The End.

Well folks, this is it. We’ve finally come to the end of my five-month adventure in Australia. At the beginning of this journey I had no idea what to expect of this country. As I’m leaving, I realize that it has become a second home to me. Before all my friends left on June 26^th they kept saying how it didn’t feel real, that they weren’t really leaving Australia. Or, that if they were leaving they would be coming back for fall semester. But, alas, we are not. I didn’t think I was going to get that feeling because I figured that being all over the country an extra three weeks would make me eager to go home and it definitely has. It is so true though- I always think I’m going to go back to the Gold Coast come September. I love Merrimack and I would not change my college experience there for anything, but right now as I am flying over the Pacific, I just keep thinking that in a few months I’m going to be back on this plane to go to school with Jenna, Cathy, Julia, Tanya, Jill, Brittany, and everyone else who has made this abroad experience amazing. I talked to Jenna shortly after she got home and she said she finds herself saying “in Australia…” a lot and I can understand why. Although we’ve lived three years at Merrimack, this experience has been unbelievable.

When I arrived in Cairns on February 12^th, I honestly was scared about what was going to happen or if I was going to make friends. And just when I was comfortable there, I was dropped off on the Gold Coast with no explanation as to where anything was or how to live. I was completely on my own and it was weird. I’ve come a long way since then I think and Australia has helped me achieve that goal. From having to cook all my own food, clean my room, to watching after myself after a crazy night out in Surfer’s, I’ve grown up a lot and I don’t think I would have turned out the same if I hadn’t been abroad and taken this experience for everything it was worth.

I’ve had some of the best times of my life in these past five months. Let’s reminisce for a minute… There was the time I held a koala and it pooped on me. And the first time I went to Sydney and met my future husband who has been to almost every continent except for Antarctica. Or there was Mid-semester break when Jenna, Jill, Brittany, and me rented a RV and frozen to death all over New Zealand. And one of my favorite times, going to Byron Bay and doing absolutely nothing but laughing for three days. All the family dinners cooked, teasing Cathy relentlessly everyday of her life, laying out by the pool on a Thursday between classes, and running to my room at 8:30pm on a Tuesday night to get dressed because the bus to Surfer’s would leaving in 10 minutes. And these past three weeks with my mom have been unforgettable! So many memories that I’ll never be able to forget with people I’ll always be friends with no matter how close or far away they live.

I’ve been on this plane for 7 hours already and I still have another 6 to go until LA and then it’s another five and a half to Boston. This may be the longest and saddest Thursday of my life. Although I still can’t believe this is the end, it is. I know I’ll be back some day, but it won’t be the same. This semester has been incredible and I couldn’t have done it without the help of everyone at Merrimack and my family. The End.

The City Round II

It’s been so long since I’ve written about what we’ve been doing that I almost forget all the activities we’ve been up to. I know that we got to Sydney on Friday afternoon and checked into our hotel on Darling Harbour and then went to Hunter Valley on Saturday. Sunday we walked in whipping winds to Circular Quay where mom caught her first glimpse of the Opera House. Then we headed toward the outdoor markets in the Rocks and looked around. We got some corn from a street vendor and then hopped on a bus toward the Sydney Football Stadium. We had purchased tickets to a rugby game where the Sydney Roosters would play the Penrith Panthers, a team that had been on a five game win streak. The Roosters (the worst team in the NRL) surprisingly pulled off a victory and we had a ton of fun cheering them on in the process. The stadium was not even a little bit crowded. In fact, I think the total number of people attending was less than a full Fenway Park, somewhere around 12,000 people showed up. Everyone there, however, was a true fan; completely decked out in Rooster red and screaming their heads off in true Aussie fashion.

Monday, we had booked a trip to the famous Blue Mountains. I don’t know what it is about me and my mom, but I think we attract people who can’t hold down their lunch. Half an hour into our journey a little kid got sick on the bus making the rest of the drive absolutely miserable. Luckily, most of our trip was planned for outside and it was amazing. The Blue Mountains are home to another amazing Australian nature made landmark- the Three Sisters. The Sisters are Australia’s second most visited sight and were incredible. They are three freestanding columns in a row. Across from them are other sights such as Orphan Rock and Solitary Mountain. Solitary Mountain, according to our tour guide, is same in size to Ayer’s Rock in Alice Springs. The Blue Mountains get their name from the constant blue haze that is given off by the millions of eucalyptus plants that live in the valley. The leaves refract the sunlight and create a bluish fog, which was unreasonably obvious on the cloudless day that we went. After we saw the Three Sisters, we got back on the bus and headed to Scenic World. Whilst at Scenic World, we took three cool rides in the valley. The first was a Skyway, which is essentially a horizontal gondola that has a glass floor; it was cool, but not my favorite part of our trip. After we ate lunch, we boarded the Scenic World Railway. Our bus driver had told us that the railway was one of the steepest in the world at 52 degrees vertically, but honestly what does that even mean? Well, it means that when you get in the train you are almost laying down in your seats and then when the train goes it is practically straight up and down. The ride was all of a minute long, but it was so cool. Everyone was screaming because the train goes through caves and is pitch black and going down a steep mountainside. Next, we walked through the Blue Mountains national park and saw a lot of cool artifacts left from the mining that used to be done there. The last ride of our trip was the Cableway, just a cable car, but still fun. We left the Blue Mountains and stopped in a town called Leura to look around. Then we drove through Sydney’s Olympic Park before finally getting dropped off for a boat ride into Circular Quay. They views from the boat were spectacular.

Tuesday I got to sleep in and it was awesome. After I finally rolled out of bed at 10:45am, mom and I started walking. We walked about 5 miles or so starting from our hotel to the Opera House. We looked all around the iconic building and then walked through the Royal Botanic Gardens and sat on Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair. For lunch, we had a little picnic while mom inhaled her first kebab- an experience that will not soon be forgotten considering she called it “the best ‘sandwich’ she’s ever had.” After fueling up, we walked another few miles over the bridge and into Luna Park. Luna Park is very similar to New York’s Coney Island because it is an old time amusement park, but it still runs and people love it. We then took a ferry back to Circular Quay and looked around the Rocks again. We came back to the hotel after a drink at Jenna’s favorite bar, Lowenbrau. Since coming to Australia I had a few goals. One was to get an Australian accent, which I didn’t do. Another was to learn about myself and have as much fun as possibly. And the last was to get a haircut because my hair was too long even before I left in February. I know you’re thinking this is completely random, but it’s not. You see, after we walked a lot we came back to the hotel to relax and we had a brilliant idea to let mom cut my hair. It actually didn’t come out that bad and it made for a good story! We went to dinner at the Hard Rock Café and made friends with our Italian waiter Carmine. Tomorrow is our last day in Australia and we have quite a mission.

We woke up on Wednesday morning to a overcast sky, which was unfortunate because we were planning on going to Bondi Beach for the day. Bondi is one of the most famous beaches in Australia because it is situated in Sydney. It takes about half an hour to get to Bondi Beach by train and bus. Mom and I got there, walked down to the water, and just had a look around. It was really cool to be there in the winter because Bondi is host to a Winterfestival and there was an ice skating rink on the beach and a ski hut. We had lunch down there then headed back into the city for some last minute souvenier shopping. I had planned on taking mom to a seafood restaurant right in Darling Harbour, but apparently it had closed down between March and now. We ended up eating a disappointing last dinner in Chinatown, but it was ok. Tomorrow is Thursday and we have to be in a shuttle to the airport by 7:15am. It definitely hasn’t hit me that I’m leaving yet. Prepare for the most sentimental post ever tomorrow.

