Sydney Part I

So I last left off with my life saying I was going to the rain forest. Ya that was cancelled due to the unending rain in this part of Australia. But with that being cancelled I was able to plan my trip to Sydney. We booked our trip leaving Wed. night and staying till Monday morning. We decided to take the train down and fly back. So after over packing for only four days my bag was full and ready to sit on a train for 12 HOURS! I have grown quite patient on this trip, and knowing 12 hours was my flight from LA to Australia, I was trying my best to stay cool. My friends roommate dropped us off at the bus stop and from there we road the bus from Lismore into Casino where we caught the train. I found my seat 28 B, and twenty mins after taking my seat a crazy lady tried to accuse me of stealing her seat. I tried to prove her wrong by showing her my ticket, but that still was not good enough for her. So she took out hers and then realized that she was looking at her bus seat number. GRRR While my two friends are laughing at me accusing me a being a seat thief. The train does not travel to fast, and makes a hundred stops, making it a painful trip. What else makes it painful the seats are not comfortable and they recline to about 95 degrees. So I tried various ways to try and sleep but non seemed to be successful, until I but my tray table down and slept with my face in my pillow breathing out the cup holder. Then I'm woke up by a crazy man on the train who is fighting with the train attendants. "I paid for my ticket" "You can't push me around and treat me like a piece of shit." So while this man is having a freak out the attendants are trying to shut him up, which makes him madder and then it was time to get rid of him. We stopped the train at the next stop and the police had to escort him off. That was truly entertaining. Being around 3 in the morning I slammed my face back in my pillow and tried to sleep some more. I managed another 2 hours of sleep and was woke up by the load speaker that we were running 35 min behind. I managed another 2 1/2 hours of boredom and finally arrived in central station in Sydney. We hopped off the train ready to explore!

The Bible Talks (TBT)

Wow! I can't believe I have been here one whole month already. Time really does fly. In two and a half months I'll be home already. I'm not really home sick, just missing my family and my Adam. But that will change soon, over Easter break my man is getting on a plane for the first time to fly all the way over here to see me! Can't wait for that!

But until then; I have found some lovely ladies that I hang with. One right down the road at Eau Claire and one from Cali. During Orientation week we were browsing the plaza and we found a guessing game. How many jelly beans where in a jar? The group sponsoring the contest was the Christian organization on campus looking for some new members. Not knowing if either of the other girls were practicing Christians(cause I've only known them for a couple days) I said I would love to learn more and they did as well. Well since then we have done multiple things with the bible talks organization. They have taken us to the beach, we have dinner nights at people's houses, weekly meetings, mass, and bible studies. I'm meeting so many amazing people and building friendships that will last once I go home. The group is very excited to have some Americans in the group and our input.

This past weekend they took us out in the countryside to stay at someones house to just chill and have a good time. We arrived Friday night and enjoyed a delicious BBQ. We then proceeded to play multiple rounds of mafia and everyone suspected we(as in the Americana's) were the Mafia every rounds. (I think they just like to pick on us at every opportune moment.) The flowing morning we had two long talks about Jesus plan for our live and how we plan on listening to our calling to live in a Christian lifestyle. We broke down into small groups and discussed further how Jesus sacrifice has such an impact on our lives. Sorry if this sounds a bit cultish but I've come to the conclusion Christianity really pulls people together. I'm over 9,000 miles away from home but I have a Christian family here who is looking after me and taking care of my physical and spiritual needs. Honestly, that's just as good as being home. I'm glad my faith is deepening and I'm becoming a better person because of that.

My lovely mother sent me a package last week and I was so excited to get it. It was filled with all sorts of goodies. Not forgetting the classic cheese in a can spread. My roommate had never seen such a sight before and tasting it was something he did not want to do again. I soon realized customs took my popcorn out of my package because my mom sent me ready to pop popcorn kernels that could single handily germinate and take down the entire Australian Eco-system. So I will not be getting my favorite popcorn while I'm here.

By the way it has rained here for 2 weeks straight. No lie! It rains here constantly and it's a bit aggravating. The wallaby was outside my window was bouncing around in the heavy rain and I couldn't get my camera out fast enough to get a pic though.

I'm off to the rain forest this Saturday, I'll be more diligent about writing more. Promise

Seeing a Kangaroo

What's an image you get when you picture Australia? Many images pop into my mind and among them is of course: The Kangaroo. I got to see my very first Kangaroo at the Wildlife Currumbin Sanctuary. But first when one enters the sanctuary the are greeted by an entourage of Lorikeet birds that will fly and sit on your head and grope your hair with their feet. They make such beautiful noises as they fly around and entertain the guests.

I continued on through the zoo to see one of Australia's beloved animals the Koala. They are so adorable but very vicious if need be, but they are the laziest animals ever. They sleep in the cracks of trees and in between branches. They literally sleep all day and munch on some leaves in between naps. What a life!

I saw an array of other Australian animals, such as the Tasmanian devil, dingos, and crocodiles. But of course I was most excited to see the kangaroo. I knew what to expect, being subjected to Winnie the Poo all my life prepared me to see the real deal. Their pouch is a back pocket sown on their front side, and Kanga randomly pulls out scissors or Roo's lunch (yes I'm being sarcastic). They are really soft and laid back animals. Their joey's make a tight fit as they usually hang out in the pouch upside down with their feet and tail hanging out. They usually hang out in the shade staying cool. When they stand up its such a cool sight, their feet are so massive, connected to an ankle of steel, so when they do hop off its takes about 5 seconds to move from point A to B. I was scared to pet one at first, with her not knowing me and scared I would come to close to her young, but it was not like that at all. She let me touch them and get really close.

