Hello all!
These past couple of weeks I spent traveling around New Zealand. Let me start off by saying that it is one of the most amazing and beautiful countries I have visited and I had an absolutely fantastic time.
The first week I spent visiting Di Di, Matt, Maddie, and Jess in Wellington, which for those of you who don't know is the capital of NZ and sits at the very bottom of the north island. It was so great to see Di and Matt and to meet the girls and have a chance to get to know them and spend time playing with them. It was also really nice to get away from the college scene for a bit and spend a little family time with my NZ family. Di and Matt's house is beautiful- its in a Wellington suburb and sits up high on a hill so the view from the house of the hills is spectacular. I got to meet a good deal of Di's family, including her sister, brother-in-law, nieces, etc, which was great because I have never had the chance to meet the family in the past. We also had a chance to stop by Morag's, so it was really great to see her and meet her husband as well. (Side note: I totally spotted a Grammy afghan at Morag's!) Later on in my visit I got to meet Matt's parents also- they were moving back to NZ from LA and we all went to the airport to surprise them! Di took me all around Wellington and the surrounding suburbs to show me the beautiful coastline, hills, and city views. A couple of days during the week, Di and Matt both had to work and the girls were at school, so I had the opportunity to roam about Wellington by myself and do a little exploring. I checked out Cuba St, which is this great artsy area with lots of cute cafes and vintage shops (Marissa's heaven). I checked out the "Beehive" and the other government buildings, rode the old cable car, walked through Te Papa museum, met Matt for a sushi lunch, and shopped around. It was surprisingly nice to take a day to explore a city alone- you can go at your own pace, see what you want to see, and really take the time to absorb and reflect on your surroundings. While in Wellington I also had the chance to spend a night at Adam's friend Jeremy's apartment. We spent the night going over to one of Jeremy's friend's places for dinner and a few drinks, and it was really nice have the time to meet Jeremy and some time with him. My visit in Wellington flew by and before I knew it, it was time to say my goodbyes to Di, Matt and the girls and head off to Christchurch to begin my tour of the south island!
I arrived in Christchurch late in the afternoon on Friday, Dec 4th. By the time I got to my backpackers it was dinner time, so I dropped my bags off and headed out to do another solo city exploration. I walked around the city center for a bit, popped into a few shops, and stopped at a sushi restaurant for dinner. After a couple of hours, I made my way back to the backpacker, spent a little time catching up on emails, and then headed to bed early to get a good rest for the start of my tour the following day. Saturday, the Connections tour bus picked me up right outside Base backpackers, and after giving us a few minutes to go grab lunch for the day, we loaded up the bus and went on our way. As soon as I loaded the bus I could tell that it was going to be a great journey. Most people on my tour bus had started their tours up in Auckland and so had already gotten to know one another, but everyone was so immediately friendly and happy to meet me that I instantly felt like one of the gang.
We set out for our first night’s destination: Flock Hill Station. After being on the road for a couple of hours, we stopped at Castle Hill Station for a quick picnic lunch, then continued our journey to Flock Hill Station. When we got there, we all settled into our rooms, I roomed with Ally, Melanie and Shanra, who I ended up rooming with for the rest of the trip and the four of us became great friends. After getting a few minutes to settle in, we headed out to see the sheep, learn all about the wool industry and sheep shearing process, and even got to watch the sheep dogs work and herd the sheep. It was so interesting and I was amazed by how smart the dogs were and how they understood all of the different meanings of the various whistle calls, and how automatically responsive the sheep were to them. That night we were served a delicious traditional kiwi lamb feast, although it was a little strange eating the poor sheep that I had just been playing with earlier that day.
The next day we loaded back onto the bus and headed out through Arthur’s Pass on to the Otira Gorge, which was beautiful with waterfalls surrounding the roads. We stopped in Hokitika (where Adam went to the wildfoods festival!) to check out the Jade Factory and watch the jade carvers at work, and then continued on our way to Fox Glacier, where we’d spend our second night. Once at Fox Glacier, we had an option to hike up onto the glacier and do a glacier walk. Of course I couldn’t miss this opportunity, so off I went with a group of others, hiking up about 850 steps through the temperate rainforest to the glacier. Once on the glacier, we had to wear these things on our feet called cramp-ons, which were basically attachable metal spikes for the bottom of our sneakers, so that we wouldn’t slip on the ice. The walk was absolutely incredible and it truly was breathtaking, but it was SUCH a drastic temperature difference to go from sweating up those stairs to freezing on the ice. After the glacier walk, we all just hung out and relaxed back at the lodge for the rest of the night.
Monday we were back on the road, headed for the adventure capital of the world- Queenstown! On the way we stopped at Thunder Creek Falls, Lake Wanaka and Lake Hawea for some stunning views, before reaching Queenstown in the late afternoon. The first night in Queenstown we all went out for a group dinner at Lonsestar, and all decided to dress really wacky, and then met up at ‘Minus 5 Degrees’, the ice bar in town! This was my first time in an ice bar and it was a really neat, unique experience. After the ice bar we all went out on the town to a few more bars, before heading back to our accommodation. Tuesday we had the entire day to enjoy Queenstown and do any of the countless adventure sports that they offer in town. Mel, Shan, Ally and I enjoyed the only sleep in of the entire week, and then slowly got up and headed over to Fergburger for lunch, which is a really well known and absolutely delicious Queenstown burger joint. I am sad to report that I was the weakest link and couldn’t even eat half of my enormous burger, but it was still delicious nonetheless. After lunch, we walked around the streets and shopped around a bit, before I headed over to Aj Hackett to meet up for my bungee jump! I did the Nevis bungee jump, which is 134 meters (approx. 440 ft), which is the second tallest in the world (second to Hong Kong—I’ll get to that one eventually don’t you worry) and it was AMAZING. I was nervous earlier in the day before my jump, but honestly once I got out onto the platform all of my nervousness was replaced with pure excitement and I couldn’t wait to plunge myself off. It was so much fun and so worth it and I highly suggest it to anyone to has even the slightest interest in jumping. I enjoyed it even more than skydiving. Tuesday night my roommates and I went out to Thai, and then just hung low for the night.
Wednesday morning we were back on the bus, this time heading toward the Milford Sound. On the way we stopped at Mirror Lake (HEY OSU!), Te Anau, and a few other small scenic towns, before getting to the dock where we boarded the Milford Wanderer Overnight Cruise. We cruised around for a while, saw some fantastic waterfalls, and then anchored in a spot in the middle of the water for the night. Once anchored, a group of us went out in kayaks and explored around for a while which was a really fun experience and the views were absolutely breathtaking, and then got back onto the boat for a fun night of dinner and games.
Thursday morning we pulled up the anchor and cruised around for a while now, and saw some of the most stunning and picturesque sights of the entire trip, as well as some wildlife (seals and dolphins!), and then headed back to the dock late morning. We drove most of the day toward Lake Ohau for our last night’s stay, and on the way stopped at some more beautiful little towns. We also stopped at this shop called ‘Jones’s’, which was a huge fresh fruit shop where they sold delicious fresh fruit, dried fruit, and fresh fruit ice cream. We got to Lake Ohau in the late afternoon, and relaxed for a while before eating dinner and then spending the remainder of the night unwinding in the hot tubs.
Friday we concluded our journey by heading back up to Christchurch, stopping on the way to observe Mt Cook, Lake Pukaki, the Church of the Good Shepard, and the Canterbury Plains. Luckily many of us on the tour were spending an extra night in Christchurch at Base Hostel, so a group of us were able to coordinate it so that we were in a room together. We went out to dinner at Wagamama, and then almost everyone from the tour who was still in Christchurch met up in the center city square after dinner and we all went out together to a couple of bars. It was a fantastic trip and I met tons of great people and made lifelong memories and I am so happy I decided to do the tour by myself and have such a unique life experience.