The Capital

I’ve been to Washington, D.C. twice and absolutely loved it. As a lover of politics, I can’t help but be obsessed with the endless amounts of history to be learnt and the tours to take around our nation’s capital. While visiting Canberra, I got a very similar feeling. Although Canberra is usually thought of as a tiny city that doesn’t offer much compared to big cities in Australia like Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, I found the Canberra to be quite enjoyable. Canberra, pronounced like Can-bra, was chosen as Australia’s capital for one reason alone: there was no way to choose whether Sydney or Melbourne was larger, so they picked a spot in the middle to represent the country as a whole. When asked about their capital, most Aussies will say that they’ve never been and aren’t exactly sure of the whereabouts of the ACT or Australia Capital Territory. The reason for this is simple. Although the political end of government is drawn out in Canberra, most of the housekeeping, campaigning, and other aspects that go into politics take place in either of the two other cities.

Mom and I only spent one night and half a day in the capital, but we mostly enjoyed our time. We arrived around 7pm on Friday, which meant it was dark outside and our only source of guidance was our GPS that we had named Helen on our 5-hour trip from Melbourne. Canberra is well lit and from the outside looks as though it has a reasonable amount of nightlife to offer. We drove through the city expecting our hotel to pop up at any given moment. Before we started our journey, we knew not to expect much because we had booked our one night in a Best Western “Resort”, but we did now know exactly where this hotel/motel was located. It turns out that we had entered into the scariest place to stay in the entire continent of Australia. Ok, it wasn’t that bad, but the only other people we saw at the Best Western were an elderly woman running the front desk and a chain smoking truck driver who just happened to be in the room right next door to us. Honestly, I felt like I was in the beginning of a bad horror movie and that at any point in time someone was going to break into our room (the book Julia gave me to read didn’t help either as the chapter was about a break-in to the main characters home).

After not sleeping all night, we awoke to the coldest day yet. The thermometer read 1 degree Celsius and I was bundled up like I was going skiing. We drove to the Parliament House for a tour around and a better understanding of the confusion that this country considers government. The Parliament building was amazing. The entire inside is made of marble and surprisingly you are allowed to sit in both the Senate and House of Representative chambers even whilst they’re in session (if you’re lucky enough to be there when they meet, which is rare). We learnt a lot by walking around and mom purchased a giant map of Australia with all different facts in the gift shop. We then headed out of Canberra and started to make our way to Sydney.

We got into Darling Harbour around 6pm after making a few tourist drives through small town on the way from Canberra. It was as if we were royalty especially considering the motel we had just come from. Bellhops to take our bags, separate beds with down comforters, and free wifi in the lobby; we are really getting spoiled and we definitely don’t mind. We unloaded and then decided that we “fancied an Indian” for dinner so we walked across the bridge and ate some of the most delicious Indian food. We headed to bed fairly early after stopping at an Irish pub for one last drink. Saturday, we drove the car a couple hours north of Sydney to an area just outside of Newcastle called Hunter Valley. We checked out a few breweries that we knew were in Australia’s “wine country” and bought some cheese, then said goodbye to Helen as we took the car back to the airport.

When mom first told me that we were spending 6 days in Sydney, I was a little nervous. I wasn’t sure if we would find stuff to occupy our time for that long and I didn’t know much about the city, but now that we are here, we are both concerned whether we’ll have time to fit in all the activities we want to do. It’s been a day and a half and mom still hasn’t really seen the Opera House. The closest she came is when we accidentally drove over the Bridge! We have so much planned for the next few days and we’ll be tired and busy, but we’re excited. I have to make the absolute most of my last few days in this country. As of today, it’s been exactly 5 months since I’ve been home. I am eager to get back, but I can’t imagine leaving this place. It truly has become a second home to me.

The New

Melbourne is unlike any city I’ve ever been into in my life; not only Australia. Half of this city is straight Aussie- a Pieface on every corner, every other block has a shopping mall area,

and there are pubs and Asian restaurants everywhere. But, the other half of the city is more like Europe. The city is broken down into sections and precincts. There is an arts district that has museums for every kind of art buff out there, sculpturesalong the river walk, and historical churches and buildings to tour. It’s an amazing city with so much to offer and with only a limited amount of time, I’m not sure mom and I aregoing to get a chance to see it all, but we’re trying our best.

We arrived late Sunday night and decided it was a good idea to rent the car right away instead of waiting until Tuesday. We didn’t instantly regret the decision, but we definitely didn’t fully think it out. Mom freaked out a little while driving throughthe city especially since every intersection has a right turn from the left lane… figure that out. We managed to find our way and only got lost twice! Our hotel is basically located in Chinatown, which is really cool if you’re in the mood for any form of Asian cuisine, but on Sunday we were just hungry. We found an Italian restaurant a few blocks down from the hotel and ate amazing food. Thenwe looked across the street and there was a James Squire Brewhouse, so we headed that way for a sampler of their signature brews. It was a lot of fun. We knew we were in the right place for us when we could order spicy peanuts, a paddle of 6 different kinds of beer, and Adele came on the radio.

Monday we woke up with absolutely no idea what to do. We read some of our tourism books and figured out where the most popular places in the city were, so we headed those ways. We walked about 5 miles around the city, down the river, around the sports stadiums that line the city, and then took a free tourist shuttle back to find something to eat. Like I said, Melbourne possesses many similar qualities to European cities. When we hopped off the Tram, we walked a little ways and found this small alleyway that was bustling with cafes and people. There were tables all along the side of the alley and there were people sitting outside drinking coffee and talking. It was adorable! We walked around the city more to see some sites and then headed to the infamous Young and Jackson Pub located right in the middle of Federation Square, the busiest spot in the city. We heard that Melbourne was home of Australia’s largest casino, so we decided to go there for dinner and a look around the place and man they weren’t kidding, the place was huge! We had a lot of fun walking around the casino and testing one of two of the roulette tables, but we didn’t play too much as Tuesday held a busy schedule.

Although it was raining, mom and I made the most of our experience down in the southern part of the country. Victoria is a lucky state because it has the coast, rainforest, and outback areas all in small vicinity. We took the car out of the carpark and made started our five-hour journey toward the Twelve Apostles, one of Australia’s numerous nature-made marvels. The Twelve Apostles are limestone rocks that have broken off of the cliffs from the ocean and are now standing free in the water. They truly are a sight to see and even though we risked our

lives going out onto the viewing platforms in 100km/h winds, we wouldn’t have wanted to miss it. To get to the rocks you have to drive along the Great Ocean Road, another famous landmark in Victoria. The road was built by WWI veterans as Australia’s tribute to their hard work in the war. It was a seriously curvy road and the high winds certainly did not help the car’s stability, but the view along the cliffs towards the ocean were incredible. Mom let me drive on the way home, which was probably not in our best interest as I took an American right turn into oncoming traffic while pulling out of a gas station. I must say, once I got over my nervousness, I was much better.

The highlights of Wednesday were going to St. Paul’s Cathedral in Federation Square- an absolutely exquisite Anglican church in the middle of a metropolitan city. Another highlight was finding a pub to watch the third deciding game of the State of Origin. State of Origin is a three game series between all star rugby teams from Queensland and New South Wales. Noticeably, people in Victoria don’t care too much considering their state isn’t involved, but I’m a true Queensland fan, so the game was a big deal to me. (The Queensland Maroons won again, obviously.) Thursday morning mom and I woke up slightly hungover and before the sun even rose to start our trek to the capital of Canberra. First though, we had to visit the largest outdoor markets in Australia. The Queen Victoria Markets in Melbourne stretch for about four or five blocks in both directions. We shopped for souvenirs, fresh fruit, cheeses, olives, basically anything you wanted. Although Thursday was the first day we had seen the sun and the first day it hadn’t rained, but that doesn’t mean it was warm. It was so cold that mom and I had to get fresh hot doughnuts from a little stand (they were SO GOOD) to stay warm. After getting some great stuff for cheap, we hopped back in the warm car for our drive. The drive was pretty and there were mountains and hills that reminded me slightly of New Zealand. There were even sheep, but who are we kidding, there will never be as many sheep farms as NZ anywhere in the world! Tomorrow we are touring the Parliament building and then driving to Sydney for our last week. I cannot believe that it’s been two weeks since my mom left home and almost two weeks since she’s been here. I must admit, I’m getting eager to go home at this point, but we have a lot planned for Sydney and if Cairns and Melbourne were a precursor to anything, we are going to have a lot of fun.

