent another wonderful afternoon drinking Moet, tanning, and tubing. There was a cookout at Bar Beach at a friend from Clemson's house, but none of us managed to make it there. Laura and I got back here, talked our roomate into taking us to McDonalds, and passed out. I'm a little sad I missed the cookout ("barbie"), but there will be more.

Sunday started the same way: a call from the boys (at noon, while sleeping) saying they were coming to get us in 15 minutes and to be ready to go. Again, we got ready in record time and headed out. Since it was Sunday and we all had work to do later in the night, we took it easy as far as drinking goes. I haven't gone tubing since our first time out on the boat when Chrissy bit me and I decided to give it another go. Maybe I was too drunk to care or remember last time, but I got my ass kicked out there this time. Laura and I each rode on separate tubes in a "competition" for who could stay on longer. After our first run Larua fell off, but she never lost again. The last time I fell off I literally didn't have enough strength to get back onto the tube so I called it quits. Laura who is self proclaimed "really athletic" stayed on for most of the day. She probably rode on that tube 200 times in the last 2 days. Not to worry, she has plenty of battle wounds to show for her hard work.

All in all, it was yet another amazing weekend spent here in Newcastle. We were hoping to get out of here next weekend, but haven't managed to find a flight cheap enough yet. First we were going to head to Melbourne to stay with a friend of mine from high school, but we never booked the flights when they were around $150 round trip, so we missed out on that. Spring break, or "Easter Holiday" since it isn't really spring here, starts next week and we have big plans. Until they are finalized I don't want to give away too many details, but they are definetely crazy plans.

Another Amazing Weekend

view from our towels
so amazing
Bondi Beach.

Once again we had an amazing time in Sydney, thanks in large part to my mom and Greg!

We headed out to Sydney at around 8 am Friday morning and luckily didn't have to go through as much trouble switching trains as last time. After switching at Central Station we got off at Kings Cross and luckily the Holiday Inn was about 50 meters from the entrance to the station, so it wasn't a far walk for us. We check in to the hotel but didn't have as much luck as last time with the "getting married" bit that we tried out. We got "upgraded" to a bigger room, which happened to be a smoking room on a smoking floor. Oh well, a free room is a free room. We didn't plan on spending a ton of time in the room anyways, and it was in a GREAT location. Last time we were in Sydney we had to take a train very late at night to see this part of town, which is apparently a huge hot spot, so it was nice to be right in the thick of things this time.

We decided Friday was going to be our shopping day, so after cleaning up a little we got back on the train and headed back into the center of the city. I had to buy 2 new pairs of flip flops because as I mentioned before, I lost one of the only flip flops I brought with me when we went boating 2 weekends ago. Of course, about 2 hours after I bought the new flip flops, Mark texted Chrissy to let her know they had gome boating that day and they had found my lost flop. Just my luck. I don't regret it though. I got 2 new pairs of Haviannas for $20. Not a bad deal. We also wandered through the huge Myer Department store, returned my Mardi Gras outfit at Supre, and explored the Strand and Queen Victoria Buildings. The Strand was a really cool place. 4 floors filled with boutiques from Australian designers, little patisseries, candy shops, flower shops, wedding dress shops, mens designers, and other things. I'm not sure if I took any pictures in there, but I can steal some from Chrissy to add on here. Then we headed to the Queen Victoria building, which we had heard a lot about. It was kinda of the same thing, but on a much larger (and way more gorgeous) scale. Plus it had more International designers like Coach, Dolce and Gabanna, Versace, etc. Both bulidings were incredibly cool and unlike anything I have ever seen before. We are definetely glad we made it to see them.

After what felt like 20 miles of walking, we went back to the hotel to relax before going out that night. On the way back, I managed to score a cheap dinner because all of the shops in the train station were closing. I bought a curry chicken meal for $3, but later found a sushi place with rolls (that you have to eat like a hot dog, they dont cut them up for you) for just $2. It was a great,cheap meal.

When we got back to the hotel, we decided we all felt gross from our bad eating habits so we wanted to work out. Laura and Chrissy were going to go to the pool, and I was going to test out the gym. After calling the front desk to ask where each was, we discovered there was no pool. We found that odd because a pool is mentioned not only online but also in the brochure in the room. Oh well, I still went running for 30 minutes. It was a great workout after my little dinner.

After that, the fun finally began- we started drinking. Stupidly, we all bought our own bottle of Champagne (which we are all obsessed with) so we all drank an entire bottle before going out. Of course, after one bottle each, we decided we needed to talk to the manager at the front desk about some problems we had had (smoking room, incorrect reservation, 110 degree room, and having to call down 3 times for robes which we were told "were coming," then once the extra towels were brought up we were told they were "low on robes" and couldn't provide us with any- to name a few things). After speaking to the manager he offered to send us a bottle of Champagne and give us a free breakfast tomorrow. Obviously we took him up on that offer! It was when we were sitting outside enjoying our free bottle of bubbly that we all decided we could no longer stay in a hotel without having a free bottle of Champagne sent to us (so far, it has worked). I cannot even beign to explain how good that breakfast was either. Seriously, to die for. Best breakfast yet.