Saturday I flew back to Australia for my last couple of days living on the Gold Coast. Saturday night Steph and I made dinner, talked for hours and I caught up on all that I had missed while in New Zealand, and then we just stayed in and watched ‘Up’ (thanks Julie!!!!!). Sunday I unpacked and then began re-packing to return to the states, and then Sunday night a group of us went out to the casino in Surfer’s for Bethany’s 21st birthday celebration. The next couple of days I spent hanging out with friends, soaking up some last sun, exercising, packing, studying/taking finals, using the last of my student credits at the salon in Market Square, and saying my final farewells to Bond Uni and all of my friends. Studying abroad in Australia has been such a great experience. I truly feel like I have grown so much as a person, especially in my independence and openness to new and slightly intimidating experiences. The time has gone by so quickly and I am sad to say goodbye to such an amazing country and incredible time in my life, but I am so happy I was given the opportunity to do this, and I am really looking forward to seeing my friends and family at home and spending the holiday season with them. I love you all. Thanks for reading my blog. Hope you enjoyed hearing about my adventures down under!
Love forever,
Arlyn
Monday, December 14, 2009
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Sydney Adventures
This past weekend, Emily, Steph and I took a trip to Sydney. We left on the first flight out extremely early in the morning on Friday, so when we got to Base Backpackers Friday morning, we still had the entire day to roam about the city. We dropped our stuff off at Base and then immediately took off for Paddy's Market, making a quick stop at Starkbucks to energize. We spent the entire morning wandering around the markets, looking at all the Australian souveniers you could imagine from jewelery to boomarangs to Australian road signs, etc, and bought some things for our friends and family. For lunch we just grabbed some sandwiches at the market. After we finished shopping we walked through China town and walked around the city and explored a little more before checking back in at Base. We relaxed for a little while there, and then got ready to head out for dinner at Darling Harbour. Darling Harbour is an absolutely beautiful place with tons of little shops and restaurants lining the water. We ate at a place called Ice Box, and I got a sushi/sashimi platter for dinner which was absolutely delicious, and then we all grabben gelato for dessert. Then we headed over to the Sydney Aquarium at Darling Harbour, where we saw all sorts of tropical fish, turtles, sharks, crocodiles, penguins, nemos, doris, stingrays, platypus, etc. It was absolutey amazing! After a very long day, the three of us decided just to head back to the backpackers and call it an early night, so that we could wake up early Saturday morning to start another long day!
Saturday morning we got up early for our day in the Blue Mountains. We met up with our tour group just a few blocks from our backpackers, and then our tour guide, Disco, loaded us on the bus and began driving off to the mountains. We stopped in a little town on the way for breakfast and walked around a little market, and then headed out the first stop on our tour. The Blue Mountains were absolutey beautiful, and we got to see lots of them by hiking through several paths. This week there were horrible forest fires in the mountains, so many of the paths were closed, but we still managed to see everything. In the mountains there is also some cool temperate rainforests, which were absolutely beautiful and I commented that I thought the Rainforest Cafe must have gotten their inspiration from there. We saw some beautiful waterfalls, we saw the three sisters, tested out the "world's oldest phone booth" (a highly acoustic cave that sent our shouting messages into the mountains where people on the other side could hear), rode the Katoomba Scenic Railway, the world's steepest incline railway, etc. We were hiking and climbing steps all day and it was definitely a great workout a tons of fun. When we got back into Sydney after our long day in the mountains, we relaxed for awhile before heading back out to Darling Harbour for our second night's dinner. At dinner, we were lucky enough to see them shoot some fantastic fireworks off above Darling harbour. After dinner, we stopped over at the Scary Canary, the bar attached to our Backpackers, and had a few drinks and danced, before going to back to our room for another relatively early night in order to start the day earlier on Sunday.
On Sunday we set out first thing in the morning for Sydney Harbour. Here we saw the Opera House and the bridge, both of which were absolutely breathtaking and so exciting to see. Next we walked over to the Rocks, shopped about the markets for a bit, and then stopped for lunch at a delicious little place at the Rocks. After lunch we walked over to the Opera House and went inside for a few minutes to look around and checked out a photography exhibit at the Opera House. After the Opera House, we wandered over to the botanical gardens which were absolutely beautiful. We stopped at the Government House and took a tour of the house which ended being really interesting, and then walked around the gardens a bit more afterward. When we looked up into the trees we noticed that they were absolutely covered in enormous bats who were hanging upside down fanning themselves, attempting to keep cool (it was almost 100 degrees farenheit in Sydney on Sunday!). From the botanical gardens we just leisurely walked back to the backpackers and hung out there for a little while and relaxed before being picked up at 7:00 pm to go to the airport for our flight back to the Gold Coast. Sydney was such a great city and this weekend with Emily and Steph was SO much fun.
This week is my last week of classes at Bond and my last full week of livin here on the Gold Coast. I leave on Friday for NEW ZEALAND (!!), and I'll be there for two weeks- Wellington to visit Di for a week (I'll also hopefully get to meet up with Adam's friend Jeremy from his study abroad in NZ), and then I'll be doing a tour of the south island for a week. I get back from NZ on a Saturday, and then following my return I have three finals, one on Monday, on Tuesday and on Wednesday, and then I fly home that Thursday! Its nuts how quickly time has flown. To celebrate my last week here, last night I went out to SinCity in Surfer's for a VIP Midori party with Lizzy, Brodie, Ashley, Steph, Hailey and her brothers, Lochey, etc. The party was so much fun and the Midori special drinks were delicious and inexpensive so it was a really good time. Steph and I crashed at Ashley's house in surfer's, which by the way was a beautiful 6 million dollar mansion right on the water, and then he drove us back to Uni in the morning. Today Steph and I laid out by the pool in University Place for a while and had such a nice, relaxing day out in the sun.
This weekend was a blast and this week so far has been fun as well. The rest of this week will be spent finishing the last bits of my schoolwork for the semester, laying out by the pool and soaking in as much sun as I can, before I depart on Friday for my two week trip to New Zealand!
Can't believe its just over three weeks until I'm back in the states!
Love and miss you all!
Arlyn
Saturday morning we got up early for our day in the Blue Mountains. We met up with our tour group just a few blocks from our backpackers, and then our tour guide, Disco, loaded us on the bus and began driving off to the mountains. We stopped in a little town on the way for breakfast and walked around a little market, and then headed out the first stop on our tour. The Blue Mountains were absolutey beautiful, and we got to see lots of them by hiking through several paths. This week there were horrible forest fires in the mountains, so many of the paths were closed, but we still managed to see everything. In the mountains there is also some cool temperate rainforests, which were absolutely beautiful and I commented that I thought the Rainforest Cafe must have gotten their inspiration from there. We saw some beautiful waterfalls, we saw the three sisters, tested out the "world's oldest phone booth" (a highly acoustic cave that sent our shouting messages into the mountains where people on the other side could hear), rode the Katoomba Scenic Railway, the world's steepest incline railway, etc. We were hiking and climbing steps all day and it was definitely a great workout a tons of fun. When we got back into Sydney after our long day in the mountains, we relaxed for awhile before heading back out to Darling Harbour for our second night's dinner. At dinner, we were lucky enough to see them shoot some fantastic fireworks off above Darling harbour. After dinner, we stopped over at the Scary Canary, the bar attached to our Backpackers, and had a few drinks and danced, before going to back to our room for another relatively early night in order to start the day earlier on Sunday.