The Re(ef)peat... See what I did there?

It’s now June 30^th and I’m in Cairns again. This time, however, I’m not nervous or a stranger. I’m in a familiar land showing my mom the ropes of the Australian way of life. Day 1 in northern Queensland it rained. The first day of rain in June and we had just stepped off the plane. We took a shuttle to our apartment, set our stuff down, and proceeded to find a way back into the city. I remembered Cairns as being a small city with a lot of different shops, bars, and restaurants with not many people. Cairns is set up in very square blocks that reach all the way to the water. Mom and I walked towards the water first and admired the little man-made lagoon along the waters edge. Surprisingly, I could not get a grasp of how the blocks were located, most likely because I’m used to Boston where the city streets have little order and are narrow and winding. We poked around the shops before deciding it was time to eat and have a drink. We stopped in a restaurant called Rattle and Hum to have some lunch. We continued walking around the city a little more, still exploring the mostly unknown territory, had a few
drinks and then headed back to the apartment for the night. We decided that it would be better to plan some activities for the upcoming days, as the weather did not seem to be cooperating.Day two we awoke to a cloudless sky! We threw on our bathing suits as fast as we could and literally ran down to the beach. Unfortunately, the sky stayed nice for alittle over an hour and soon enough we were soaking wet with rain yet again. Instead of going back to Cairns right away, we walked around Palm Cove and I finally got a Bali Bintang singlet I’ve been wanting forever! When we were fairly hungry, we took the bus into the city again and had a snack. Then, we channeled our inner Australian and had a few drinks before inhaling the most delicious Thai food ever. It was still quite early after dinner so mom and I decided to do what we do best (kind of): we gambled a little at the casinoin Cairns. We played roulette and won almost $5! We had planned a big day for Thursday so we headed back to bed. We awoke bright and early on Thursday morning, boarded a shuttle bus, and were off to the small rainforest town of Kuranda.

Before we came up to the rainforest area, mom had said that she really wanted to hold a koala and pet kangaroos, so we found a trip that allowed us to do both while also admiring the town

of Kuranda. We took a scenic, historic train ride up the mountains before arriving in the village. We shopped around in the famous Heritage Markets of Kuranda. They literally had everything in the markets! Then we went to the koala gardens to hug, feed, and pet all the native Australian animals. Mom and I made friends with the cutest wallaby! Leave it to us to find the most amazing scones in all of Kuranda, served with cream and jam and then have delicious hot pies for lunch. Finally, we escaped the rain by taking the Skyrail down the mountains. The ride was unreasonably cloudy and at one point we couldn’t see anything in front or behind- kind of scary! The Skyrail stopped at two different lookout points, though the second there was little visibility. Overall, we had a really fun day.

Tanya had hooked us up big time for a reef trip on Friday morning, so we woke up around 6:30am to board a bus into Port Douglas. The weather was still not cooperating, but we risked the trip anyway. After overdosing on motion sickness meds and eating our weight in ginger snaps, mom and I boarded the Quicksilver SilverSonic along with 45 high schoolers, who clearly had not taken any medication. The water was rough and, I’m not joking, about half of the people on the boat had to utilize the white paper bags offered by the staff. We quite possibly experienced the most unique trip to the reef. Not only was the water choppy, but at our first stop it started down pouring while we were snorkeling. We had a lot of fun and saw some amazing fish, coral, and shells. At one point, one of the crew members were feeding an enormous fish they nicknamed Old Greg and everyone got to pet him! On the way home, the captain stopped the ship because a humpback whale had breached right in front of our ship. The funniest part of it all was that the other Quicksilver boat showed up right next to us and it turns out Tanya was working there! After finally getting our feet on solid ground, mom and I headed into Port Douglas to have some dinner. And then the most exciting thing happened- TANYA SHOWED UP. Ok, we had kind of planned it, but it was still so awesome. I realize that the last time I had seen her was about 7 days previous, but it was still great to hang out for a little while.

Saturday morning mom and I went to a little café in Palm Cove for brekky and then took a small shuttle back up to Port Douglas for the day. We had a really fun day shopping, walking on the beach, and watching some footy games. Tanya met us for a quick second for our final goodbyes (which I’m still sad over, btw) and we boarded our shuttle around 9:15pm to get back to the apartment for last minute repacking. Now, it’s Sunday afternoon and I’m on a plane to Melbourne for the real adventure to begin. Cairns was an amazing five days and despite the weather, mom and I had a lot of fun. It’s a very bittersweet feeling for me. I am excited to go home in eleven days, but I don’t want to leave this amazing place. Not only that, but leaving Cairns means actually leaving Tanya and the warm weather, but I am on my way to Melbourne; the iconic city of Australia and somewhere I’ve never been. Mom and I had a conversation earlier that made me realize how much this place has become my mom. She asked, “how long do you think it takes people to not notice the Australian accent? A few years?” and I answered “Only a few months. I hardly notice it anymore.” And it’s true. I also find myself using Australian expressions like reckon, heaps, keen, and so many more.

The Beginning of the End

My mom arrived at the Gold Coast Airport bright and early on June 25^th slightly jetlagged, but excited to finally be in Australia. I’ve been anticipating my trip around the east coast of the country for a while and I was excited for it to begin. We began out journey on the Gold Coast for a few days. On Saturday night, mom, Julia, and I headed into Surfer’s so we could finally get to the top of Q1. Q1 is the tallest building in Surfer’s Paradise, but it is also the tallest residential building in the Southern Hemisphere. Looking at it, the building doesn’t seem that tall and I can think of at least 5 skyscrapers off the top lf my head that easily would dominate it, however, the fact is that Q1 is the tallest residential so every floor contains apartments, not offices and cubicles. From the 77^th floor of Q1 it is easy to see over 20km on either side. It was a lot of fun for me and Julia to spot all the places we have visited in the past four and a half months; shopping plazas we’ve been to, the rugby stadium where we cheered like mad for the Titans even though we had no idea what was going on, and the airport wherein a few short hours she would be headed to go back home to Rhode Island. After admiring the view for a little while longer, we headed back down the fastest elevator I’ve
ever been on and met my mom. The three of us went out to dinner and then headed back to the Village. Mom was pretty tired after two days of traveling so while she was in bed, the girls and I played some games while remembering all the fun times we’ve had in Australia. I sent them off at 3:00 in the morning, not as sad as I was when saying goodbye to Tanya, but slightly emotional nonetheless.

The next day, mom and I got some breakfast and then I showed her around the area of the Gold Coast I knew best. We did a little shopping in Harbour Town and then headed into Surfer’s for the night. I took her to two Irish pubs (Waxy’s and Fiddlers, obviously) and introduced her to my favorites of Australian beer. She prefers Pure Blonde whereas I’m still partial to Toohey’s New. On Monday, our last day on the Goldie, I thought it would be fun to show her Brisbane. I’ll be honest, I’m not too familiar with Brizzy, but we managed to get a walking map and find our way around to all the places I had seen before and thought she would enjoy. We walked probably four miles altogether from one side of the river, over a pedestrian bridge, down the river, back over another bridge, and then all over shopping area in the city. We stopped at a little outdoor restaurant, had a beer and some nachos while we people watched and discussed how Australian people are quite the attractive race. After we took the bus to the train and back on the bus to school, we had to pack up five months of my stuff into two suitcases under 20kg. Needless to say, we were up late and didn’t even accomplish our goals, but it was time to move on from the Gold Coast- the place that had become home to me. I’ll always have a spot in my heart for that area of Australia. It served me well and I don’t think there is another time in my life that I’ll be able to appreciate all the Goldie has to offer than I did at the young age of 21.