We finished up our bottle and headed out. We made it literally across the street before heading inside somewhere called "Goldfish." We had a few drinks there, including something called a "dark and stormy" that was not a dark and stormy I am used to. It was probably the reason I decided I wanted to go back to the hotel before the other girls so I could call my mom. I have no idea why I wanted to do this so badly, but thank God I did. Since we were right across the street from the hotel I decided to walk back alone. I got nice and comfy, snuggled into bed, and called my mom. Chrissy and Laura stayed out a little but later, but nothing too eventful happened to them, at least from what I gathered.

We woke up the next morning and rushed to check out and make it over to our other hotel, The Westin, in the city centre. Again, we played the marriage card and may or may not have been upgraded, we aren't really sure. This time however, we did not have a free bottle of Champagne sent to us, but Greg (Laura's friend who so sweetely got us the room that night) had one sent to us upon check-in.

Again, we rushed around to get ready quickly and this time headed out to Bondi Beach for the day. It was kind of a hassle to get there, but completely worth it. Just looking at the pictures it is obvious how amazing it was. We spent about 2 hours at the beach (where I, of course, got burnt) before heading back to the Junction to do more shopping. There is a HUGE Wesfield mall there and Laura and Chrissy wanted to buy new stuff to wear out that night. This mall is the second largest in New South Wales (the state I live in) and the sixth largest in all os Australia. It has something lik 450 stores, 6 levels, a movie theatre, a grocery store, and a liquor mart. It was amazing. We spent almost 4 hours there looking for dresses and shoes. Once I had my shoes for the night and Laura had her outfit, we were left with Chrissy who had nothing but a new purse. She spent a while looking in a department store and still hadn't found anything she really liked, so Laura and I decided to go get dinner while she finished looking. We told her to meet us in the food court. Little did we know, there were 4 food courts and a few restaurants in this mall. Of course Chrissy was the only one who had taken her phone with her that day, and we lost her. We spent almost 2 hours looking for her in that massive mall before we decided to just go back to the hotel and pray to God she did the same. Luckily, she was in the room waiting for us and everything was good again. We popped open the Champagne, put on our bathrobes, and started to get ready for our second night out in Sydney.

We headed out to our first stop, The Ivy. We had heard mixed reviews about this club so we were really unsure about if we would even get in or not. We actually made it past both of the initial bouncers with their stupid velvet ropes before discovering that the cover charge was $20 and Chrissy and I both didn't have cash with us. We turned around and headed out to find an ATM. At that point we all agreed that we didn't really want to pay that much to get in, so we decided to just try somewhere else first. That way if we drank enough we could pay the cover to get in, but not pay for drinks, making it all worth it. Oh the logic of 3 semi-drunk 21 year olds.

We ended up running into the guys I may or may not have mentioned from the last time we were in Sydney. They are all around 30 (I don't know WHY we only meet people this age, but I'm ok with it) and they work for Verizon as IT people. They have all been here for about a year working on some deal for Verizon. One of them, Colby, has stayed in a Mariott so much he has a few million Mariott Points and is one of their top 10 overnight guests of all time. Last year he spend something like 340 days in a Mariott. It's unbelievable to think that a company actually shells out the money for something like that. We played poker and drank with them and a newlywed couple they had met earlier that night, then decided we wanted something more fun to do. We started to wander the city when we stumbled upon a water taxi who was looking to take some people out. Colby offered to pay $100 for a 20 minute boat ride so we could see the opera house and the whole city at night. We got a couple of 6 packs of Jack and Coke and Vodka and Orange soda (they sell pre mixed, canned drinks like that here) and some Coronas for me and headed out for our tour. I have to admit, it was unbelieveable. Once again, not one picture did the views we had any justice.

The taxi got a call to pick up a group of people coming from a wedding in Wolloomooloo, which is just a few harbors over from Circular Quay where we took off, so we agreed to just be dropped off there. Once off the boat, we stumbled upon a little bar overlooking the harbor. We sat down at a table with 3 random men who Colby decided he wanted to befriend. One of them ended up being the number 4 boxer in Australia and was in town for the weekend for a fight. He won, but he took a few hard hits from what I could tell. After talking to them for a while Eric (one of the 3 we took the boat over with) won something like $150 at the "pokie" machines, and decided all drinks were on him for the rest of the night (not that we had paid for anything thus far). We got yet ANOTHER bottle of champage, and then he showed up with a tray full of Whiskey and Tequila shots. No thank you. I bowed out of that one and stuck to my one glass of Champagne.

When the bar started closing down we hopped in a cab and headed back to the Westin. We stupidly decided to get McDonalds before heading up to our room. Chrissy ate and promptly passed out. Laura and I decided to take turns taking baths in our amazing bathtub. I'm so glad I did that. I loved baths, and I haven't had time to take one in any of our hotels yet.

