Pink Palaze

I love living away from home.

I miss ya, Mom and Dad, but there's something about fending for yourself that just feels great.

I've been on my own in Berkeley for two years, but it's so different being across the ocean! Normally, I call my mom walking home from class-to avoid the creeps on Telegraph-and am often talking to my brother through some form of social media. But here I can't just call my mom when something's up! I was craving enchiladas last night and wanted to make my mom's recipe, but I had to send her an e-mail and wait like 10 HOURS for her to wake up and then for me to wake up to see the recipe. Even instant messaging hasn't conquered the international date line yet.

Most students here live at home and commute to uni. It's not as common to live in dorms (or colleges, here) or in an apartment. A lot of kids go to the university that's closest to their home and continue to live with their parents while going to school.

In America there is this massive culture involved with going away to school. Most of my friends moved away after we graduated high school, and if they didn't, they desperately wanted to. I love you, fambam, but I was more than ready to leave when I did. Pretty sure you were ready for me to leave, too.

There's definitely a lot I feel I would have missed out on if I had commuted to school, or was still commuting to school. Coming home to my parents house after going to a frat party sounds reeeeeally weird, and I wouldn't have had those late night hallway conversations with my floor, or midnight donut runs, or post-practice feasts and dance parties at the B&B. Living with other college kids is the most fun part of college! I can't imagine coming home from a midterm to mom cooking dinner and Weston playing Playstation. Like yeah, sometimes I think that'd be really freaking nice, but there's something about having to cook for yourself, run your own errands, and do your own laundry after that midterm that makes me feel self sufficient and grown-up.

Soooooo that's my take on living away from home. It's amazing. PLUS it gives you two homes! Actually by the end of this I hope to have 3. The Pink Palace here in St. Lucia, the B&B up in Berkeley, and good ol' Lepanto in San Diego.So many places I feel at home!

(I just wanted to note that when I typed conversations the first time up there, I actually typed conservation. So....my major is taking over my life.)

This week is busy with running errands and working on assignments.

Monday I literally could not do anything. I was so exhausted from the tournament over the weekend that I pretty much stared at my computer all morning, spaced out in my classes, and took a nap that afternoon....before going to play another frisbee game that night. Which my body thoroughly objected to. The shin splints are so real. I should do something about them....

Something besides what I did Tuesday! Barefoot pick-up soccer after classes? Bad idea, but so much fun. The lights went out on us but we kept playing anyway.

Found this walking across the bridge into the city. NO SEGWAYS?!?! C'mon Australia.

Another #oneclasswednesday was spent treating ourselves to an amazing breakfast in South Bank and some produce shopping at the farmer's market.

Like, LOOK AT THAT. That is legitimately CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM on French Toast, with cocoa nibs and grapefruit, covered in syrup. I'm sorry, America, but Australia WINS at breakfast. Shout out to the website UrbanList for giving us all of these great restaurants to try in Brisbane. This place was a tiny little organic coffee shop called Merriweathers, where everything is locally grown and produced and of course, delicious.

Always drinking coffee...

Wednesday night I went to frisbee, and woke up Thursday quite sick from being out in the cold and rain for too many days. BUT one must persevere! I can rest later! HAHAHAHA 

Thursday night we began celebrating Martha's birthday!

a few very obviously edited pictures from the dessert/cocktail bar...

We went to a dessert bar cleverly called Cowch where we all got super sweet drinks and a massive dessert pizza. DESSERT PIZZA. BEER FLOATS. CALORIES.
After Cowch we met some other friends at a bar in the city to hang out a bit. There was a great reggae band and a ton of uni kids going crazy because who can really dance to reggae besides that one old lady hippie everyone knows (OR MOM, that old guy in tie dye at the Michael Franti concert. Or Julie Boegli, because really she could dance to classical music and make it look cool.).
Friday was my most productive day ever. I got so much work done! Going to the library is effective! That night we stayed in and had a 100% stereotypical girls night, complete with baking cookies and Eat, Pray, Love. Which I was NOT expecting to enjoy because I can't handle all that cheesy finding yourself stuff but it was SO GOOD. Go Julia Roberts, you rock.
Saturday we prepped the house and went over to the neighbors-other American kids-for a BBQ, or as they called it, a Man-B-Que. No veggies allowed, only giant slabs of meet and craft beer. And that night we TRULY celebrated Martha's 21st! Some PIIIICS....

yes mom I bought a new dress and heels I'm sorry but ISNT IT COOL

....that's all you guys get to know about that night. But let me tell you, it was A BLAST.