Tuesday at 1:45am, mom and I woke up to a fire alarm, which I guess was the Village’s final goodbye to me. Three hours later, my alarm went off and we had to get up to catch the bus to the airport. Anyone who has used Translink will understand that the bus ride at 5:42am to the Gold Coast Airport was the most miserable ride of my life. I don’t understand why there were so many people awake at that hour taking public transit to the airport, but it was terrible in my opinion. If the bus ride wasn’t enough to put me on edge, it turned out that our flight to Cairns was an international flight so we were supposed to have been there over two hours in advance, not the 45 minutes we had allotted ourselves. We, along with a dozen other passengers, were rushed through one set of security and then the international security and customs and finally boarded the plane with five minutes to spare. The flight was luckily short and the process to go through customs once we arrived in Cairns was shorter. We finally arrived in our apartment. The apartment is in a suburb called Palm Cove and is about forty minutes outside of Cairns. It’s a cute little place, but it gives the Florida resort type feel with families of children ages 10 and under everywhere. Since it’s the dry season up in Northeast Queensland it should be beautifully sunny with a temperature of 25C everyday and not a cloud in the sky, but alas it is not. It has rained every day we have been here. I talked to Tanya yesterday and she said there had not been a rainy day in June until the 28^th. We had all of an hour on the beach and then it started down pouring, but mom and I have been making the most of it… More on that later.

The Lasts

The week after all my finals and before my mom arrived on the Gold Coast became solemnly the week of lasts. Our last Shooters BBQ and bus ride, our last beach day, our last trip to Brisbane, our last goodbyes. It was an adventurous time for me and Julia (because everyone else still had finals), but it was an emotional time for us all.

My finals ended on June 16^th, which meant that I had free time between then and the 25^th to do things I didn’t have a chance to do while during the school year. Julia and I decided to take advantage of the amazing winter weather the Gold Coast has to offer. Almost every day we woke up there was not a cloud in the sky and we could find no reason to spend any time inside. One day we played mini golf and then went for our final trip to Sumo Salad and our last trip to Broadbeach. It was one of our “adventures” that we created for ourselves. We tried to go hiking, but it turns out the Goldie is a fairly flat area of Australia. Another day, we headed to the beach and on that Thursday we just laid by the pool all day. Cathy’s mom was in town for two weeks, so we decided it was necessary she act like an authentic Australian. Me, Cathy, Julia, and Cathy’s mom headed to Brisbane for the day and then went to an Australian Rules Football League game that night. We watched the Brisbane Lions play even though we didn’t understand one rule of the game. For our last trip to Brisbane, Julia and I stayed at her friend Elyana’s house because we were in the mood for another fun adventure.

Elyana lives in an area of Brisbane called St. Lucia, which Julia and I decided was one of the cutest suburbs ever and if we come back to Australia for good we would seriously consider living there. That night Elyana took us to a bar called the Stock Exchange, which was unlike any other bar I’ve been to. There was dance floor on the bottom floor, but once you headed up stairs the whole bar was outside. Granted it was a little cold, but I had to take in the view. From the top floor you could see the entire Brisbane skyline. It was really amazing. We decided to have some fun in the bar so Julia, Elyana, and me ran around telling anyone who would listen that it was Elyana’s 21^st birthday. The funny thing is that it was anywhere near the time of her birthday, but everyone believed us and bought her drinks. We had so much fun on Saturday night that we couldn’t help staying another night; considering it was an “adventure” and all. Sunday night Elyana took us to a hotel bar called the RE. This place was also unique. Almost the whole bar was like an outdoor patio and there was a band playing. In Surfer’s Paradise we sometimes go to a bar called Beergarden to watch a band called Venus Envy and while in Brisbane the craziest thing happened: Venus Envy was playing at the RE. It was a really fun and relaxing environment, but it was a Sunday so the bar closed fairly early. Regardless, we had a lot of fun and it’ll be a weekend I never forget.

The Tuesday after our amazing weekend in Brisbane was one of the most fun, yet most sad nights we’ve ever had. Every Tuesday the housing complex I live in drives us to Surfer’s Paradise for a night at a club called Shooters. Our little group has had some of the most fun times at this club and Tuesday was one to not forget. It was all of our last Tuesday night and Tanya’s last night at Griffith, so we needed to make it amazing and I’m willing to say that we certainly did. During my study abroad, I have made friendships with many people, but most of them are just fellow Americans studying the same way I am. Tanya, on the other hand, is from Port Douglas and is the best Australian friend I will ever have. She left Griffith on Wednesday morning at 4:45am. Cathy, Julia, Jenna, and myself decided to stay up all night and send off Tanya because we don’t know when is the next time we’ll ever see her again. The five of us have become so close these past five months and I know my experience down here would not be even close to as fun or the same without Tanya. It was an emotional goodbye to say the least. It was an odd feeling, especially for me. I knew that I would see the other four girls again, almost all the time once I get home because we all live so close together, but Tanya lives in Australia. However, I knew that I was coming back up to Cairns and would most likely make plans to see her again. Nonetheless, it was sad.

Cathy and her mom went to Sydney for the 22^nd to the 24^th so it was the Three Amigos for a little while. Since my friends were moving out soon there was really no food left in any of our houses. On Friday night, Jenna, Julia, and me cooked up broccoli with garlic and mushrooms, cut up carrots, celery, tomatoes, and cucumbers and considered it dinner. Honestly, it was the least filling dinner of my life, but the fun we had making it was enough. After Tanya left, the next exciting event was having my mom come. She arrived on the Saturday before all my friends left for home. I was excited for her to meet them, but I was sad to see them all go. It was nearly as emotional as sending Tanya off at 4:30am, but I did watch them leave around 3am on Sunday morning. Like I said in the blog from Byron Bay, I can’t imagine my time in Australia without these friends and I realize now more than ever that it’s true. Without them here it’s like something is missing. My mom and I are having an absolute blast and I am not sad or eager to go home yet. I want to enjoy my time in this amazing country as much as I can, but I definitely wish that my friends could be around to experience it with me. If you guys are reading this know three things: 1. I’ve been listening to “Fast Car” on repeat while writing this, 2. you’re the best, and 3. July 15^th is going to be a reuniting we never forget.

p.s. Tanya…. You’re coming to the states ASAP- no excuses, play like a champion.

The Bay

Honestly, I can’t even begin to imagine what I would do in Australia if I didn’t have friends like the ones I’ve made down here. It boggles my mind to think how close you can get to people in such a short period of time. I had this revelation as I sat on the Greyhound Bus riding home to the Gold Coast from a weekend in Byron Bay. Byron Bay is a small town about two hours south of Surfer’s Paradise in the northern part of New South Wales. On Friday, Jenna, Jill, Julia, Cathy, Tanya (who the blog has yet to meet and our token Australian friend!), and I boarded a bus to make the trip down to Byron for the weekend. We legitimately had no idea what to expect when we got there or what there is to do, but we were excited nonetheless. I’ve taken two trips with Jenna and Jill and stayed in semi-creepy hostels with them in Sydney and New Zealand, but this was my first experience sharing it with Julia, Cathy and Tanya. We got off the bus around 1:30pm and were greeted by a pretty cute, but slightly rude Australian boy whose job was nothing more than to get tourists to pay ridiculous amounts of money for skydiving. Needless to say, we didn’t accept his offer. We got on the shuttle to check into our hostel, Cape Byron Lodge, but the driver never showed up (Thanks a lot, Amy.) so we decided to walk; the weather was beautiful and we had just been sitting in a bus for over an hour. We all immediately realized that Byron was an adorable town and that exploration was absolutely necessary. After we checked into the hostel (which was quite possibly the dirtiest place I’ve ever been to), we got back on the shuttle (this time there was a driver) and headed back downtown to shop and have a look around. Byron Bay is home to “New South Wales most beautiful beach” and after walking to the end of the road, we could all see why. The water was clear and blue, the sand was so fine and soft that I could have fallen asleep on it and the whole beach extended left and right as far as I could see. We shopped a little more and then decided it was time for a drink; give us a break- we’re in Australia, it’s the thing to do! We headed to a bar called The Beach and tried a beer called Stone & Wood. We soon realized this was no ordinary beer. Stone & Wood is a infused with passionfruit and I’m not kidding when I say it’s the most delicious beverage I think I’ve ever had. We hung out in town for the rest of the night, ate some dinner, danced at Cheeky Monkey’s (Byron’s HOTTEST party bar) and finally decided that we were exhausted. We had a busy day tomorrow and we needed rest.