On Sunday we set out first thing in the morning for Sydney Harbour. Here we saw the Opera House and the bridge, both of which were absolutely breathtaking and so exciting to see. Next we walked over to the Rocks, shopped about the markets for a bit, and then stopped for lunch at a delicious little place at the Rocks. After lunch we walked over to the Opera House and went inside for a few minutes to look around and checked out a photography exhibit at the Opera House. After the Opera House, we wandered over to the botanical gardens which were absolutely beautiful. We stopped at the Government House and took a tour of the house which ended being really interesting, and then walked around the gardens a bit more afterward. When we looked up into the trees we noticed that they were absolutely covered in enormous bats who were hanging upside down fanning themselves, attempting to keep cool (it was almost 100 degrees farenheit in Sydney on Sunday!). From the botanical gardens we just leisurely walked back to the backpackers and hung out there for a little while and relaxed before being picked up at 7:00 pm to go to the airport for our flight back to the Gold Coast. Sydney was such a great city and this weekend with Emily and Steph was SO much fun.
This week is my last week of classes at Bond and my last full week of livin here on the Gold Coast. I leave on Friday for NEW ZEALAND (!!), and I'll be there for two weeks- Wellington to visit Di for a week (I'll also hopefully get to meet up with Adam's friend Jeremy from his study abroad in NZ), and then I'll be doing a tour of the south island for a week. I get back from NZ on a Saturday, and then following my return I have three finals, one on Monday, on Tuesday and on Wednesday, and then I fly home that Thursday! Its nuts how quickly time has flown. To celebrate my last week here, last night I went out to SinCity in Surfer's for a VIP Midori party with Lizzy, Brodie, Ashley, Steph, Hailey and her brothers, Lochey, etc. The party was so much fun and the Midori special drinks were delicious and inexpensive so it was a really good time. Steph and I crashed at Ashley's house in surfer's, which by the way was a beautiful 6 million dollar mansion right on the water, and then he drove us back to Uni in the morning. Today Steph and I laid out by the pool in University Place for a while and had such a nice, relaxing day out in the sun.
This weekend was a blast and this week so far has been fun as well. The rest of this week will be spent finishing the last bits of my schoolwork for the semester, laying out by the pool and soaking in as much sun as I can, before I depart on Friday for my two week trip to New Zealand!
Can't believe its just over three weeks until I'm back in the states!
Love and miss you all!
Arlyn
Monday, November 16, 2009
A Weekend in Melbourne
Hello!
This weekend I went to Melbourne with Becky, Shannon and Steph. We left on an evening flight out of Coolangatta so it was relatively late when we got to our backpacker in Melbourne and since we wanted to wake up early Saturday morning in order to have the entire day to roam around the city, we more or less went straight to bed. All Nations Backpackers was quite an interesting place. The girls and I agreed it was more or less a bohemian/hippie infested cross between a frat house and a dorm. There were some extremely funny characters staying at there and there were some really neat murals painted on the walls. It was definitely not the cleanest place in the world, (and you all know how I feel about that) but overall it was a cool experience. We woke up Saturday morning at 8:00 a.m., got coffee at Gloria Jeans and breakfast at a delicious little place around the corner from our backpacker called 'Perk Up,' and then ventured off into the city. Our first stop was across town at Queen Victoria Market, which was an enormous indoor/outdoor market with tons of vendors selling everything from fresh produce to stereotypical Australia souveniers to Ugg Boots to lots of other little knick knacks. I bought a few souveniers for myself, including a ridiculous but awesome pair of new sunnies (sunglasses) and some opal stud earrings, and a few things for my family members. After the market, we walked up to the gardens, which were really pretty, and then walked over to the Gaol, which is a famous old prison in Melbourne in which Ned Kelly was imprisoned at one point. The prison was really cool and we had wanted to a spooky night tour of the inside of the prison, but that weekend they were doing a show rather than the tour, so we signed up for that instead. After the Gaol, we wandered around the streets for awhile, walked through China town, did a bit of browsing in the shops, etc. Becky and Shannon wanted to keep shopping, and Steph and I wanted to get lunch and explore some other parts of the city, so at this point we split for a few hours. Steph and I grabbed lunch at a little sandwich shop in the middle of Melbourne, and then wandered over to the harbor where we saw Flinders Street Station and took a ride on the Ferris Wheel, where we got some really great photos and views of the entire city. After the Ferris Wheel, Steph and I walked along the harbour back toward our backpacker. When we got back to the room we met Steve from Israel, one of our roommates for the weekend, who explained that he and his buddy were visiting Melbourne for the week. The other guy in our room was a slightly older guy who had so much stuff in the room it literally looked like he lived in the backpacker.. it was a little strange but he was very nice and it was certainly an interesting and fun experience. Steph and I relaxed in the room for awhile, and then Becky and Shannon joint us back in the room shortly after we got back. After re-energizing, Steph and I decided to go out for dinner (Becky and Shannon had snacked and decided to pass), so we found a cute little restaurant in the middle of the city called Max, where Steph got a steak and I got gnocchi (we both got our favorites!), and we each got a complimentary glass of wine with dinner. After dinner we met Becky and Shannon at the Gaol for the show. The show was unfortunately not exactly what any of us were expecting.. it was more or less an hour and a half monologue of a man telling the story of Ned Kelly's life from his perspective. The topic was interesting and I'm glad we went and got to see the inside of the prison, but we all agreed that we wished they had been running night tours instead. After the show we made our way over to Taco Bill's, where we ordered two gigantic Margharita's that came with complimentary sombreros that we split between the four of us. Taco Bill's was packed with lots of rowdy young adults and it was a really fun place to be and enjoy the famous Melbourne nightlife. After Taco Bill's we stopped back at the backpacker and changed and then headed out to the bar in the downstairs of our backpacker for a few more drinks (free drinks that came with the cost of our room!).
Sunday we woke up at 8:00 again, but this time got ready for our wine tour! We got breakfast again at Perk Up, and then met up with our tour guide/van and took off out of the city to the beautiful country wineries. The first winery that we stopped at, Chandon, was the largest winery. It was really beautiful and here we learned a lot about the process of making wine which was really interesting, and then tasted a few delicious different kinds of wines. The next winery was another relatively large winery, where we tried some more wines, learned how to sniff, taste and spit, and then went into the dining room for a great lunch. After lunch they had a little fudge tasting station (yum!) so we sampled a bit of fudge and then headed off to the third winery, which was a smaller but gorgeous winery with really great wines, particularly an amazing dessert wine. The fourth was another small, beautiful little intimate winery, called KellyBrook Winery, where we sampled our last bits of wine and then took a walk through their incredibly pretty gardens. When we arrived back in Melbourne at around 5:00 we were absolutely shot from the long wine-filled day, so we took a few hours back in the backpacker to rest, and then headed out for dinner at Taco Bill's. After dinner we made our way back to our room and spent the night in dancing to Girl Talk, doing the Hoedown Throwdown, doing some cheerleading dances (ha!), etc. We called it an early night because we had to wake up at 4:00 am the next day for our 6:00 am flight.
Monday morning was a bit dramatic because we went to board the flight and the flight attendants informed us that our tickets were for the 6:00 am flight the day before, meaning Student Flights (the travel agency on campus that we booked our trip through) messed up our bookings and put us on the Sunday morning flight by accident instead of the Monday morning flight. We all freaked out a little bit but eventually got it all straightened out and made it onto a 10 am flight back to the Gold Coast, and in the end we were laughing about how ridiculous the morning had been and how exhausted and hilarious we all looked in our sweatpants and sweatshirts and dirty, messy hair and tons of bags and souveniers, not to mention the sombreros we were carrying. Overall it was an amazing weekend with lots of fun stories and great experiences. I can't wait to have another exciting weekend in a city next weekend in Sydney!
Can't believe I will be back in the states a month from tomorrow! The traveling every weekend is making the time travel so incredibly fast! I'm having so much fun in Australia and on all my travels but I can't help but be excited for the holidays and to see my family and friends with all the Christmas decorations that now line the streets here (although I must admit as it gets hotter and hotter here, I begin to fear the shock of the cold at home more and more). I am also sad to realize I'm missing the greatest feast of the year (Thanksgiving), but Deb has promised to make me her famous stuffing on Christmas.