Next weekend we'll be in Melbourne! Expect an exciting post!

Also I found red velvet tim tams...my life is over.

Winning the Party

It's safe to say I'm really missing Berkeley.
I've actually been missing it ever since I left, but it's been 3 months and I am craving Moccachino and Pieology like no other. It doesn't help that most of my friends are heading back to Cal this weekend and I'm getting invited facebook invites to frisbee tryouts, frat rush events, and a cappella performances.
ALL OF MY FAVORITE THINGS.
Ha. Ha.
But really what I miss the most is Hillel. Which goes to show that Berkeley Hillel is pretty freaking awesome, because I am the kid who locked herself in the bathroom to avoid going to Hebrew school back in the day. But I think it's really the fact that I have made such AMAZING friends through Hillel that makes me want to go back. Shout out to Alana and all of Kol Hadov (Lol Hadov, amirite) for being the truest homies.
It's strange because no one here is outwardly religious. It probably prevents a good amount of conflict, or something, but no one talks about religion or admits a certain set of beliefs or anything. I looked for some sort of Jewish club on campus when I first got here to replace the hole in my social life that was Kol Hadov, but there is nothing Jewish, a cappella, or both (actually I don't think a Jewish a cappella group is a very normal thing anywhere...). I think most people just aren't religious in general, especially compared to the US. Australia's missing out on so much! Yiddish sayings, kugle, the awkwardness of people calling Hanukkah the Jewish Christmas...and just the fabulous connection that comes with being a part of a community I'm used to finding at home-and am still finding here with other American Jewish kids I've met.
And let's be honest, who doesn't love Jewish boys? (We call it having Jew goggles when you only find yourself interested in Jewish boys. There's also frisbee goggles. Joggles + Froggles = sadly unrewarding.)
So I'm missing Hillel and my Jewish pals. Alana, I'm counting down the days till our weekly BBQ gossip sessions can resume. And boys, I fully expect the Menschtet to be a thing.

This week hasn't been too eventful. Frisbee, frisbee, studying, and more frisbee.

#OneclassWednesday was spent at the farmer's market! I bought SO MUCH fabulous produce. We got lunch there too.

Raw Pad Thai and Cranbery Quinoa.
And of course, that jar.

NOM BROWNIE I HEART AUSTRALIA

After Wednesday the weather returned to, well, ABSOLUTE CRAP. Because Friday was so rainy, Martha and I went shopping and met some other friends for a movie in the afternoon. We saw The Hundred Foot Journey, and as usual, the book is better. The movie is great, don't get me wrong, but since the plot follows a few people in different places the movie did a strange job of switching from story to story.

...I'm obviously not Matthew, so I'm going to stop my movie review here before I embarrass myself (my cousin's blog is myreviewkorner.blogspot.com #ANOTHERSHAMELESSPLUG).

This weekend I played in an ultimate tournament! If your eyes are now glossing over every time I mention ultimate, I apologize. Buuuuuut I'm gonna write about it anyway.

I signed up with a team of people I didn't really know, but they were mostly from UQ or QUT, another university a few miles away. We were called Disc-Respectful and wore horribly obnoxious "hi vis fluro" yellow polo shirts (high visibility fluorescent. Aussies don't like to say entire words.), which thankfully I have ZERO pictures of. 