We woke up on Saturday morning with a bit of a headache, but called a cab and went into town to get some breakfast. I don’t know what it is with Byron Bay, but just about everything I tasted there was delicious. Saturday morning’s breakfast consisted of an English muffin topped with tomato relish, roasted zucchini, goat cheese, and a poached egg. I could honestly eat that everyday and still find it amazing. After brekky, we called another cab and went up to the lighthouse, which is infamous in Byron. Cathy had been bragging about how great the lighthouse was going to be for about 3 weeks, so clearly we had to check it out. She was right. The lighthouse did not disappoint. We took a look inside and read some history and then headed down a footpath where we would eventually end up at the beach. On the way and after about a million photo-opts, we made it to the most easterly point of Australia. That’s a pretty cool accomplishment if you ask me. I raced Tanya on the way and obviously I won… only kidding, it was a tie! We walked to the beach, wrote our names in the sand and then headed to my new favorite place in the world. There’s a lookout point directly down from the lighthouse overlooking the water and rocks. I’m almost certain that we sat on the fence looking from the water to the lighthouse to the cliff for about 45 minutes; none of us wanted to leave. After dragging ourselves up the most grueling steps ever, we decided it was time to eat again… Oh, just a side note so that EVERYONE is aware: on Friday, Cathy and Tanya ate sushi. Anyways, for lunch on Saturday Jill, Jenna, Julia, and I got the most amazing chicken burgers ever from a little Portuguese burger stand. And, oh that’s right, Cathy and Tanya got sushi for lunch. After we ate and looked around a little more, we headed back to the hostel to get ready for the evening and possibly take a power nap. Unfortunately, I had a slight fever and sore throat on Saturday night so I didn’t do anything at all except lie in my bed and hope for the best. Luckily, it came on Sunday morning after taking some Advil.

Three days in Byron may have been just one too many, but then again, I had an absolute blast this weekend. Sunday morning, we woke up, checked out of the hostel, and went to get some breakfast. Jill had the “best banana bread of her life” while everyone else's meal was just mediocre. We headed to the beach after brekky where there was an ongoing protest down one end. It was kind of weird, but we embraced it by burying Tanya in the sand and shaping her into a mermaid. Later in the day, I ate the world’s best falafel- not proclaimed by the place I got it, but I dubbed them the title because I honestly think it is true. Tanya and Cathy, well, they ate sushi… what a shock!!! Finally the time came to board our bus and go home. As I said before, I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t have such amazing friends in Australia. These are people that I know I will have as friends for the rest of my life. It’s trips like the one to Byron that make me realize just how truly lucky I am. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much and that hard in such a short period of time than I did this weekend. My friends leave in less than a month and I’ll be here in Australia with my mom until mid-July. I’m so ecstatic to have my mom come and I cannot wait to show her all of the amazing sites and places I have discovered over these past 4 months. It’s an odd feeling though. I have my mom coming, which is incredible, but I do wish that my friends could stay here with me. I know that they are sad to leave this amazing country and I can’t blame them, but I know that once I get home it will be great to see them all again (except Tanya… brb crying myself to sleep). It’ll be a completely different experience with my mom than with my friends. I’ve found that the trips I’ve taken with people have helped me get to know them a lot better. It bums me out to think about them leaving so soon. Guys, you have made this experience the best four months of my life and I genuinely mean that and I can’t wait for upcoming adventures with you all. Oh, and mom, LESS THAN A MONTH!!

The Glacier

You have never seen a one street town until you have been to Franz Josef, NZ. Everything you need for your glacier adventure and the day after is conveniently located on one of the town’s two main roads. We arrived just after 5pm on Friday April 29, parked the campervan, and took a look around the street. There was really nothing to do, but we booked out glacier adventure for the following day and decided that after the long 6-hour journey from Arrowtown it was time for dinner. We cooked up our pasta, made a salad, and shoveled it down in less than half an hours time. Why, you ask? Well, doesn’t thedate April 29, 2011 sound familiar? It was the night of the royal wedding! After dinner, we put on some nice looking clothes and went to the bar that is connected to our camper park; apparently they were having a “party” for the wedding. It turns out that AJ Hackett Bungy (yes, the same company Brittany used) was in town and giving away prizes at the same bar we were at. The competition was a “horizontal bungy” which meant that one player of the team had to run to one end of the bar while attached to a bungy, grab a cup of beer, and return it to their teammate. The otherteammate had to chug the beer down as fast as they could and who ever could do it fastest would win a free bungy anda free bungy swing. None of us competed, so none of us won; not that it would matter though because the bungy was in Queenstown and we were not looking to go back there during this holiday in New Zealand. After we swooned over Prince William and Prince Harry some more and commented on how beautiful Kate looked with some girls from London, we headed back to the RV for the night; we had a long day ahead of us tomorrow.The alarm went off at 7:30am the following day to all of us groaning and hitting snooze at least twice. At 9 o’clock we wandered over to the glacier guide base and awaited further instructions. We wrote down emergency contact info, I got a look over by two people and a lesson on how to maintain my diabetes while on the glacier, and then we gathered our equipment and headed for the bus. The boots they gave us were at least three times heavier than the sneakers we had previously been wearing and it was clear after walking ten yards that the hike up the glacier in these was not going to be easy. Once we arrived it was about a 3km (a little more than 2 miles) walk from the bus to the base of the glacier, but still there was no sign of ice, it was all just a bunch of rocks. Our guide informed us that this was because the ice was underneath. He explained all about high and low pressure systems, tectonic plates, and why the rock was on top of the ice at the bottom of the glacier- basically, it had been on the bottom, but due to an explosion of underneath because of the pressure, it was now backwards with the ice being on bottom. Finally, we strapped into our crampons andstarted maneuvering all over the glacier. We used pick axes to balance ourselves and our guide would strike the ice to make stairs for us to walk down. Throughout the day, my group had 3 guides, which was very unusual. The first guide accidentally picked his leg so hard in the shin that he had to be taken away by helicopter, the second guide led us the rest of the way up and down, but had to make a speedy exit at the end because he still had six hours of driving ahead of him. The last guide didn’t take us far, just from the bottom of the glacier tot the bus, but he was the cutest so I didn’t care. It’s hard for me to put into words exactly what we were experiencing so I tried to take as much video as possible. The glacier hike was one of the most adventurous, exciting, and interesting activities I’ve ever done in my life and I would recommend it to anyone no matter what part of the world you are in. We had planned on going to the glacier thermal pools after the hike, but we were exhausted and starving so we decided to just go back to the camper, shower, and go out for our last dinner of the holiday.