We woke up yesterday (Sunday) morning, regretfully checked out of one of the nicest hotels we have ever stayed in, and went to explore Darling Harbor. I actually liked Darling more than Circular Quay because of the quaintness of it. We had an amazing lunch and headed over to Chinatown to check that part ofthe city out. Of course we ended up finding all of the souviners we had bought thus far for half price. I was pretty pissed about that. I bought my mom a gift on one of the main streets in the business district and in Chinatown it cost half of what I paid for it. I scored a sweet t-shirt there, as well as a cheap $20 small luggage bag. The only ones I have here are my massive ones I used to bring my entire life to Australia, so I needed a smaller one for weekend trips. All in all, it was a good shopping experience.

After that we just headed back to pick up our bags and headed to the train station back to Newcastle. It was another amazing weekend that no one wanted to end. Thanks SO much to my mom and Greg for making it all possible!!

I know I only added 1 picture, but I'll try to add more as soon as my internet starts working again.

Sydney Round 2 this weekend! Thanks mom!!

So my mom tells me I need to write more. I'm really only doing it because we are going back to Sydney this weekend (courtesy of my beautiful mom whose birthday happens to be today!) Because we are going to Sydney early tomorrow, we decided not to go out tonight. I have watched every Friends, Seinfeld and Arrested Development DVD we brought, and my mom refuses to send me any more, so I figured I would write more about daily life here. I feel like I've only told stories of adventures and I should write more about regular stuff I see and do. (on a side note: you can see I've changed some stuff here. Obviously I'm bored. I also signed up for google adsense. I don't know much about it but I know I can get paid basically for people reading my blog, so spread the word!! Megan needs money!!)

Chrissy and I went to the beach at around 2 today, and both fell asleep in the sun. Luckily it was so late neither of us burned. We did get some pretty good sun though. When we woke up after an hour and a half, we decided to go for a swim. I made it halfway into the water before i almost lost my entire suit bottom and decided to call it quits. Chrissy trekked out further and actually had a good time in the semi-warm Pacific.

I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but there are no laws here about wearing shirts or shoes. You can go pretty much anywhere without wearing shoes, and next to anywhere without a shirt on. People go into restaurants, buses, trains, coffee shops, campus, pretty much anywhere without shoes on. I guess sanitary laws don't exist here or something. Personally its a little weird to see the guy in line behind me at McDonalds not wearing shoes, but whatever.

According to our friend Mark, Australians are a lot more laid back than Americans. So far it seems true. The might be a huge generalization about the entire country when I have only seen certain parts of it, but it is definitely true for the city of Newcastle.

Thank God people here don't have the same impressions of Americans as other parts of the world. They don't love us as much as I had heard that they do, but they are a lot nicer to us than people in France ever had been. In my International Media tutorial yesterday, where I am the only American in a tiny class of 25, we talked a lot about the US. My teacher was really nice, and asked me a lot of questions about the US and tried to make sure I understood everything they were talking about. I am not familiar with their newspapers or local celebrities/politicians so that is hard for me in a Media class, but everyone is really helpful. One girl was talking about a theory we were learning about and said something about how "Americans are not at all cultured. They, like, celebrate Thanksgiving." That would have pissed me off if it wasn't so true. She also completely forget there was an American in the class and as soon as the statement was out of her mouth she apologized profusely. Personally I thought it was funny. The more I travel, the more I see that most Americans couldn't care less about the rest of the world and are generally a lot less welcoming than people I have encountered here.

This is a stupid little story, but I forgot to mention it in the post about the boating weekend last weekend. If anyone saw my pictures on Facebook (it was too hard to add them here too) there was a picture of a guy in a hot pink shirt that says "dechebag!" over a picture of him with a mustache wearing the exact same outfit in the picture that he was wearing when I took the picture of him last weekend. His girlfriend Chrissy- who I did add pictures of on here- told me about "Movember." Apparently men here grow mustaches during the month of November to show support for mens diseases like prostate cancer. The girlfriend Chrissy said "basically every woman become lesbians during November." Seriously, mustaches are never a good look, EVER. Chrissy Hamalainen says guys in America do it too. I never have and never want to see it if thats true.

I have also seen some disturbing TV commercials and ad on buses and pretty much everywhere else. One of my favorites is an ad where men and women are shown speeding around town, whipping around curves, and almost hitting people on sidewalks. Then it shows people in the backseat of the car or on the side of the road watching holding up thier pinky fingers. On the bottom of the screen it reads: "speeding- no one thinks big of you." I laugh every time I see that one whether it is on TV or a print ad.

Another good ad I've seen is the binge drinking ads. The first picture is of a guy or girl or a group of people drinking happily. The next picture is of those people falling through a glass table, bleeding and blackout drunk with glass all over them, or 2 girls driving in a convertible with one girls scarf covering the other girls eyes while she drives. Then on the side of the screen it uses a beer or liquor bottle label and instead of saying the name of the alcohol, it says something about not binge drinking. They are completely unrealistic and so absurd they're hilarious. I take pictures every time I see one of them.