This week is my second to last week of regular classes.. I can't believe it. The week should fly by. I'm seeing the midnight showing of NEW MOON (!!!!!!) on Wednesday night, and then I leave early Friday morning for Syndey!
That's all for now! Miss you all lots.
Love,
Arlyn
This weekend I went to Melbourne with Becky, Shannon and Steph. We left on an evening flight out of Coolangatta so it was relatively late when we got to our backpacker in Melbourne and since we wanted to wake up early Saturday morning in order to have the entire day to roam around the city, we more or less went straight to bed. All Nations Backpackers was quite an interesting place. The girls and I agreed it was more or less a bohemian/hippie infested cross between a frat house and a dorm. There were some extremely funny characters staying at there and there were some really neat murals painted on the walls. It was definitely not the cleanest place in the world, (and you all know how I feel about that) but overall it was a cool experience. We woke up Saturday morning at 8:00 a.m., got coffee at Gloria Jeans and breakfast at a delicious little place around the corner from our backpacker called 'Perk Up,' and then ventured off into the city. Our first stop was across town at Queen Victoria Market, which was an enormous indoor/outdoor market with tons of vendors selling everything from fresh produce to stereotypical Australia souveniers to Ugg Boots to lots of other little knick knacks. I bought a few souveniers for myself, including a ridiculous but awesome pair of new sunnies (sunglasses) and some opal stud earrings, and a few things for my family members. After the market, we walked up to the gardens, which were really pretty, and then walked over to the Gaol, which is a famous old prison in Melbourne in which Ned Kelly was imprisoned at one point. The prison was really cool and we had wanted to a spooky night tour of the inside of the prison, but that weekend they were doing a show rather than the tour, so we signed up for that instead. After the Gaol, we wandered around the streets for awhile, walked through China town, did a bit of browsing in the shops, etc. Becky and Shannon wanted to keep shopping, and Steph and I wanted to get lunch and explore some other parts of the city, so at this point we split for a few hours. Steph and I grabbed lunch at a little sandwich shop in the middle of Melbourne, and then wandered over to the harbor where we saw Flinders Street Station and took a ride on the Ferris Wheel, where we got some really great photos and views of the entire city. After the Ferris Wheel, Steph and I walked along the harbour back toward our backpacker. When we got back to the room we met Steve from Israel, one of our roommates for the weekend, who explained that he and his buddy were visiting Melbourne for the week. The other guy in our room was a slightly older guy who had so much stuff in the room it literally looked like he lived in the backpacker.. it was a little strange but he was very nice and it was certainly an interesting and fun experience. Steph and I relaxed in the room for awhile, and then Becky and Shannon joint us back in the room shortly after we got back. After re-energizing, Steph and I decided to go out for dinner (Becky and Shannon had snacked and decided to pass), so we found a cute little restaurant in the middle of the city called Max, where Steph got a steak and I got gnocchi (we both got our favorites!), and we each got a complimentary glass of wine with dinner. After dinner we met Becky and Shannon at the Gaol for the show. The show was unfortunately not exactly what any of us were expecting.. it was more or less an hour and a half monologue of a man telling the story of Ned Kelly's life from his perspective. The topic was interesting and I'm glad we went and got to see the inside of the prison, but we all agreed that we wished they had been running night tours instead. After the show we made our way over to Taco Bill's, where we ordered two gigantic Margharita's that came with complimentary sombreros that we split between the four of us. Taco Bill's was packed with lots of rowdy young adults and it was a really fun place to be and enjoy the famous Melbourne nightlife. After Taco Bill's we stopped back at the backpacker and changed and then headed out to the bar in the downstairs of our backpacker for a few more drinks (free drinks that came with the cost of our room!).
Sunday we woke up at 8:00 again, but this time got ready for our wine tour! We got breakfast again at Perk Up, and then met up with our tour guide/van and took off out of the city to the beautiful country wineries. The first winery that we stopped at, Chandon, was the largest winery. It was really beautiful and here we learned a lot about the process of making wine which was really interesting, and then tasted a few delicious different kinds of wines. The next winery was another relatively large winery, where we tried some more wines, learned how to sniff, taste and spit, and then went into the dining room for a great lunch. After lunch they had a little fudge tasting station (yum!) so we sampled a bit of fudge and then headed off to the third winery, which was a smaller but gorgeous winery with really great wines, particularly an amazing dessert wine. The fourth was another small, beautiful little intimate winery, called KellyBrook Winery, where we sampled our last bits of wine and then took a walk through their incredibly pretty gardens. When we arrived back in Melbourne at around 5:00 we were absolutely shot from the long wine-filled day, so we took a few hours back in the backpacker to rest, and then headed out for dinner at Taco Bill's. After dinner we made our way back to our room and spent the night in dancing to Girl Talk, doing the Hoedown Throwdown, doing some cheerleading dances (ha!), etc. We called it an early night because we had to wake up at 4:00 am the next day for our 6:00 am flight.
Monday morning was a bit dramatic because we went to board the flight and the flight attendants informed us that our tickets were for the 6:00 am flight the day before, meaning Student Flights (the travel agency on campus that we booked our trip through) messed up our bookings and put us on the Sunday morning flight by accident instead of the Monday morning flight. We all freaked out a little bit but eventually got it all straightened out and made it onto a 10 am flight back to the Gold Coast, and in the end we were laughing about how ridiculous the morning had been and how exhausted and hilarious we all looked in our sweatpants and sweatshirts and dirty, messy hair and tons of bags and souveniers, not to mention the sombreros we were carrying. Overall it was an amazing weekend with lots of fun stories and great experiences. I can't wait to have another exciting weekend in a city next weekend in Sydney!
Can't believe I will be back in the states a month from tomorrow! The traveling every weekend is making the time travel so incredibly fast! I'm having so much fun in Australia and on all my travels but I can't help but be excited for the holidays and to see my family and friends with all the Christmas decorations that now line the streets here (although I must admit as it gets hotter and hotter here, I begin to fear the shock of the cold at home more and more). I am also sad to realize I'm missing the greatest feast of the year (Thanksgiving), but Deb has promised to make me her famous stuffing on Christmas.
This week is my second to last week of regular classes.. I can't believe it. The week should fly by. I'm seeing the midnight showing of NEW MOON (!!!!!!) on Wednesday night, and then I leave early Friday morning for Syndey!
That's all for now! Miss you all lots.
Love,
Arlyn
Monday, November 9, 2009
The Outback!
Wow! So much to update on. This past weekend I went to the Outback which was absolutely incredible, but before I begin with all that, let me just back track a little bit and do some pre-outback updates.
Halloween weekend was a lot of fun. Friday during the day Lizzy, Steph, Brodie, Ashley and I went out shopping for costumes. The costumes in Australia are literally about $150, so we quickly dropped the costume idea and settled for some funny Halloween accessories. I got a ridiculously awesome Halloween hat with a bat on it and a pump attached so that when you squeeze the pump the bat's wings fly. Its great. After that, we went over to Robina Town Centre where I tried my first Australian kebab. The kebabs here are different than at home.. they're not meat on a stick. Rather, they're sort of like if a wrap and a gyro mated, you would get a kebab. It was really delicious. After that, we went over to the pet store to play with the puppies and kitties (Lizzy and Brodie are going to get a dog) and it made me miss all of my animals, and then we headed home. Later that night we headed over to Ashley's sister Steph's boyfriend's house (confusing yes) for some pre-gaming, before heading out to SinCity- a bar down in Surfer's, for a continuation of Steph's 21st birthday. Steph's boyfriend apparently has a lot of money and rented a limo for everyone and then rented out the VIP section of SinCity for the night. It was tons of fun and we got unlimited drinks and danced and had a good time. Saturday was Halloween, and we went over to Mik and Nik's for a Halloween barbeque. I tried kangaroo for the first time, and we hung out and just had a relatively relaxed night and ate, drank and watched the soccer game. Sunday was just a catch up on school work day, and then the rest of the week was pretty normal with classes and papers and whatnot.