Before I came to New Zealand, I wasn’t too excited about it. Don’t get me wrong, I was excited to go to a new country and get another stamp in my passport, but something about it just wasn’t screaming “fun holiday!” to me. I did really want to go to the outback and hopefully some day I will, but for right now I think I made the right choice. Driving in an RV with four good friends, experiencing an aftershock, almost freezing to death in Queenstown after almost eating myself into a coma with Ferg Burger, and finally seeing just how much a small town has to offer were some of the highlights not only of my week in NZ, but probably of my entire semester abroad. For those of you wondering where my other friends Julia and Cathy are (the girls who went on the Springbrook tour with me and Jenna), well since they are in a different program for studying abroad, they had the option to go to Thailand for break and they decided to do it. It’s been pretty strange not talking to them for over a week now, but I’m sure they had a lot of fun. I’m excited to see them again tomorrow and hear all about Thailand and the amazing experiences it offered them.

The Cold

Wednesday came and we finally headed out of Christchurch. We all agreed that the city wasn’t the nicest we’ve ever been to regardless of whether or not there had recently been a natural disaster. We headed back toward the airport via shuttle to pick up our RV from Britz. The thing was big. It came complete with a stove, fridge, GPS, heater fan, and microwave. Next stop was to pick up the essentials… basically any form of junk food to last us three long drives. After spending copious amounts of money on chips, diet coke, and lunchmeats, we hit the road for Queenstown. On the way, we passed about a million sheep. I’m not joking, there are probably four times the amount of sheep in New Zealand as there are people. Anyways, Queenstown is a city located on the southwest part of the south island. We would be there for two days and we were excited. We arrived at our campsite in the historical town of Arrowtown, about 25 minutes from

Queenstown, at 9pm on Wednesday night. Setting up the beds in the RV was quite the challenge. Jenna and I originally tried sleeping in the top bunk, but I’m not joking when I say that it was like being buried alive. The “bed” was about a foot away from the top of the camper and there was physically no way to move about it. After about an hour we decided that we thought we were suffocating and climbed down to the bottom to snuggle and stay warm with Brittany and Jill. We had a busy few days ahead of us.

We awoke bright an early on Thursday morning and drove 15 minutes around a mountain to a place called “AJ Hackett Bungy Jump” where Brittany (our little daredevil) would jump from a bridge at the first ever commercial bungy jump station. It was so crazy to see her look down at the water for all of a second before diving herself off and plummeting and then bounce right back up. After her adrenaline was drained, we headed towards Queenstown for some more fun activities. The original plan was to white water raft on the famous Shotover River, but the

weather was far too cold for any of us to go into water, so opted for something a little warmer, but equally as exciting. We took a gondola up a mountain on the far side of Queenstown, overlooking the city the whole time, and bought tickets to luge. Honestly, the luge was the most fun thing I think I have ever done in my life. It’s a little car that has handlebars and that’s it; similar to a go-kart but there are no gas or brake pedals, the only controls are to pull back on the handlebars as a brake. We pretended we were in the video game Mario Kart and were zooming around each other the whole time; it was hilarious and exhilarating especially since it was on the side of a mountain. Afterward, we took the gondola back down and took a look around the shops in time for some souvenirs. We could all agree that the city of Queenstown reminded us of Denver or Boulder out in Colorado. It’s surrounded by mountains and the little shops and restaurants in the center gave the feel of a mountain summit, plus the locals are so laid back and friendly it’s similar to the Rocky Mountains. Needless to say, we fell in love with the city and would go back in a heartbeat. The highlight for all of us was the infamous Ferg Burger. Ferg Burger is a little hole in the wall hamburger stand where the serve enormous burgers that are some of the best I’ve ever tasted. When Jenna, Jill, and I were in Sydney, we met a boy named Jonathan who had been in New Zealand before and he told us about Ferg Burger; ever since then we’ve been dying to try it. Jenna got a “Southern Swine” which was essentially a bacon cheeseburger, I got the “Tropical Swine”, the same but with a slice of pineapple on top, and Brittany got the “Mr. Big Stuff” and yes that was basically a ½ pound burger with everything on it. SO DELICIOUS. She even got a T-shirt. Unfortunately for the time being, the fun was over in Queenstown. Friday morning we packed up the RV and started on our 5 hour drive to Franz Josef where we will (hopefully) hike up a glacier. It’s still really cold down here and none of us really packed for the climate, but we are having fun nonetheless. It will definitely feel good to get back to the Gold Coast and be able to wear shorts and flip flops again… hmm, that sounds awfully familiar doesn’t it?

The Quake (City)

New Zealand is cold. That was my first thought as I stepped off the plane from Brisbane to Christchurch. (Just so you’re all aware, New Zealand’s time zone is 2 hours ahead of the Gold Coast, making it 16 hours ahead of Boston) Yes, I said Christchurch, which many of you know as the part of New Zealand that recently got hit by a magnitude 6.4 earthquake in March. Coming here, we thought we would be fine, that we wouldn’t feel any of the effects of the passed earthquake, but we were quite wrong. For one, five minutes ago there was an aftershock, the entire room shook, and the TV went all staticky. Luckily, Brittany, Jill, Jenna, and myself are fine and the woman at the front desk said that they get aftershocks at least twice a day. It was mostly just scary because none of us have ever felt anything like that before, since we are all from New England. Another realization of the effects of the quake in March, we soon realized, were that most areas of Christchurch are still suffering.The center of the city is mostly closed for reconstruction, the town of New Brighton (where our hostel is located) is practically all closed, and everywhere you drive in the city there are fallen buildings and roads of holes. Most of the landmarks we wantedto see in the city are closed until further notice. It’s kind of an odd feeling being here and seeing all the tragedy. Before we flew in, I obviously knew that there had been a severe earthquake, but it’s one of those things that I’ve never experienced and therefore never realized the magnitude of what the effects would be. The locals are so calm about it; whenever we ask what we can do they say, “oh you could do this…but, ohwait that’s closed because of the earthquake.” It’s something that really blows my mind and puts life into perspective of just how lucky I truly am. We flew into Christchurch on Easter Sunday, so no big family dinner for us L but we were excited to finally be in New Zealand. We got to Point Break Backpackers around midnight, made our way to our room, and passed out for the night. We planned on waking up bright and early on Monday so we could go to the Adrenaline Forest, which is essentially a ropes and zip line course in trees up to 30 meters high. Little did we know that Monday was ANZAC Day. ANZAC, which stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps, is one of the biggest holidays down here and all businesses are closed until at least 1pm. This wasn’t the only disappointment we encountered; it was also raining- cold and raining. We had no other choice but to sit around a table in the café downstairs, eat overpriced toast, and play hours of Monopoly until one. After one o’clock, we realized we were absolutely starving, so we took the bus to a shopping mall across the city, walked around a bit, and finally found a little pub to eat at. We got a pitcher of local Tui (t-oo-ey) beer, interesting because at home on the Gold Coast we love a beer called Toohey’s… Anyway, I got a beef schnitzel with a creamy mushroom sauce and hot chips and it was delicious. After another pitcher of Tui Blonde, we headed back to the hostel to do… well, to do nothing because after all it was ANZAC day in a city where everything was mostly closed without a national holiday. We decided Tuesday was better for the forest, rain or shine.So, Tuesday we woke up to see a beautiful sky of clouds and a little rain. We didn’t care though; we were determined to get to that forest. First things first, we needed to get some breaky that was delicious, nutritious, and didn’t burn a hole in our wallets and boy, did we find it at a little café called Janel’s. Janel’s was run by an older couple that had clearly retired and opened up the shop in an area of their country that they loved- too precious. After we ate our homemade toasted sandwiches, we took the bus to the Adrenaline Forest and let me tell you IT WAS SO MUCH FUN. Now, I’m a little scared of heights, but if you remember from my blog The Reef, this trip I am being fearless. We made our way out on the ropes and I was kind of scared when we got up really high, but it was worth it. The experience was amazing and quite the workout. Unfortunately, my iPhone was out of battery, so there are only pictures and no videos of our time, but just try and imagine me and Jenna flying down zip lines and climbing on spider web –like ropes in trees taller than anything you’ve ever seen. After an exhausting day, the four of us headed back to our hostel area to get some chicken fingers and fish and chips at a little place we had seen before we left New Brighton. With surprise, however, we found out that the little restaurant had a lot more to offer. It definitely didn’t help that our stomachs were basically empty, but I’m almost positive that we ate just about everything in the shop. To put it simply and after much debate, our table had 3 orders of chips, 3 “hotdogs,” 2 orders of six chicken nuggets, one cheeseburger, and one chicken burger. I know what you’re thinking, “why would hot dog be in quotes?” Well, this would be because it was not a typical hotdog. It was actually a sausage on a stick and then deep fried… YES, deep-fried. No worries, no one who ordered it could finish it and after three bites we all gave up on it, but I can’t say the same for the rest of the food. We got back to our room, experienced, the aftershock (of the earthquake, not of stuffing our faces with fried goodness), and snuggled into bed to warm up for the night. Overall, Christchurch was good to us and we enjoyed our time here, but we are definitely ready to get our RV and drive it all over the south island… Oh, right, I forgot to mention that. The four of us rented a RV and are driving from Christchurch then south to Queenstown then moving back up north to a glacier in Franz Josef and finally leaving Sunday out of Christchurch. This is going to be an unforgettable Easter Break, I can already tell.