BEST. WEEKEND. EVER.

me with my girls
me and the new chrissy
rainbow!
bottlesssss
swimming in the rain!
the storm approaching. ive never seen boats move so fast
matt laura and i at the hamilton st pattys day parade!
girls with the rainbow
boys with the rainbow

us swimming in the lake
amazing
just heading out!
Krazy Kris, Ranga, Toast
me and Rosey at Fanny's!!
thats kris on the left and rosey on the right
he won $1,400 and only put in $150. I was so jealous
just showing off my bangs
us with our friends from Chicago!
Turton Road Crew

So its Monday night and I'm still recovering from this weekend. Friday through Sunday was just a blast, I couldn't have had a better time. Here's how the weekend went down...

Friday night we decided we wanted to go out with the people we would be boating with the next day because we had only met them once and we had to make sure they weren't rapists or killers. Luckily, they were not. They are actually some of the funniest and coolest people I have met here. Obviously, we agreed to continue with the plans of our boating adventure.

We (Chrissy, Laura, Caroline, myself, Kris and Rosey who we knew from the week before, and a bunch of their friends) were supposed to be going out to breakfast and then to get the boats and heading to the lake, but that didn't work out. It ended up being too late in the day so we just made breakfast at Rosey's house and headed to the lake after. When I say we "made breakfast at Rosey's" I actually mean I drank 2 Jack and Cokes while everyone else ate. Caroline had a shot of Tequila. Not the best way to start the day with a group of strangers and an empty stomach (and before my mom or any of my uncles makes a smart ass comment...NO I did not puke once that day.) After everyone was finished eating (and drinking) we went to pick up Kris' boat, a 20-something foot Bayliner, and headed to the lake in Rosey's car. I cannot put into words how these men drive. The worst part was that they all knew we were terrified of their driving so they decided to have a little fun with us. Even with the boat trailing on the back, they didn't let up. Thank God for those 2 cocktails because otherwise I would have been screaming bloody murder. After 14 near death experiences (I'm totally joking of course- Rosey is an amazing driver and I would never put myself in a car that I thought I might die in) we made it to the lake, piled into Rosey's boat, a 33 foot Searay, and headed out. (As a sidenote: dad this is the exact boat you have been dreaming of. You would have been SO jealous if you had been there. Keep reading though, and you'll thank God you weren't.)

We didn't get there until about 2 o'clock, but I didn't care- I already felt great! We stopped by a marina to get some fuel and clean out the bilge when we first noticed the storm approaching. There was another girl on the boat who interestingly enough is also named Christine Elizabeth (the same first and middle name of my friend/roomate Chrissy). She told us it was no big deal and that we would stay out and party in the rain and it would soon pass. Obviously, she knew what she was talking about, so we popped the first bottle of Moet and stopped worrying. We went over to a more secluded part of the lake to basically watch the storm approach. It was the strangest thing because tothe right it was a regular gorgeous day out, but to the right it looked like Hell was approaching rapidly. It wasn't our boat, and we weren't in charge so we only had one option: keep drinking. Once the storm approached though it got really windy, so we moved to a spot where there wouldn't be as much wind knocking us over. Shortly after moving the rain began. Normally this would suck, but we had all already jumped into the lake so we were all wet already- so we took our glasses of champagne and danced until we couldn't stand anymore.

Once the dancing in the rain grew old, we decided it was time to go tubing. I have been tubing millions upon millions of times, and I have never done anything like this before. Those boys showed us NO mercy. They made it their mission to not only knock us off but also knock the wind out of us and with any luck our suits right off of us (both top and bottem happened to Chrissy. I was a lady and kept myself covered) After one ride on the "tube" with Chrissy biting the shit out of my arm, I decided I was done. Stupidly, I thought it would be smart to swim back to the other boat which was God knows how far from where we fell off the tube. I made it halfway before Caroline had to come save me with a noodle.

When I got back I realized I desperately needed another drink. The Moet and Veuve Clicquot was gone (which I was heartbroken over) so we started on some other champagne I had never heard of. Once that was gone we broke into the Vodka. Obviously, it was a hell of a day. After the rain let up, the sun came back out and the most gorgeous rainbow made an appearance. We took 2 million pictures, and danced some more. After that, we basically just hung out and drank for a little while later until a certain red-headed friend of mine got too drunk and we had to call it a day.

Chrissy and Mark drove Caroline home and broke into our house (because of course she forgot her keys) so we could all have a change of clothes. Laura also went home because she had a friend coming into town for the night. So for a while (I have no idea how long) I was alone with a whole bunch of people I had just met a few hours before. I handled it like a pro- I hung out with the twin 3 year olds by swimming in the pool with them and dancing in the living room. I had a blast.

Once Chrissy finally made it back we lit up the Barbie and started grilling. No, we didn't cook shrimp on the barbie, they don't even call them shrimp here- they're prawns. Most of the food was delicious but I wouldn't trust my judgement at that point, it was like 9 at night and it was the first piece of food I put into my mouth all day. We all drank a little bot more, got into the hot tub until everyone was so pruney we had to get out, and after watching half a rugby game on tv, headed home.