Saturday we played in the rain. ALL DAY. IN THE RAIN. Gosh I miss California ultimate because, as I told my team, I've NEVER had to play in those conditions. Insane wind and pouring rain is not something I know how to handle (that's a frisbee pun! a box of tim tams to whoever gets it).Regardless, we had a good time. The other teams playing were from all over Australia-Byron Bay, Cairns, Sydney...and they were all full of older, more experienced players. Since we had never really played together as a team before we hoped our youth and athleticism would get us the points.

Well...it kind of worked.

we wear supper flattering things when we play ultimate

We struggled with the weather while the teams from Sydney OWNED it. We held our own, but went 1-3 on Saturday. So we changed our goal from winning the tournament to winning the party that night.

I'm sooooo not used to going out during tournaments, because our college league in the states doesn't really like us doing that. But it was Gatsby themed and frisbee people will probably never see me in normal-not-athletic clothes again, so I went. I recruited Martha to come with me so I didn't have to do public transit alone at night and we met up with some of my teammates before heading out.

Not Gatsby...left my flapper dress in America. Ha. Ha.

Needless to say I lasted about an hour before my muscles were like HAHA NOPE TOO TIRED and we bailed.

Sunday it was DRY! No rain! Thank goodness, because I'm pretty sure it took me about half an hour to detangle my hair after Saturday's games. Sunday morning ultimate is always rough, but of course was made much more difficult by the fact that there had been a party the night before. Our team was slow, but not quite as slow as the other teams. We won 2 and lost 1, and all were close. After watching the top two teams play a super impressive game, I made it home, where I have since been avoiding doing uni work and have been cooking myself a massive feast as a reward for my playing this weekend.

Disc-Respecful at the end of Halibut

Yeah, not a very exciting week, but for now things are sort of chill and it's nice. I know if I take a week off from blogging I won't get back into it so CAN'T STOP WON'T STOP gonna keep recording my life

This coming weekend we're celebrating Martha's 21st-which means nothing here but we're gonna make it special anyway-and the weekend after that Reina, Martha and I will be in Melbourne!

I am going to be sore for SO MANY DAYS. #thankshalibut

Outside Lands

This is a post about my fabulous time at the Outside Lands music festival in San Francisco and how I saw so many of my favorite artists like HAIM, Tom Petty, The Kooks, Grouplove, Chromeo, The Killers, and EVERYONE ELSE IVE EVER WANTED TO SEE EVER OH MY GOSH

Just kidding.
This is a post about how I got snapchats, texts, facebook messages, and photos of all of those fabulous groups at Outside Lands, which basically took place in my backyard in the States. And how ENVIOUS I am of everyone who got to go while I sat at home listening to an Outside Lands playlist on Spotify.

Just kidding again.
This is a post about the amazing things I got to do instead!

I started playing in a new frisbee league this week! Monday nights I play with some other UQ students against Brisbane folks.
Staying in shape while I'm here is so important to me. Since I've basically been eating and drinking whatever I want in an attempt to soak up the Aussie foodie scene (ha. ha.) it's really important to me to work out every day as well.
Frisbee is great because it's a social way to work out, but I also am obsessed with the gym. Shout out to best gym buddy ever, Hannah, for inspiring me so much this past summer in the gym (check out her blog, happyhealthyhannah.blogspot.com #SHAMELESSPLUG). I LOVE lifting and would probably do Crossfit if I had the money to do so. I like Crossfit and other programs like that because I'm tired of working out to "lose weight," I wanna work out to build muscle! Skinny is not my look, I've decided, so I'll aim for fit and strong.
The past few years I've lived with skinny people. Just naturally skinny folks. Heck, have you seen my best friend? She could live on brownies and cake batter and still be a twig (A really good looking twig. Love you Skidders <3). That really did a number on my body image freshman year, not going to lie. It is only post half-marathon that I've realized I could literally run for 5 months straight and not be skinny. It's only more recently I've become okay with that. EMBRACE THE CURVES AND THE MUSCLES. Because I'm not supposed to be a twig, and if I was, I wouldn't be able to do what I love-eat whatever I want, drink whatever I want, and play my favorite game ever.
My roommates here all play sports too. Bridget plays water polo, Martha is a triathlete, Carol and Sydney play lacrosse, and Courtney is just a workout FIEND. Sunday Martha had her bike on the trainer in the living room, which basically means the back wheel is put in a machine that turns your real bike into a stationary bike. She let me try it. I was on there for like probably 20 minutes before I just COULD NOT do it anymore. Cyclists are impressive! If you're a cyclist, be impressed with yourself. Damn.