The Match

I will never understand rugby. Never. It is the most confusing game ever. Grown men running forward, but throwing the ball backwards and sometimes kicking it but then giving it to the other team. Someone please explain how that makes any sense? There is only one place in the world where rugby would make complete sense to everyone and it’s Australia. The Australians love their sports quite possibly more than Americans. My friends and I headed down to Skilled Park in Robina for a Gold Coast Titans game last Friday and oh my gosh was it worth it.

We took a train, then a bus, and then walked a little ways all decked out in our bright blue shirts and face paint. We probably looked like real fools because I’m pretty sure everyone around us was wearing maroon and yellow for the Brisbane Broncos, but we didn’t care. We had a sign and we had pride and that’s all that mattered. Once we found our seats, we watched some of the 20 and under game that takes place before the professionals take the field. Finally, it was time for the game to start. With our freshly refilled XXXX Golds in our hands, the girls and I cheered on the players, none of which we knew the names. Luckily, the people in front of us were kind enough to tell us when it was appropriate to praise the team and when it was ok to be upset about a call. We got a little rowdy just for fun and the fans were playfully teasing us whenever we would cheer for the wrong reasons (which happened a lot more often than it should have). The rules we finally did understand was that a try is worth four points and then they get to kick it through the uprights. However, unlike American football they have to kick the ball from where it entered the “end zone” and the kick is worth two points. Unfortunately, the Titans only scored once and the Broncos took the game. It was hard for us to tell whether there is a true rivalry between theBroncos and the Titans, but a lady next to me explained that the two teams have never really gotten along, mostly due to their close proximity to each other. It reminded us a lot of Red Sox and Yankees rivalry or even Celtics and Lakers, just a little less intense. The fans were joking with each other instead of trying to rip each other’s heads off and arguing over players and statistics. At the end of the game, we ran to the bottom of the stands in hopes of meeting a player, we met him, but didn’t have enough time to grab a photo or an autograph or even a name, but I promise we met him!! I hope to get to another game in the near future because it was so much fun. Australia has a professional rugby league and a professional rugby union. The Titans are the NRL (the league), so we hope to make it to a Union game just to add another check to our bucket list.

Next weekend, a few of us are trying to make it to Brisbane and go to the XXXX beer factory and the Brisbane Zoo aka the Steve Irwin Zoo. It should be a lot of fun and Brisbane is only about a 40-minute train ride away, which means we have no excuse not to go at least once. Keep your eyes peeled for another addition to the blog!

The City

The Sydney Opera House is one of the most recognizable structures in the world, which is saying a lot considering it was first opened in 1973. Honestly, I never thought I’d be able to see it in real life, let alone step inside. The Harbour Bridge is just another beautiful sigh that Sydney has to offer. As one of the longest single arch bridges in the world, it’s gives a breathtaking view of the Opera House, but also a once in a life time photo-op of the two side by side when you’re in the Botanical Gardens. On March 18^th, Jenna, Jill, and I boarded a plane. Jill is petrified of flying, like the most scared person ever. I don’t mind airplanes at all, but listening to her on the plane was making me paranoid that it was going to crash. Obviously, it did not and we landed safely in Sydney ready to go to our hostel. We were staying in King’s Cross, a

section south of the harbour, which is known for its nightlife. It may not have been the best decision we’ve ever made, but the folks at the Jackaroo Hostel were lovely and very informative. We dropped our bags off on Friday night and went in search of some pub grub. We didn’t find any place open, but we ate at acuteItalian restaurant and had some of the best lasagna, gnocchi, and pesto the three of us had ever had. This doesn’t include the dessert that was passion fruit gelato covered in chocolate, YUM!

The next day we dedicated to sight seeing. We woke up bright and early only to find out that it

was raining. We didn’t care. We were only going to be in Sydney once and we weren’t going to let Mother Nature slow us down. After a quick train ride, we made our way down to Circular Quay and finally we got our first glimpse of the famous Opera House. I’ve never seen anything so beautiful. We took turns snapping photos and running up and down the steps. Then we saw the bridge and the photos started over again. Jill decided to go on an extreme boat ride on the harbour, so Jenna and I headed over to the Botanical Gardens and Mrs. MacQuarie’s chair. It would happen that on our walk the sun started to shine. After we

met back up with Jill, it was lunchtime. We found a pub, ate some fish and chips, schnitzel, and drank some beer. We wondered all over the city and then finally decided we were too tired to go any farther. We headed back to the hostel to get ready for dinner. Saturday night, we went to a quick Mexican restaurant located about 2 seconds away from our hostel. Jenna and I had decided that while we were in Sydney, we’d try to meet with our friend Andrew aka Nappy who is also studying abroad from Merrimack. He said he was heading to The Rocks to go bar hopping. The Rocks is an adorable artsy section of the city, just north of the bridge, where Jenna and I had ate the most delicious corn on the cob earlier in the day. It was really good to see Nappy and he showed us some fun bars in the city. While we were out, I made friends with a boy named Jonathan who was on a gap year after graduating from Princeton University (I know right, husband material). We hung out with him for the rest of the night as well. All in all, it was a fun night!

Sunday’s weather wasn’t much better than Saturday’s and we got a little nervous about what we were going to do. We went off in search of somewhere to get lunch and finally found the only open food court in all of Sydney. As luck would have it, we left indoors to find that the sun had come out and it was now warm and bright. There’s only one thing to do in Sydney when this happens: Bondi Beach. Bondi Beach is one of the most famous beaches in the world because of its rips, waves, and location. The lifeguards at Bondi save over one thousand people from the rough waters a year.

There were jellyfish everywhere on Bondi, so I didn’t dare put anymore than a toe in the water. It was a nice beach, not very crowded considering its fame, but the view from on top of the rocks was beautiful. We headed home after a little while and got ready for our fancy dinner. There was one area of the city the girls and I had been dying to see, but hadn’t made it to yet; Darling Harbour. We had a heard of a place in Darling Harbour that has delicious kangaroo steaks, so we headed there. I had called Jonathan and he met us there. We feasted. The kangaroo (which Jenna so bravely ordered) was delicious, a little chewy, but full of flavor. I got risotto with scallops, which was equally as good. It was a fun night and having someone new with us to break up the conversation was a nice change of pace. After we said our goodbyes to Jonathan, we headed back to King’s Cross, went to a few hotel bars, and then headed to bed for the night. Monday we woke up, sad to be leaving such a beautiful city, but excited to get back to school and tell all our friends about it. Obviously Boston will always have heart, but I think that Sydney might be my second favorite city of all time. Visually stunning, hospitable, and cleaner than my own bedroom, it truly is a treasure in the world.