Okay now on to the Outback! Thursday morning I woke up at 3:30 am to catch the airport transfer at 4:15 on campus. Our flight out of Brisbane was at 6:55 am. We flew from Brisbane to Cairns, then from Cairns to Ayers Rock (Uluru). Our tour guide for the weekend, Brad, was waiting by baggage claim at Ayers Rock airport, and once we were all gathered, he took us to our truck and brought us immediately to the Cultural Centre at Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. There we walked through the centre and learned a little bit about Aboriginal law, religion and art, and I bought my first big souveniour for myself: an original Aboriginal painting! The Aboriginal art is so neat and I loved it and can't wait to get it framed and hang it in my room back in Columbus! After walking through the Cultural Centre, we had a quick lunch and then headed out for our Uluru Base Walk. The walk was about 9.6 km (approx. 6 miles) and took a few hours, but the views were absolutely spectacular. We filled our bottles of water up several times, and the immense dry heat kept us from sweating or having to pee too much! After we finished our base walk, Brad met back up with us and drove us out to our campsite for the night. We dropped our stuff down and headed straight for the pool at the main building at the campsite! It felt SO good to jump in the cold water and cool off. After cooling down in the pool, we headed back to the campsite where Brad gave us some sparkling wine and crackers and dip and pointed us up toward a path where we could see the sun setting over Uluru. The views were spectacular and it was such a nice way to relax as our first day was coming to an end. When the sun had set, we went back to our campsite where Brad had prepared our dinner. He made kangaroo bolognese- pasta with kangaroo meet and lots of vegetables-- it was absolutely delicious. After that, we all began getting ready for bed. We rolled out our swags (coolest things in the world: they're basically matresses that roll up like sleeping bags and they're SO comfortable) by the campfire, listened to dave matthews, and got ready to sleep under the stars. I have never seen so many stars in my entire life and it was so beautiful (even saw a shooting star!). I cannot even describe the feeling of lying out under and open sky so far away from all civilization. Its so unreal and so fantastically exciting and relaxing all at the same time.
Friday morning we were awoken at 4:00 am so that we could get to a lookout close to our campsite to watch the sunrise over Uluru and Kata Tjuta. The sunrise was SO beautiful. It reminded me of watching the sunrise at the top of Mount Haleakala. Once the sun was up, we drove over to Kata Tjuta for a 7 km hike through the "Valley of the Winds". On the drive over to start the hike we saw free roaming camels on the side of the road! So strange to see camels just walking along! The Kata Tjuta hike was by far the prettiest hike of the entire trip. The views were absolutely stunning. While on our hike we also saw a bunch of kangaroos bouncing around. After our hike we got back in the car and stopped on the way at the Resort, which was basically a little shopping center and resort in the middle of the desert, to walk around a bit and buy some more water bottles and fill up on fuel. We hit the road again and then stopped once more at another campsite for some lunch. Here we walked around a bit, saw some really beautiful flowers, saw an emu picking at some hung laundry, saw some beautiful Australian birds, and then all gathered up for a delicious barbeque of sausages and cheeseburgers. After we were all nice and full, we got back in the car and headed for our second night's campsite: Kings Creek Cattle Station, stopping once more on the way for a spectacular view of Mount Connor and a really neat looking salt pan. When we arrived at our campsite, we were pleased to find out that this site also had a pool, so we dipped in and cooled off once again. This campsite's main area was also amazingly clean, so a few of us decided to have our showers there, before heading out to our more remote camping location. When we got to our site, we were all exhausted and immediately rolled out our swags by the fire and relaxed for awhile while Brad cooked another delicious dinner. This night we had chicken and vegetables over rice and homemade garnished bread. After dinner we all basically immediately passed out and got ready for another early morning in the desert.
Saturday morning we were awoken at 4:00 am again, this time to get an early start on our hike at Kings Canyon. This 7 km hike was so incredible. The sights were once again breathtaking. It started with an extremely steep treck up to the top of the canyon, but then was pretty relaxing and relatively flat the rest of the way through. Brad stayed with us the entire hike this time which was really nice, because we got to learn a lot about Aboriginal culture and the geology of the canyon. About halfway through the hike we stopped at the "Garden of Eden," which was a beautiful little natural spring in the middle of the canyon. We also visited spots on the canyon known as the Amphitheatre and the Lost City, and Brad taught us a lot about all of the different plants and the medicinal purposes they served for Aboriginals. After our hike, we went back to the main station at our campsite for a quick lunch, and then piled back into the car for a long drive to Alice Springs. When we got to Alice Springs, we checked into our backpackers, which turned out to be really nice, with a bathroom in our room and everything, and then headed to Toddy's, the bar at the backpackers, for dinner and drinks. It was a very nice way to unwind from an amazing weekend in the Outback. The next morning we woke up at around 8:00 (which felt so late!), ate some breakfast, and caught our 9:30 am transfer to Alice Springs airport where we caught our plane back to Brisbane!
My trip to the Outback was so much more beautiful and exciting then I would have ever imagined and I'm so glad I decided to do a trip so different from everything else I've done so far in Australia. This week its back to schoolwork, but then next weekend its off to Melbourne! Can't wait to update on that trip!
Love and miss you all!
Arlyn
Halloween weekend was a lot of fun. Friday during the day Lizzy, Steph, Brodie, Ashley and I went out shopping for costumes. The costumes in Australia are literally about $150, so we quickly dropped the costume idea and settled for some funny Halloween accessories. I got a ridiculously awesome Halloween hat with a bat on it and a pump attached so that when you squeeze the pump the bat's wings fly. Its great. After that, we went over to Robina Town Centre where I tried my first Australian kebab. The kebabs here are different than at home.. they're not meat on a stick. Rather, they're sort of like if a wrap and a gyro mated, you would get a kebab. It was really delicious. After that, we went over to the pet store to play with the puppies and kitties (Lizzy and Brodie are going to get a dog) and it made me miss all of my animals, and then we headed home. Later that night we headed over to Ashley's sister Steph's boyfriend's house (confusing yes) for some pre-gaming, before heading out to SinCity- a bar down in Surfer's, for a continuation of Steph's 21st birthday. Steph's boyfriend apparently has a lot of money and rented a limo for everyone and then rented out the VIP section of SinCity for the night. It was tons of fun and we got unlimited drinks and danced and had a good time. Saturday was Halloween, and we went over to Mik and Nik's for a Halloween barbeque. I tried kangaroo for the first time, and we hung out and just had a relatively relaxed night and ate, drank and watched the soccer game. Sunday was just a catch up on school work day, and then the rest of the week was pretty normal with classes and papers and whatnot.
Okay now on to the Outback! Thursday morning I woke up at 3:30 am to catch the airport transfer at 4:15 on campus. Our flight out of Brisbane was at 6:55 am. We flew from Brisbane to Cairns, then from Cairns to Ayers Rock (Uluru). Our tour guide for the weekend, Brad, was waiting by baggage claim at Ayers Rock airport, and once we were all gathered, he took us to our truck and brought us immediately to the Cultural Centre at Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. There we walked through the centre and learned a little bit about Aboriginal law, religion and art, and I bought my first big souveniour for myself: an original Aboriginal painting! The Aboriginal art is so neat and I loved it and can't wait to get it framed and hang it in my room back in Columbus! After walking through the Cultural Centre, we had a quick lunch and then headed out for our Uluru Base Walk. The walk was about 9.6 km (approx. 6 miles) and took a few hours, but the views were absolutely spectacular. We filled our bottles of water up several times, and the immense dry heat kept us from sweating or having to pee too much! After we finished our base walk, Brad met back up with us and drove us out to our campsite for the night. We dropped our stuff down and headed straight for the pool at the main building at the campsite! It felt SO good to jump in the cold water and cool off. After cooling down in the pool, we headed back to the campsite where Brad gave us some sparkling wine and crackers and dip and pointed us up toward a path where we could see the sun setting over Uluru. The views were spectacular and it was such a nice way to relax as our first day was coming to an end. When the sun had set, we went back to our campsite where Brad had prepared our dinner. He made kangaroo bolognese- pasta with kangaroo meet and lots of vegetables-- it was absolutely delicious. After that, we all began getting ready for bed. We rolled out our swags (coolest things in the world: they're basically matresses that roll up like sleeping bags and they're SO comfortable) by the campfire, listened to dave matthews, and got ready to sleep under the stars. I have never seen so many stars in my entire life and it was so beautiful (even saw a shooting star!). I cannot even describe the feeling of lying out under and open sky so far away from all civilization. Its so unreal and so fantastically exciting and relaxing all at the same time.