I forgot to mention we had a new roommate move in earlier in the day that none of us were aware of. She got the welcoming of a lifetime. All of the other roomates were gone for the weekend so we had kind of left a mess (aka 2 boxes of wine, 2 bottles of champagne, a bottle of Jim Beam, a bottle of Bacardi, and a bottle of Southern Comfort. No we didn't have a party, we are just messy drunks.) She also got to witness Chrissy breaking into her own home on the night of her move in. I can't believe she is still living here.

Obviously, I had one of the best days of my life. These are some of the coolest guys (and girl) I have ever met, and I'm so glad we met them. They are funny, and just like to have a good time, plus they all have good heads on their shoulders and good jobs- so we know they are good people. One of them, Mark, is training to be a pilot. He should have his commercial license by June, but for now he's still studying and trying to log enough hours. He offered to give us a free lift to Carines for the weekend in a little 4 seater plane. If it wasn't the oppertunity of a lifetime (for us a one-way flight to Carines is around $500), I would say no because of my fear of flying. Obviously, we plan on taking him up on his offer.

The day was amazing, but in true form I did manage to lose a few things. One of my flip flops (stupidly I only brought one pair with me- I'm screwed), my Michael Khors sunglasses and both pearl earrings. I did however manage to hold on to my dignity, and all of my money. We didn't have to spend a dime all weekend.

Mark also loves to give people nicknames. Rosey's real name is Actually Shane Rose, so his is obvious. Allan Swystun is called Swiss, but not because of his last name- because he is neutral, like Switzerland. The new Chrissy is called Connie because she is a hypocondriac. Seriously, she thought she was having a heart attack that morning because of chest pains. It hilarious.

Everyone else has nicknames, so it was only natural we got them as well. Caroline's is Ranga, which is what Australians call red-heads (like how we say ginger and day walker). It originates from Orangutan. I find it hilarious. I'm sure red-heads do not. We now call Chrissy (my friend) HAMO because her last name is Hamalainen. Laura is Stone Age, for reasons I'm not sure of other than apparently she acts like a Neanderthal. I didn't get a nickname at first, which is actually worse than getting a bad one. Last night I found out that they called me Toast (because I came across dry as a peice of toast when everyone first met me). Once they got to know me they decided I was not like Toast, but I wanted them to keep it, so they did. I actually suck when I first meet people because I can get really shy, so it fits.

Yesterday we went to the Hamilton St Patricks day parade. It was amazing, but not what we expected. It was just a closed off street with a ton of vendors selling cotton candy, snoballs, blowup slides, cheap beers, and people selling homeade soaps, clothes, and pretty jewlery. I actually got my moms birthday gift there. Some of the stuff was awesome. After we left the parade, we met up with Mark again and went to the beach for a swim, then the pool nearby with some of Lauras friends who have an apartment on the beach. After that we went to The Brewry for what we thought we just a few drinks. Come to find out Sunday's are actually Sunday Fundays and we were out for the night. You can imagine how Chrissy and I looked after a day at the beach and a swim in the pool. It wasn't pretty compared to some of the people who showed up dressed to the nines. Whatever, we had a few beers and tried to forget how gross we looked and had a really good time. Most of the guys from the day before ended up showing up, so it was really fun.

Next weekend we managed to get a free night at the Westin in Sydney, so were going to spend another night living it up there. Who knows what we are going to do the rest of the weekend, but we aren't missing Sunday Funday for anything!

Chrissy thinks that we are all going to die a young tragic death because we have gotten to have such a good time and do so many cool things so far. I think shes an idiot. There are tons more things I made mental notes to write on here and tell everyone, but this is long enough so I will leave them all for another time....

xoxo

Boating Tomorrow!

So this week was pretty uneventful, which is why I haven't had a whole lot to write. We went out Wednesday night,as usual, and went to all the same spots we usually hit. We ended up at Customs House which is one of the nicest bars I've been in when you consider that it is for people 18-30. The floors are all hardwood and it has a nice outside area (for the smokers). As soon as we got there we went to the bar to get drinks. We decided to go around the crowd to the end of the bar where it wasn't as crowded. As we were walking through Laura slipped on a HUGE puddle of what I can only assume was a disgusting mix of random alcohol. It was the hardest I have ever seen anyone fall in my entire life, and honest to God one of the funniest things I have ever witnessed. She feel STRAIGHT to the ground and the first thing that stopped her was her hip. Then her wrist. I'm actually 99% sure her wrist is broken. The ENTIRE bar froze and I swear you could hear everony gasp at the same time. Some people even stuck their heads in to stare at us. Luckily Laura is cool so she laughed harder than anyone else there, and we continued on to getting our drinks. A little later in the night, Chrissy had the exact same fall, but no one was around to see it. You have no idea how pissed I am that I missed that. I'm not sure if I mentioned in my post from Sydney about how many ungodly wipeouts I had that weekend, but lets just say that Karmas a bitch and they got what they deserved for making fun of all of my falls. Later in the night we met two lovely gentlemen. I say gentlemen because theyre 30. But I won't let that bother me because: they have a boat. And a jetski. And a tube. AND they invited the 3 of us out on the lake (or bay?) tomorrow to go tubing and jetskiing with them. Obviously this is something I was not going to turn down, so we have made plans to have them pick us up early tomorrow so we can get a full day of frying my skin in on the beautiful water. I don't think anyone understands how excited I am to get to do water sports because last summer I spent every day in hot Columbia selling advertising and completely missed out on my usual summers on the Severn River. This better make up for it.