Me dying on the trainer

So, yeah, that's sort of irrelevant to Australia, but anyway. Staying in shape while I'm here. Yes. Good. As I eat a brownie. That's my point. Right. Moving on.

Wednesday some pals and I spent a day at the races! We were told to avoid Ekka as a whole-that's the Royal Queensland Show, equivalent to a pricey county fair-but we went to Mekka Wednesday. It was very....Coachella meets the Kentucky Derby.
We started the day with a pancake breakfast with friends at our house, which we've dubbed the Pink Palace.

The website said there was a dress code, so we put on some fancy dresses, shoes, and hats/flower crowns (thats the music festival bit. Everyone wears flower crowns instead of nice hats. I wore nothing on my head because I looked like either a child about to be christened or a total poser with one on my head...awkward.) and went off to the race track!

Me, Reina, Courtney, Sydney, Casey, Jess, Jake, and Martha

It was INSANE. This is apparently one of the biggest 18+ events, because it was a million uni kids all dressed up running around in high heels drinking too much. So many girls looked like they were going out to the clubs. But a blazer does wonders for a guy, let me tell you! More guys should wear blazers. And short shorts. That's what Australia has taught me.

Some of my friends placed bets on the races just for funsies and so we actually watched a few of the races. I really don't get horse racing, but this is the only "sporting" event Aussies will actually cheer for, so the crowd of rowdy kids went WILD.

There were a few djs and stages around too. It was really mostly just fun to get dressed up, people watch, and hang out with friends all day!

The shoes were definitely worth it, but OH MY GOSH did my feet kill Wednesday night.

Thursday was full of studying, working out, and packing for...

a weekend in Bryon Bay!!

....in the rain.

Yup, winter decided to be wintery the weekend we were at the beach.

I was totally okay with some rain, because I love gloomy weather, and I get to the beach all the time at home. I realized I totally take that for granted, because some of the kids on the trip had NEVER. SEEN. THE OCEAN.

I can't even imagine that.

The rain did not deter us, though! We still fit in plenty of fun stuffs. My housing group-Semester in Australia-took around 70 kids, mostly Americans, for the weekend. They bussed us there and back and set up activities for us all weekend.

Friday, on the way down to Byron, we stopped at some surf outlets for a bit of shopping. There were amazing deals, but they only gave us half an hour. Those of you that have been shopping with know I can literally spend an entire day in Nordstrom alone, so having 30 minutes to go through unorganized discount boxes at four different surf shops was basically impossible. I pretty much gave up. I did get a cheap rash guard though, which will be good for when I go to Heron Island for research once it becomes summer.

After the outlets we headed down to Coolangatta, where Bridget, Martha and I spent a few days earlier this semester. The three of us really fell in love with the town and were stoked to go back. We visited the same coffee shop and hung out on the same beach and weirdly felt at home there.

Go With the Flow Cafe

I'm artsy. Also that's like root beer. Don't worry.

Then we made our way down to Byron Bay! It was slightly gloomy when we got there, but not raining. We checked in to our hostel and Martha and I went down to the beach to take pictures and throw the frisbee around.

We walked down to the point, where we could climb up a rock and see dolphins and whales out in the water.

That night we had dinner and drinks with our group before going to a local pub to hang out.

Saturday morning, Martha and I went kayaking! We had gotten to choose which activities we wanted to do on Saturday, so some kids went snorkeling or diving, some went surfing, others went skydiving...

we chose kayaking.