Friday morning we were awoken at 4:00 am so that we could get to a lookout close to our campsite to watch the sunrise over Uluru and Kata Tjuta. The sunrise was SO beautiful. It reminded me of watching the sunrise at the top of Mount Haleakala. Once the sun was up, we drove over to Kata Tjuta for a 7 km hike through the "Valley of the Winds". On the drive over to start the hike we saw free roaming camels on the side of the road! So strange to see camels just walking along! The Kata Tjuta hike was by far the prettiest hike of the entire trip. The views were absolutely stunning. While on our hike we also saw a bunch of kangaroos bouncing around. After our hike we got back in the car and stopped on the way at the Resort, which was basically a little shopping center and resort in the middle of the desert, to walk around a bit and buy some more water bottles and fill up on fuel. We hit the road again and then stopped once more at another campsite for some lunch. Here we walked around a bit, saw some really beautiful flowers, saw an emu picking at some hung laundry, saw some beautiful Australian birds, and then all gathered up for a delicious barbeque of sausages and cheeseburgers. After we were all nice and full, we got back in the car and headed for our second night's campsite: Kings Creek Cattle Station, stopping once more on the way for a spectacular view of Mount Connor and a really neat looking salt pan. When we arrived at our campsite, we were pleased to find out that this site also had a pool, so we dipped in and cooled off once again. This campsite's main area was also amazingly clean, so a few of us decided to have our showers there, before heading out to our more remote camping location. When we got to our site, we were all exhausted and immediately rolled out our swags by the fire and relaxed for awhile while Brad cooked another delicious dinner. This night we had chicken and vegetables over rice and homemade garnished bread. After dinner we all basically immediately passed out and got ready for another early morning in the desert.
Saturday morning we were awoken at 4:00 am again, this time to get an early start on our hike at Kings Canyon. This 7 km hike was so incredible. The sights were once again breathtaking. It started with an extremely steep treck up to the top of the canyon, but then was pretty relaxing and relatively flat the rest of the way through. Brad stayed with us the entire hike this time which was really nice, because we got to learn a lot about Aboriginal culture and the geology of the canyon. About halfway through the hike we stopped at the "Garden of Eden," which was a beautiful little natural spring in the middle of the canyon. We also visited spots on the canyon known as the Amphitheatre and the Lost City, and Brad taught us a lot about all of the different plants and the medicinal purposes they served for Aboriginals. After our hike, we went back to the main station at our campsite for a quick lunch, and then piled back into the car for a long drive to Alice Springs. When we got to Alice Springs, we checked into our backpackers, which turned out to be really nice, with a bathroom in our room and everything, and then headed to Toddy's, the bar at the backpackers, for dinner and drinks. It was a very nice way to unwind from an amazing weekend in the Outback. The next morning we woke up at around 8:00 (which felt so late!), ate some breakfast, and caught our 9:30 am transfer to Alice Springs airport where we caught our plane back to Brisbane!
My trip to the Outback was so much more beautiful and exciting then I would have ever imagined and I'm so glad I decided to do a trip so different from everything else I've done so far in Australia. This week its back to schoolwork, but then next weekend its off to Melbourne! Can't wait to update on that trip!
Love and miss you all!
Arlyn
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Bond University Happenings
Hello all-
So its been almost two weeks since I've last updated, mostly because the past couple of weeks have been relatively low key. Last week was a regular week of classes. I gave my first presentation in Australia last week on Australian Sport, which turned out to be a great topic to present because it gave me the opportunity to be not quite as sports-retarded in Australia as I am in the states. Last Friday, Emily, Steph and I went to Broad Beach, which turned out to be one of my favorite beaches that I've been to so far here-- its really pretty and very relaxed. Last Saturday I went to my friend Ashley's sister Steph's 21st birthday party. It was fun to go to a house party a little farther away from campus, meet some new people, and escape from the normal scene. Apparently even though age 21 is a bigger milestone in the U.S., people still make a big deal out of turning 21 in Australia. It was a relatively big party for both family and friends, complete with decorations, balloons, and even a pinata filled with promiscuous things. Monday night it was my turn to have everyone over for family dinner. We cooked a feast of sausages and loaded mashed potatoes, and then all hung out for a little while before I had to kick everyone out to study for my Love, Sex, and Relationships midterm the next day. The exam went fine, and the rest of the week was pretty relaxed. Wednesday night we all went out to CBD for Brittany's 21st birthday, and Dicky (one of our AustraLearn orientation leaders) was in town and joined in the festivities. Thursday I hung out at Lizzy's for a little while but I had a bit of a headache so I came home early and just hung out. Friday, Bonnie, Alysa and I went into Surfer's, relaxed on the beach for awhile and then shopped around. This past weekend was the Indy, which is a huge international car race that takes place every year right here on the Gold Coast. Motor sport is a really big deal in Australia, so Surfer's was packed with fans from all over the country and all over the world. The tickets to get into the race were pricey, but it was neat to just be downtown in the excitement of it all, and to be able to hear the cars zooming in the distance. Friday night a bunch of us went back into Surfer's to Shogun Japanese Karaoke Bar for Becky's 20th birthday. The karaoke actually turned out to be tons of fun, and Steph and I dominated by singing Bohemian Rhapsody (without having to glance at the lyrics screen once mind you). The rest of the weekend was pretty calm. Alysa and I rented Dawson's Creek from the library, which is possibly the most addicting tv show ever created, so our Saturday night consisted of approximately 5 hours of Dawson's Creek, followed by a viewing of E.T. Today I caught up on homework, did some research on Ned Kelly (the John Wayne of Australia) for my paper due on Thursday, etc. Next weekend should be fun- its Halloween, and we're also hoping to be able to go down to Byron Bay for a night. From next weekend on I'll be traveling non-stop until finals! (the Outback, Melbourne, Sydney, New Zealand for two weeks, finals, then home!!!) I can't wait for my big trips to begin, and I can't wait to tell you all about them! Alysa and I just watched Lord of the Rings and got extremely psyched for our trips ot New Zealand- the scenery is absolutely breathtaking.
Miss everyone at home tons!