We went to the beach for a few hours today and I actually managed to not burn myself. Well, that might not be entirely true. We only got back like 40 minutes ago and my last burn took 3 hours to settle in, so I'll let you know how this one turns out. So far, I'm looking okay though.

I'm looking REALLY forward to tomorrow so I'll let everyone know how it goes afterwards!!

the sun here is no joke.

so today chrissy and i decided we wanted to go to the beach after our 10 am tutorial. we came home and got changed and got to the beach around 1. it was a little cloudy but we were craving the sun so we decided to stay. i NEEDED a nap, so i ended up passing out after about 5 minutes. i woke up and rolled over, fell back asleep for a little, but i got bored. chrissy was bored too so we took a little walk down the beach. all in all we were at the beach for 2 and a half hours. i put a tiny bit of SPF 4 on my legs and stomach, but nothing on my face hoping i would get a little color. a little is now an understatement. i am so red i don't even recognize myself. it actually embarassing. no where else on my entire body is burnt, its just my face. no wonder the first day we went to lay out and tried to buy sunscreen we couldnt find anything lower than SPF 30. they don't even sell anything lower than that here. this sun is NOT A JOKE.

Sydney

friends from clemson. chrissy and zach are making really cool faces
me and laura in our incredibly australian outfits
theres the bangs mom. they look horrible form sweat which is why i didnt add these in the first place
some angels who were in the parade
baby koalas at the Taronga Zoo
Sky Safari up to the top!
Nude Beaches
Opera House and Harbour Bridge from our Ferry

I am IN LOVE with Sydney, Australia. Seriously from the second we got there it was the most beatuiful place I have ever been. I'm already counting down the minutes until we go back (for the record its 2 weeks for the Australian MTV Awards). Here's how our weekend went...

We left here at around 7:45 Friday morning and caught a train, switched one stop away from our house and got on the Sydney train. About halfway through the trip we found out there was track work and we were going to have to get off at one station, take a bus to another, get back on another train, and finish the trek to Sydney. We also had to do this on the way back, and let me tell you: it was a lot more work than I anticipated for 8am. We finally made it to Sydney at around 10:30 am and went right to our hotel to check in. All week we talked it over, and we decided that when we check in we were going to tell them that I was getting married next week and that we were only in town for the weekend and it was my last week single. It actually ended up working and we got upgraded to a room with one of the most amazing views in all of Sydney.
We dropped our stuff in our room and headed out to see the city. after taking 300 pictures of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge we came upon a stand selling ferry tickets to the Sydney Zoo (something we all were DYING to see) which included a little tour of the Harbours around Sydney by boat. It cost 30 AUD for students which was a pretty good deal considering a ticket to the zoo alone was 23 dollars. We had a little time to kill so we grabbed lunch in a little cafe overlooking the Harbour. On the way to catch the Ferry we got stopped by a girl doing PR for the salon in the Hilton Hotel. More about that later. Once on the ferry, we got to see all of Sydney and the surrounding suburbs by boat before getting to the zoo. It was seriously so pretty none of us could stop taking pictures. We saw far too many naked old men on the nude beaches too. Not a pretty sight. When we got to the zoo we took a "skysafari" up to the top to the zoo so that we could start at the top and walk our way back down. I'm terrified of heights and even I couldn't get over how cool it was. Of course the very first thing we wanted to see was the Koalas. They were SO CUTE and sleepy. We wandered around for another 2 hours and saw everything: kangeroos, tasmanian devils, dingos, African lions, seals, penguins, fox, Asaian elephants, giraffes, goats, rooseters, deer, zebras, bears, Slivery Gibbon, Wombats, Platypus, monkeys, Pandas, Meerkats... the list goes on and on. There are pictures of all of these on my facebook. I will try to add some of the pictures at the bottem of this posting. The zoo was directly across the water from the Sydney Harbour and beaches, so walking around we got the most amazing pictures of the city. It was something that made us all stop and realize how lucky we are to be here.
When we got back from the zoo it was around 5:30 and everything was starting to close up, which we all thought was a little weird for one of the busiest cities in the world. We all still needed pieces for out Mardi Gras outfits, so we ran frantically around the city finding anywhere that was open and trying to get what we needed. Needless to say that trip was less than sucessful. We agreed that since we weren't going to drink a lot that night (so that we would be able to drink A LOT the next day) we could get up at around 8:30am and walk up to one of the biggest "malls" in the city, which opened at 9. So we headed back to the hotel to get ready for our first night in Sydney.
We got dressed, drank a little in the room, and headed out. Before we even left the Mariott we met these 3 guys from America who were living in Sydney for work. They were really nice, but complete nerds in every sense of the word. They were all a lot older than us, but we figured that since they had been living in the city for 9 months they should be able to show us around a little. Turns out, they couldn't. They were all pretty negative and couldn't tell us about where to go because they don't go out very much. After much persuading, we convinced them to walk with us to The Three Wise Monkeys, a bar where I was supposed to be meeting friends from high school who were also in Sydney for the weekend. The good thing about these guys is that they make a lot of money, hardley ever had to spend it, and therefore bought all of our drinks. The bad thing about these guys was that they bought all of our drinks. We did not make it out of the hotel by 8:30 the next morning to shop, in fact it was more like noon. We had a blast though, and ended up meeting up with a bunch of people we knew from Newcastle as well. All in all it was a really fun night, from what I can remember.
The next day we headed up to Supre, a store here that is VERY Australian, and not too expensive. Chrissy and I got what we needed to complete our outfits for the night and we headed off to our hair appointments we had booked the day before. Now I hadn't planned on doing my hair in Sydney, but Chrissy and Laura both already wanted to do it before we were approached by the girl doing PR for the Salon. Basically the deal was this: We pay $40 to book our appointment, then $60 the next day, and this is what we got:
-Style Color and Consultation
-Deep Conditioning Treatment
-Shiatsu head and scalp massage
-A personalized hair plan
-Free drinks (which we are all too hungover to enjoy)
-Strawberries
-Haircut
-Blowdry
And a choice of one of the following:
-Highlights or Low lights
-Gloss treatment
-Semi-Permanent or Permanent hair color