The City video here!

The Climb

This past Saturday was a day full of adventure and information. Four of us hopped on a bus and headed south to Springbrook National Park to look at some of Australia’s most beautiful waterfalls. Not only this, but along the way we would get to taste some exotic fruits native to Australia and see a natural bridge formed by rock millions of years ago. Jenna, Julia, Cathy, and I boarded the bus promptly at 7:25am (so early, I know) our bellies full of Red Bull (sugar free of course) and joined our tour guide, John, for a day of fun. After picking up the other 20 passengers, we made our way to Tropical Fruit World. The guide at Tropical Fruit

World taught us all about the native fruits of Australia, including, but not limited to, dragon fruit, star fruit, and jakfruit which weigh about 20kg on average. He also told us that dragon fruits are a natural way to lower blood sugar, so needless to say I tasted about 5 pieces. After purchasing some honey-roasted macadamias and tasting chocolate macadamia nut spread, we got back on the bus and headed to the natural bridge. Once we arrived I was immediately reminded of a tour I took this past summer in the White Mountains of New Hampshire of the Lost River Gorge. They are similar because there were beautiful waterfalls at both places and caves; however, in New Hampshire there was a lot more freedom. I was not able to climb through tiny openings of holes at the natural bridge as I was in the White Mountains, but we had fun nonetheless. Our tour guide educated us about strangler fig trees, which wrap around other trees and kill them until all that is left is the outside shell of the fig tree. It was really quite riveting. We asked if we could eat the figs because we were now in native-fruit-trying mode, but he said that although the figs are not poisonous to birds, humans should not ingest them. After admiring the beauty of the natural bridge and seeing bats fly in and out of the cave it had created, our tour took us on to the next stop. Along the way, we looked out the windows to the amazing countryside of Australia. Most people tend to this that Australia is just like the coast of Florida and is all beaches, however, there are more green mountains and sugar cane fields in Australia than I’ve ever seen in my life. Unfortunately for us, Saturday was a little cloudy so we couldn’t see the tops of the mountains too well. John explained that on the highest mountain you could see the outline of Mount Warning, which is a volcano that erupted millions of years ago. An hour drive outside of Southport is where Queensland meets New South Wales, the state in which Sydney is located. John pulled over so tourists like us could take pictures on both sides of the border. Our last stop before lunch was at the Best of All Lookout where you could literally see for miles and miles. Even though it was cloudy, it was still easy to make out where we had just driven from and where we would be going next. It was amazing, truly breathtaking. For lunch we stopped at the Springbrook Manor, a little inn located inside Springbrook National Park. We saw a pony and ate some lunch before heading out to see the last three waterfalls of our tour. The first falls we looked at were at Goomoolahra and come from MundoraCreek, which is the main water supply for the Gold Coast. John explained that we would see two more falls after this and that Goomoolahra was the smallest of the three, but it was also the falls that we could be closest to. Next, we headed to a lookout spot for Rainbow Falls. It is given this name because when the water is falling the bottom acts as a prism and creates a rainbow. Finally, and most remarkable, was Purlingbrook Falls. This waterfall flows off a 106-meter drop. As we stood in awe, I noticed that there were people far closer to the falls than we were, so I asked John if we could take a walk down. His replied, “Sure, if you’ve got an hour and a half to spare. It’s a 4 kilometer walk, I’ll come back for you tomorrow and pick you up.” Needless to say, we didn’t get to go down there. It was still gorgeous though. John was so charismatic, funny, and informative that we decided if the chance ever came to do a tour again, we would try to get him as our guide. More tired than ever before, Cathy, Jenna, Julia, and I boarded the bus one last time and headed home after a fun-filled day.

Click here to watch The Climb video I made (not the Miley Cyrus song)!

p.s. if you missed it:

Friends!

and O-Week

The Plans

Family, friends, Merrimack community, I am back. Sorry for the short hiatus, but as laid back as Australia is, I have found myself very busy. As you know, I started classes last week and I found that I am taking some pretty interesting courses. I thought my Interpersonal Skills

course was a communications course, but it turns out to actually be a psychology course. I still find it to be interesting and I hope that it will help me better my relationships and my interactions with people, both skills, which will be necessary when I become a world famous politician (it’ll happen, don’t worry). My journalism course seems to be very interesting as well. My tutor is not formally a teacher, but he has been editor at four different newspapers in Australia as well as two newspapers in London. This class is clearly just an elective, but I find it interesting. The first day we learned about grammar, something I thought I was good at, but I was wrong. My hope is that by the end of this class, my grammar skills are close to my sisters, but I doubt that will happen.

Enough with the boring, let’s talk about the fun stuff! Monday nights are taco nights around here so everyone brings their plates down to the picnic table area and we eat tacos and make new friends. Tuesdays, we have a barbecue and then a free bus to surfer’s paradise for the night. Wednesday, we get pizzas for $6, a great deal. And Thursday mornings, the volunteer group Red Frogs cooks us delicious pancakes! I know it may seem that I am not getting my fair share of authentic Australian food, but that is not necessarily true. On Saturday, my friends and I headed out to get our 18+ ID cards so that we wouldn’t have to carry passports around anymore. On the way home, we stopped at a little takeout restaurant and got the most delicious fish and chips I have ever had in my life. Jenna and I shared the fish pack and a “tropical burger” which had pineapple and barbecue sauce on it (the Aussies love their barbecue sauce.) As you know, Sunday nights are “family dinner” so this week we made chicken quesadillas and salad. They were so good!!

There are other interesting things happening besides the food, I promise. This coming Saturday Jenna, Cathy, Julia, and me are taking a tour of Springbrook National Park. There, we are going to walk through the rainforest, try the tropical fruit that is native to the land, and swim in a waterfall. The next weekend, me, Jenna, and our other friend Jill have booked a trip to Sydney. We have plans to stay at the Wood Duck Inn, which is located in King’s Cross. Although I do not know exactly what that means, I’m sure it will mean something to me by the time we leave. We have also made plans for spring break which is April 22- May 1^st. Jenna and I had plans to go to Melbourne for the first half of the week and then head to Alice Springs and see Ayer’s Rock for the second half, however, Cathy and Julia asked if we could wait for them to go to the outback. Therefore, we have decided that spring break we are going to New Zealand. New Zealand was number one on Jenna’s list of places she wanted to go, but it was never really high on mine. I was much more interested in the outback, however, when we looked at flights round trip to New Zealand they were only $350, unreasonably inexpensive. The plan for right now is that me, Jenna, Jill, and her roommate Brittany are going to go to New Zealand for a week. I’m not worried that I won’t get to the outback because I have a three

week study break before finals and I only have two finals, so there will be plenty of time to get out there. And, even if I don’t, I don’t think it would be hard to convince either of my parents to go with to the outback with me. As for Melbourne, it has its appeal, but it’s a city. I want to go, I want to experience it all, but in my opinion, if I go to Sydney, it’d be like going to the United States and seeing New York, but missing out on Miami. It would be awesome to go (and I’m sure I’ll find time for it), but it’s not a priority at the moment. One last place I have recently taken an interest in seeing is Tasmania. I met a girl who lives there and asked her if it was worth seeing. Obviously, she said yes. She said that Tasmania is beautiful and there are a lot of mountains and hiking to do. It sounded like a place I might want to see, but we’ll have to see what other trips I end up taking in my short five months down here. It's crazy to think that I've been gone for almost a month already. Time is flying by and I'm having so much fun. I don't want to think about leaving... ever.

P.s. next post there will be a video, I promise!