Lots of Love,
Arlyn
So its been almost two weeks since I've last updated, mostly because the past couple of weeks have been relatively low key. Last week was a regular week of classes. I gave my first presentation in Australia last week on Australian Sport, which turned out to be a great topic to present because it gave me the opportunity to be not quite as sports-retarded in Australia as I am in the states. Last Friday, Emily, Steph and I went to Broad Beach, which turned out to be one of my favorite beaches that I've been to so far here-- its really pretty and very relaxed. Last Saturday I went to my friend Ashley's sister Steph's 21st birthday party. It was fun to go to a house party a little farther away from campus, meet some new people, and escape from the normal scene. Apparently even though age 21 is a bigger milestone in the U.S., people still make a big deal out of turning 21 in Australia. It was a relatively big party for both family and friends, complete with decorations, balloons, and even a pinata filled with promiscuous things. Monday night it was my turn to have everyone over for family dinner. We cooked a feast of sausages and loaded mashed potatoes, and then all hung out for a little while before I had to kick everyone out to study for my Love, Sex, and Relationships midterm the next day. The exam went fine, and the rest of the week was pretty relaxed. Wednesday night we all went out to CBD for Brittany's 21st birthday, and Dicky (one of our AustraLearn orientation leaders) was in town and joined in the festivities. Thursday I hung out at Lizzy's for a little while but I had a bit of a headache so I came home early and just hung out. Friday, Bonnie, Alysa and I went into Surfer's, relaxed on the beach for awhile and then shopped around. This past weekend was the Indy, which is a huge international car race that takes place every year right here on the Gold Coast. Motor sport is a really big deal in Australia, so Surfer's was packed with fans from all over the country and all over the world. The tickets to get into the race were pricey, but it was neat to just be downtown in the excitement of it all, and to be able to hear the cars zooming in the distance. Friday night a bunch of us went back into Surfer's to Shogun Japanese Karaoke Bar for Becky's 20th birthday. The karaoke actually turned out to be tons of fun, and Steph and I dominated by singing Bohemian Rhapsody (without having to glance at the lyrics screen once mind you). The rest of the weekend was pretty calm. Alysa and I rented Dawson's Creek from the library, which is possibly the most addicting tv show ever created, so our Saturday night consisted of approximately 5 hours of Dawson's Creek, followed by a viewing of E.T. Today I caught up on homework, did some research on Ned Kelly (the John Wayne of Australia) for my paper due on Thursday, etc. Next weekend should be fun- its Halloween, and we're also hoping to be able to go down to Byron Bay for a night. From next weekend on I'll be traveling non-stop until finals! (the Outback, Melbourne, Sydney, New Zealand for two weeks, finals, then home!!!) I can't wait for my big trips to begin, and I can't wait to tell you all about them! Alysa and I just watched Lord of the Rings and got extremely psyched for our trips ot New Zealand- the scenery is absolutely breathtaking.
Miss everyone at home tons!
Lots of Love,
Arlyn
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Volunteer Trip: Mount Barney
Hello all!
So this past weekend was quite an adventure. I went on a volunteer trip to Mount Barney, which was one of the mountains in a large mountainous national park region in southeast Queensland. For those of you who don't already know, Queensland is one of the states of Australia, and it is the one in which I reside. So anyway, the weekend started off quite interestingly. There were eight students from AustraLearn on the trip. None of us knew what to expect, as they sent us very little information about what to expect of our weekend ahead. We were picked up at Bond Uni on Friday morning in a 4 x 4 by Kim, our tree-hugging, conservation loving, 8 week-pregnant guide for the weekend. From Bond we drove for about two hours, packed into the back of a Land Rover, until we hit a small town out in the middle of nowhere where we stopped to use the restroom and pick up groceries for the weekend. From there began the hour or so of the off-roading/ 4-wheel drive part of our trip. It was pretty crazy. (As I re-read my entry thus far, it seems as if I wasn't enjoying my weekend so let me just clarify that I was having a great time with all of the crazy adventerous aspects of the trip.) When we arrived at camp, we were greeted by Ben and Max, the owners of the land who were hilarious stereotypical Australian men who enjoy living the simple life, caring for their land, and speaking in almost incomprehensible Australian slang. The camp was WAYYY out in the middle of the mountains and it was so nice to get completely away from all sorts of modern technology and civilization. The camp was very simple: there were two bunks, one kitchen/dining room building, and two bath houses, complete with eco friendly composite toilets. Friday afternoon was spent helping Ben pick up logs in the forest in order to help prevent the spreading of forest fires. I should mention that out in the mountains we saw tons of kookaburras, which are the strangest, most feisty birds I've ever seen. While we were picking up logs, one of the logs split in half and out came crawling a gigantic scorpion. We were all circled around the scorpion, and within seconds of it appearing, a kookaburra comes flying down between all of us and devours it in seconds like a potato chip. (Side note: the kookaburras reminded me of my Grandma Irma and the song she used to sing to me about the kookaburra sitting in the old gum tree-- they actually were sitting in the gum trees!!) Friday night we all pitched in and helped cook a nice "barbie" (bbq), and then we built a bonfire and sat around drinking tea and getting to know one another. Saturday we drove to a different part of the mountains and helped pick moth vine, which is a species of an invasive weed. I was very proud of myself because I seemed to have an easier time than others identifying the weed.. some others had trouble distinguishing between the different plants, but i seemed to have a natural knack! =) Unfortunately I also got very familiar with the Nettle Plant, which is a stinging plant, and I personally got to experience the sting three separate times (how nice). After we finished picking the vines, we helped Ben pick up some loose rocks in the forest, which was another way that he helped to prevent the spreading of forest fires. Saturday night we all helped cook dinner again; this time a delicious pasta dinner. After dinner, we all took a hike through the woods (got plenty of ticks on us as well) and found a nice spot to sit and watch the sun set. Saturday night we had another bonfire, and did a good amount of star gazing. The stars that we could see were absolutely magnificent and almost surreal-- I've never seen such a clear view of space; it was so completely untouched by city lights because we were so far out in the wilderness. At night when it was time to sleep, it felt like it was approximately 0 degrees farenheit because we were higher up and not used to the colder temperatures, but luckily they had plenty of spare blankets, so I was able to sleep with three as well as in my hoodie. It was a really fun weekend-- so nice to get away from everything and experience the true Australian nature.
This week so far has been nice. Sunday and Monday nights were both just calm and relaxing. Tuesday night Steph and I decided to go out. We went to 360 Bar to see a friend of mine from the volunteer trip this weekend sing and play the guitar (please note Catie) and then we moseyed over to Bar CBD in Market Square and met up with some other friends for a few drinks before calling it a night. The rest of this week should be pretty fun- there's a couple parties planned for this weekend and I think we're planning on trying to make it over to the beach on Friday. Big news: I booked my trip to New Zealand!! I'm so excited. I'm going for two weeks!!! The first week I'll spend in Wellington with Di, and then from there I fly down to Christchurch and join a one-week tour of the south island. I'm doing the tour by myself and I'm actually extremely excited about it. The tour is specifically restricted for young adults and the travel agent said many people go alone and meet people on the way. I've never done a trip like that on my own and I can't wait to kind of force myself outside of my comfort zone a little bit and hopefully have a really great time and meet really great people.
That's all I've got for now! I love and miss everyone!