When you add up what we got there and convert it to American Dollars it was a really good deal. I wasn't sure what I was going to do, but I figured that since I was paying for it I might as well get a crazy color or a fun cut. After my consultation (with a stylist who was actually from the Midwest US and hadn't been home in 3 years) we agreed a lighter color was a bad idea, so we decided for a fun cut and a shade or two darker than what I had on my hair now. And I ended up with bangs! (Yes Duck I feel like a complete copycat). But I LOVE my new hair. It was just what I needed: something different but easy to grow out if I get sick of it. One thing I forgot to factor in: it is summer here and I sweat. A LOT. The bangs don't look so good when plastered to my forehead, but I'll learn to deal with it.
After our appointments, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for MARDI GRAS!! When we got into our room, there was a bottle of champagne chilling for us. We still cannot figure out who sent this to us, but we enjoyed it anyways.
We started walking up to the parade route and met some random people who said they knew where to go to see the whole thing. By the time we got there we had missed a few floats, but got a pretty good view once we stood on top of their stacked crates they had brought. I stood on the double stacked crates for about 5 minutes getting to see a lot of the parade when a girl walked by and kicked the crate out from under me. I fell pretty hard (but apparently it wasn't my first fall of the weekend). After that I had no interest in getting back on those crates, but we were so far back I couldn't see anything, so I shoved my way up to the front and watched the rest of the parade with a bunch of obnoxious Asians.
The parade itself was unlike anything I have ever seen. Nothing like Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and definetely the gayest thing I have ever seen in my life (not that there's anything wrong with that). There were handicapped gay people with signs saying "Were horny too!", there were Highschoolers against Homophobics, there was a group representing many places in the world (the US' representation was pretty pathetic compared to some of the other people there) there were all types of religions represented, gay popes in huge dresses, the Sydney firefighters, the Sydney lifeguards (in speedos), and everything else you can imagine. Most of them had little dance routines that looked EXACTLY how you are picturing them to have looked. It was an experience I will NEVER forgot as long as I live. I actually kind of hope I can come back and be part of it because it looked that fun.
After the parade we all agreed we needed some drinks. We went to one bar not too far off the parade route, but it was a little overwhelming for me so we decided to go to Kings Cross, another part of Sydney we had heard about. It was about a 5 minute train ride outside of Sydney, and this part of town was absolutely insane. People were PACKED in the streets, huge lines outside of every club. This is a little description I found of how to describe where we were:
"The lights are on 24/7 on The Strip. The bars, the clubs and the live shows along Darlinghurst Road, Kings Cross, have always been a popular entertainment destination for Sydneysiders and visitors alike. Everyone who’s been here seems to have a tale to tell. It’s busy, it’s noisy, it’s even slightly crazy. Part Amsterdam’s Red Light District, part London’s Soho, The Strip is hard to label but surprisingly easy to enjoy." That is pretty acurate. We went to one bar where friends of ours had been all night, but by the time we got inside they were gone. We decided to hang out for a drink, but after watching a girl faceplant on the floor and have people check her pulse and drag her away (I'm 97% sure she was dead for a few minutes) we decided we didn't want to be there anymore. We met up with some new friends who go to Clemson (and also our University here) and headed out to try and find somewhere else to go. We went into Moulin Rouge, but decided not to pay the $20 cover to get in, so I have no idea what we missed out on. Finally we settled upon a little sports bar that was a lot less crazy than anywhere else in that part of town, which is something I was really happy about. We were out until almost 5am that night, but it was an amazing experience I will never forget.
We spent yesterday getting souvineers after the cloudy weather ruined our plans of going to Bondi Beach then headed back to Newcastle to get ready for our week. I had so much fun in Sydney, and it gave us a good taste of the little weekend adventures we are planning on taking while here, so needless to say I am anxiously awaiting our next trip.