They are magnificent creatures and I totally want one.

Random Observations

Well let start off by saying this place is AMAZING. My deck has the perfect morning view. A line of mist covers the forest before me. Hundreds of cheeping birds can be heard in the distance, and if your lucky(which I have) a wallaby will come hopping down the hill and stare at you before it hops off again.

Aussies are so lazy with English and find any excuse to make things shorter or just different, such as G'day, How you goin? briekkie(breakfast), goon(wine), jumbuck(sleep), and the list goes on. Nobody says cranky here and if you do they will shake their head, know your a foreigner and say you watched to much Steve Irwin.

The change in climate has taken its toll on me for sure but the heat is always something I can get use to. It's always in the 70's-90's with humidity insanely high. It's funny trying to talk to my flatmates about temperature and what is "COLD." My roommate told me it gets down to 18 degrees here, and I looked at him with great disbelief. Then I remembered we use the Fahrenheit scale. It's been really hard to talk about other things because I'm not hip with the metric system and talking about anything requires some converting to understand on either side. I also can't read food labels very well, because everything is in killa jewls, so I can't feel that guilty eating things I shouldn't.

Believe when I say, Australians love to party, they put Americans to shame. How many colleges have a bar right on campus? Non that I know of, but here you better be at the uni bar at least 6 days a week, there might be something wrong with you if your not there. Kind of sad really. The entire college experience is totally different here, you only go to college "uni" for 3 years and when you enter school you go directly into your core classes. No generals no extra classes that don't pertain to your major. I only go to class once a week for a subject and it meets for 3 hours usually. A little hard to sit for that long.

I'm also discovering how the rest of the world views Americans and may I say it is not very good. I have had to stand up for my country on more than a few occasions because a lot of people here think all Americans are the same. We are all power hungry, love to argue politics, are very self centered people, and we think we're better than everyone else because we do things differently. One man told me we all Americans look the same, and asked him what he meant by that and was scared to give me an answer. It takes people only a few seconds to hear you speak and ask "Canadian or American?"

I'll be back soon

Getting here

Traveling half way around the world, flipping my nights into afternoons and trading my jacket for a tank top and flip flops. The whole trip started off as an idea that popped into my head and continued to grow and I thought about it more and more. The idea of being away from home that long and over 9,000 miles away scared me and was not sure if I was able to embark on such a journey. As the months went on, I sat on it some more and the idea grew on me and I was determined to give it a shot.

I love to travel and thought this would be a great way to become immersed in a new culture and find something out about myself as well. So I finally decided to do it, realizing I would not have this opportunity again.

So on February 10, 2010 I said goodbye to my family and my boyfriend to board a plane to start a very long journey. At 7:57 my plane was suppose to take off for Chicago but my flight was cancelled due to a problem with the plane. So I power walked trying to beat people up the hallway so I could get helped first at the new gate. I fell sixth in line and with one man trying to help everyone it was guaranteed to take forever. One lady in front of me had to be in San Fransisco, another Hawaii, and my favorite, four catty women who needed to get to Cancun so they could sit on the beach while sipping margaritas and continue on their husband bashing stories.

So it wasn't until 10 until I got on a plane for Chicago, and then I had 2 hours to kill there. Airports are the greatest places to people watch, so many people with so many stories; some running away, some going home, starting their career, vacation, ect. All these people sit next to me as I wait to board the plane.

After that 4 hour plane ride I hoped off the plane at LAX with my dream and no cardigan(just had to) into the most confusing airport ever. I was not sure if I had to pick up my luggage myself or if they were doing that for me since I was switching airlines. But I finally found the baggage claim an hour later with puffy red eyes from crying because I was so lost and confused. But I regained my composure and dragged my two extremely heavy bags onto a shuttle to drive me a mile around the airport for the VAustralia check-in.

I was there greeted with red and purple lights and funky music playing in the background, a little unusual but welcoming by far. I threw my bags onto the scale be weighed and found my one bag was 25kg over not knowing that in lbs I was like "umm ok." I had to pay an extra 100 buck and have a heavy sticker put all over my bag so someone does not kill themselves trying to lift it into the plane. I later did a quick conversion and found out that's close to 55lbs!! Ya I will for sure be leaving some stuff behind.

After that 5 hour layover I finally bored the space craft of VAustralia. The biggest plane I have ever been on, or have seen. This plane was equipped with a bar for gold first class, regular first class, and the three most flamboyant flight attendants known to mankind(at least they had sweet accents) and all us losers in the back. At least I got my own TV where I could watch movies, TV, play games, and listen to music. It was a total of 13 hours in the air and I watched 3 movies and played scrabble for hours.

I Finally arrived in Brisbane after 18 hrs of flying, totally lost and confused not knowing what day it was or time. I was greeted by the university after coming out of customs. From there we hopped on a bus and started our decent 2 hours south to the city of Lismore and this is where I reside.

I am attending Southern Cross University, staying in Magellan College(dorm hall) and studying Hospitality and Tourism. I live in a four person suit 3 girls, one guy. All my flat-mates are Aussies and they are all super friendly. I am looking forward to my time here and the relationships that I form.

There are stories to follow shortly