Arlyn
So this past weekend was quite an adventure. I went on a volunteer trip to Mount Barney, which was one of the mountains in a large mountainous national park region in southeast Queensland. For those of you who don't already know, Queensland is one of the states of Australia, and it is the one in which I reside. So anyway, the weekend started off quite interestingly. There were eight students from AustraLearn on the trip. None of us knew what to expect, as they sent us very little information about what to expect of our weekend ahead. We were picked up at Bond Uni on Friday morning in a 4 x 4 by Kim, our tree-hugging, conservation loving, 8 week-pregnant guide for the weekend. From Bond we drove for about two hours, packed into the back of a Land Rover, until we hit a small town out in the middle of nowhere where we stopped to use the restroom and pick up groceries for the weekend. From there began the hour or so of the off-roading/ 4-wheel drive part of our trip. It was pretty crazy. (As I re-read my entry thus far, it seems as if I wasn't enjoying my weekend so let me just clarify that I was having a great time with all of the crazy adventerous aspects of the trip.) When we arrived at camp, we were greeted by Ben and Max, the owners of the land who were hilarious stereotypical Australian men who enjoy living the simple life, caring for their land, and speaking in almost incomprehensible Australian slang. The camp was WAYYY out in the middle of the mountains and it was so nice to get completely away from all sorts of modern technology and civilization. The camp was very simple: there were two bunks, one kitchen/dining room building, and two bath houses, complete with eco friendly composite toilets. Friday afternoon was spent helping Ben pick up logs in the forest in order to help prevent the spreading of forest fires. I should mention that out in the mountains we saw tons of kookaburras, which are the strangest, most feisty birds I've ever seen. While we were picking up logs, one of the logs split in half and out came crawling a gigantic scorpion. We were all circled around the scorpion, and within seconds of it appearing, a kookaburra comes flying down between all of us and devours it in seconds like a potato chip. (Side note: the kookaburras reminded me of my Grandma Irma and the song she used to sing to me about the kookaburra sitting in the old gum tree-- they actually were sitting in the gum trees!!) Friday night we all pitched in and helped cook a nice "barbie" (bbq), and then we built a bonfire and sat around drinking tea and getting to know one another. Saturday we drove to a different part of the mountains and helped pick moth vine, which is a species of an invasive weed. I was very proud of myself because I seemed to have an easier time than others identifying the weed.. some others had trouble distinguishing between the different plants, but i seemed to have a natural knack! =) Unfortunately I also got very familiar with the Nettle Plant, which is a stinging plant, and I personally got to experience the sting three separate times (how nice). After we finished picking the vines, we helped Ben pick up some loose rocks in the forest, which was another way that he helped to prevent the spreading of forest fires. Saturday night we all helped cook dinner again; this time a delicious pasta dinner. After dinner, we all took a hike through the woods (got plenty of ticks on us as well) and found a nice spot to sit and watch the sun set. Saturday night we had another bonfire, and did a good amount of star gazing. The stars that we could see were absolutely magnificent and almost surreal-- I've never seen such a clear view of space; it was so completely untouched by city lights because we were so far out in the wilderness. At night when it was time to sleep, it felt like it was approximately 0 degrees farenheit because we were higher up and not used to the colder temperatures, but luckily they had plenty of spare blankets, so I was able to sleep with three as well as in my hoodie. It was a really fun weekend-- so nice to get away from everything and experience the true Australian nature.
This week so far has been nice. Sunday and Monday nights were both just calm and relaxing. Tuesday night Steph and I decided to go out. We went to 360 Bar to see a friend of mine from the volunteer trip this weekend sing and play the guitar (please note Catie) and then we moseyed over to Bar CBD in Market Square and met up with some other friends for a few drinks before calling it a night. The rest of this week should be pretty fun- there's a couple parties planned for this weekend and I think we're planning on trying to make it over to the beach on Friday. Big news: I booked my trip to New Zealand!! I'm so excited. I'm going for two weeks!!! The first week I'll spend in Wellington with Di, and then from there I fly down to Christchurch and join a one-week tour of the south island. I'm doing the tour by myself and I'm actually extremely excited about it. The tour is specifically restricted for young adults and the travel agent said many people go alone and meet people on the way. I've never done a trip like that on my own and I can't wait to kind of force myself outside of my comfort zone a little bit and hopefully have a really great time and meet really great people.
That's all I've got for now! I love and miss everyone!
Arlyn
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Times Flies at Bond Uni!
I can't believe tomorrow is already the start of my fourth week of classes at Bond University! Time is flying. This past week was a lot of fun but relatively low key. I stayed on campus all week and weekend, went to my classes, hung out with friends, etc. We finished watching the movie "Australia" in pop culture. It was a really good film-- extremely long but worth the watch if you're up for it. We discussed it afterward in class and its actually a fairly accurate depiction of the Australian legend/"bush" legend and also of the indigenous culture and the aborigines-- definitely very interesting.
This week my roommates and I decided to break down and rent a tv for the semester. It ended up being relatively inexpensive. We only get about 10 channels or so, but the library on campus has tons of movies that we can rent for free, and our tv came with a dvd player, so it was definitely worth it.
Thursday night we went over Emily's and Lizzy's again for some pong and pregaming before going out to Don's again. It was a lot of fun and we all had a good time, steph in particular (see pictures on facebook for details). Unfortunately, Emily sprained her ankle while we were out so that kind of put a damper on things, but hopefully she'll be back on her feet soon. Friday night we had family dinner at Emily and Lizzy's. Then, Emily stayed in because of her ankle, but Steph and I went with Lizzy and Brodie over to "Mick and Nick" (the Malasian brothers.. great names I know) for a little gathering. Saturday we had a Mexican themed night at Emily's and Lizzy's, complete with tacos, chips and dip, Corona's (which is one of the most expensive beers in Australia incidentally because of the cost to import it from Mexico), and of course our good friend Jose Cuervo/margharitas. Mexico night eventually turned into catch phrase night, which of course was a ton of fun.
Next weekend I am going on a volunteer trip to Southeast Queensland Parks and Reserves. To be honest I don't really know what I will be doing exactly, but I know a few people going on the trip and I'm sure I'll meet others so I'm excited to get away for a weekend and do something to give back to my host country!
Some bad news I received today is that one of my roommates, Michelle from Missouri, is leaving on Tuesday to go back to the states. She has been sick for the past week or so with severe stomach issues, and they got her results back from the hospital today that she had two different kinds of parasites and that she will have to have surgery to correct the damage that the parasites have caused in her intestines. She was uncomfortable with having the surgery here, so she is leaving to return the states and have the surgery there. It's a really big bummer but everything happens for a reason I suppose and I wish her the best.
Tomorrow Emily and I are going to student flights to book the flights to New Zealand which is very exciting so I'll keep you posted with more details on that as soon as I know them.
Right now there is exactly 12 minutes in east coast Australian time until Samantha Erin Bloom turns 21!!!!! So here's a little shout out to Sam- have the happiest 21st! I love and miss you and wish I could be there with you, but I know you'll have a great time and can't wait to have a belated celebration when we're together again in the winter!
Okay, that's all for now. Miss you all!
Love,
Arlyn
This week my roommates and I decided to break down and rent a tv for the semester. It ended up being relatively inexpensive. We only get about 10 channels or so, but the library on campus has tons of movies that we can rent for free, and our tv came with a dvd player, so it was definitely worth it.
Thursday night we went over Emily's and Lizzy's again for some pong and pregaming before going out to Don's again. It was a lot of fun and we all had a good time, steph in particular (see pictures on facebook for details). Unfortunately, Emily sprained her ankle while we were out so that kind of put a damper on things, but hopefully she'll be back on her feet soon. Friday night we had family dinner at Emily and Lizzy's. Then, Emily stayed in because of her ankle, but Steph and I went with Lizzy and Brodie over to "Mick and Nick" (the Malasian brothers.. great names I know) for a little gathering. Saturday we had a Mexican themed night at Emily's and Lizzy's, complete with tacos, chips and dip, Corona's (which is one of the most expensive beers in Australia incidentally because of the cost to import it from Mexico), and of course our good friend Jose Cuervo/margharitas. Mexico night eventually turned into catch phrase night, which of course was a ton of fun.
Next weekend I am going on a volunteer trip to Southeast Queensland Parks and Reserves. To be honest I don't really know what I will be doing exactly, but I know a few people going on the trip and I'm sure I'll meet others so I'm excited to get away for a weekend and do something to give back to my host country!
Some bad news I received today is that one of my roommates, Michelle from Missouri, is leaving on Tuesday to go back to the states. She has been sick for the past week or so with severe stomach issues, and they got her results back from the hospital today that she had two different kinds of parasites and that she will have to have surgery to correct the damage that the parasites have caused in her intestines. She was uncomfortable with having the surgery here, so she is leaving to return the states and have the surgery there. It's a really big bummer but everything happens for a reason I suppose and I wish her the best.
Tomorrow Emily and I are going to student flights to book the flights to New Zealand which is very exciting so I'll keep you posted with more details on that as soon as I know them.
Right now there is exactly 12 minutes in east coast Australian time until Samantha Erin Bloom turns 21!!!!! So here's a little shout out to Sam- have the happiest 21st! I love and miss you and wish I could be there with you, but I know you'll have a great time and can't wait to have a belated celebration when we're together again in the winter!
Okay, that's all for now. Miss you all!
Love,
Arlyn
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