Classes Begin :o(

Well we started classes this week. I haven't had school in almost 3 months, so this is going to take some SERIOUS getting used to. It works a little differently than it does at USC, so that will also take some adjusting. At USC we take classes on either Monday/Wednesday/Friday and they are 50 minutes each, or Monday/Wednesday or Tuesday/Thursday and those are an hour and 20 minutes each. Most people also normally take 5 or even 6 classes a semester. Here on the other hand, the classes are once a week lectures which are 2 hours long, and once a week tutorials which are 1 hour long (except for my one communications class which is the opposite- I don't know why). Most people here also only take 3 or 4 classes a semester, meaning the teachers think you can handle more work because you have less classes. Don't worry, I have already made it a point to let my teachers know that not only am I an International Student, but I also am taking more than the average course load. I don't think it will be too bad. I still don't have Friday classes (which I have been lucky enough to never have in college) and I don't have any classes before 10am. I am taking a class called "The Australian Experience" which is basically a history of Australia. It should be really interesting to learn about another country's history, but I'm a little intimidated. The class had 597 people in it and most of them are Australian. I hope our professor doesn't assume we all know the in's and out's of Australian history like Australians do. I also don't like that we don't know our exam schedules yet. So far 2 of my classes aren't giving exams, but I still don't know the deal with the other 3. At USC you know off the bat when your exams will be. The exam period here is from June 2- 27h (or something like that) so if I knew when my exams were I would be able to figure out some traveling if I had a week off. I guess I will just have to see what happens as I go.

Since my mom asked, I figured I will tell you a little about my house and roomates. There are 9 bedrooms total. There are 4 Australian girls who go to "college" which is not the same thing as "Uni"- which is where I go. We haven't really figured out exactly what college is, but it is a lot like high school. They go every day from like 9-2:45, have half days Thursdays and no school Fridays. They "graduate" after only 12 months as opposed to 4 years like college were used to. They do not get a degree after graduating, but (according to our roomates) are guarenteed a job. It doesnt make sense to me but whatever, I'm not going there. 2 of the girls have moved out already because they decided that "college wasn't for them" and they moved back home with thier parents (they are from all over Australia). The 4 girls that are left have started to show thier true colors to us recently, and it has become a little difficult on "the Americans". We are all 21 and haven't lived at home with our parents in over 3 years. We are used to normal housekeeping things (although I'm sure my mom would beg to differ) and we pretty much know how to take care of outselves. The Australians, on the other hand, are all 19 and are living away from home for their first time. They are not as good at cleaning up after themselves (though to be fair, Chrissy gets mad and does all of thier dishes, and I clean all the bathrooms, so they might not even realize that they need to do housework- something I discovered after first living with Katy). Hopefully this is going to work itself out just like any other first-time roomate situation does, because right now the 3 Americans are at their wits end.

Luckily, we get a little break from the cleaning this weekend! We have been wanting to take our first little trip, and finally planned one. It is only to Sydney, which is like a 2 hour train ride south, but we are all EXTREMELY excited. Not only do we get to get out of the house and this city for a little bit, but we also get to go to "the biggest party in the southern hemisphere": aka The Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras in Sydney. We really have no idea what to expect excpet what we saw on Real World: Sydney, and what we have googled, so I'll let you know how it goes. I went to Mardi Gras in New Orleans last year, but for some reason I have a feeling this is going to be a little bit different. We were lucky enough to have Laura's dad book us 2 nights at the Sydney Mariott using his Mariott Points (aka I don't have to pay to stay in a $300/a night hotel for the weekend). We are leaving VERY early Friday morning (very early to us being 8 am) and hopefully getting a whole day of totally tourist stuff in before Saturday, which is apparently when the real parties begin. It is the last weekend of the month-long Mardi Gras celebration, so this should be crazy to say the least. We have big, big plans on what we plan to do there, but you'll find out all about those after I get back. Wish us luck (and safety)!!

Dolphin Trip/Booze Cruise

Finally! I have figured out how to add these pictures! I cant figure out how to put the descriptions of them right next to the picture yet so for now, this will have to do. The first few are actually of us coming back into harbor. The huge net you see was actually put on the back of the boat and it dragged around whoever wanted to get into it. The water was cold, and after watching Chirssy and Laura try to maneuver across it I decided I would be much safer inside, next to the bar. The net was supposed to let dolphins come right up next to you and touch you, but as far as I saw no one touched any dolphins. One of the last pictures there of that huge ship isn't actually the boat we were on, but there was some story about it that I obviously forgot to listen to. The rest are just some pictures of the islands and harbors around where we took our cruise. It was a BLAST. It only lasted 2 hours so when we got back into harbor we decided to get some lunch at Hog's Breath. I have to admit, it was the first good meal I've had here. We had lunch and just layed out on the beach for a little while until the busses came back to take us back to campus. All in all, it was a really fun day.