Yeah, that being adventurous post last week? All lies.

No not really! Skydiving is just too far out of my comfort zone. And my wallet zone. 

So Martha and I were kayaking buddies, in a group of about 30 kids and 3 guides. We struggled to get out past the waves because upper body muscle is neither of our strengths (is that a pun) but with the help of a guide we paddled out to the group.

It was hard work, man. Martha got really seasick, and I was definitely feeling it too, but since I was in the back of the kayak I absolutely had to keep paddling. So basically, I got the best arm workout of my life. It was so difficult to stay going in a straight line! Whatever muscle my right arm may have is significantly stronger than my left-thank you frisbee-and so we kept turning to the left and having to struggle to turn around to follow the group...

but I SAW A TURTLE.

A GIANT GREEN 150 YEAR OLD TURTLE.

He popped his head up about 10 feet in front of our kayak. The guide pointed him out and he swam around underneath us for a while. We also saw whales out in the distance but most of these few hours was spent trying not to flip over or throw up.

And then we did flip over.

Yup, on the way in I completely forgot everything they said the person in the back should be doing to not flip and we went FLYING. It was even more hilarious because we were the first kayak to be sent in, and once we were in the water the kayak flew over out heads through the wave. The life jacket was doing such a good job of keeping my torso afloat that I couldn't get my feet to the bottom, and the stupid helmet slipped over my eyes so I also couldn't see the shore at all...

basically I flailed around for a minute or two until I realized I could stand.

Me and Martha while we were still stoked on this 

Most of the group had gotten relatively seasick, so they had biscuits for us, and hot chocolate because it was actually freezing once you were out of the wetsuit.

The rest of the day was spent shopping around and scoping out the town. It actually started pouring at some point, so I busted out the new Patagonia rain jacket (#fratagonia #patagucci) and we found some cool stores. My favorite was a little health food store and bakery that had the most delicious macadamia brownie in the world.

 We even visited an art gallery. Mom and dad, you'll be so proud.

Sunday morning it had cleared up! Of course, the day we're leaving...but we had the morning to explore, so we hiked up to the lighthouse, which is at the most eastern point in Australia. "The first place to see the sunrise." Which we would have done had it not been rainy and gloomy.

We walked down the beach first, and since it had been really stormy the night before and TON of stuff had washed up on the beach. There were a million of these little guys:

And I GEEKED OUT because I knew what they were! The other week I wrote a short paper on these guys for my marine science class. They're called velella, and they're polyps that just float around the ocean, driven by the wind. They're a super bright blue because of the way their pigment reacts to salinity. SO COOL.

The hike was beautiful. Rocky coastlines are my favorite.

After reaching the top, we climbed back down the hill and onto some rocks that stuck out further, so we actually were as FAR east as you can possibly get.

Definitely my favorite spot I've been to since I've been here. It was super windy but it felt so amazing to be out on the water with the waves splashing up and yeah I've been to places like that before at home but being the one thing that was furthest out to the east was such a COOL THOUGHT.

On our walk back we saw more whales and dolphins!

We left Byron, and on the way back to Brisbane we stopped at this little town called Nimbin. From the way it had been described to us, we thought it'd be similar to Berkeley-a little funky, but overall relatively normal...

nope.

To use Martha's description, it was as if "Berkeley's People's Park had grown three times bigger and become economically self sufficient."

Before we got off the bus the guy in charge told us it was Australia's marijuana capital. Chill.

We were only there for an hour, but at least 10 different people asked us if we wanted to buy drugs or "cookies" from them.

Disclaimer: we most definitely did not.

It was cool though, I guess. Funky weird little town in the middle of nowhere. I bought a headband. Success.

aaaaaaaand that's my dose of adventure for this week! It was a really fun weekend and things should be much calmer this week...yay studying...ha. ha.

Also I am still obsessed with Tim Tams.

Being Adventurous

I am not an adventurous person.
No, really, I'm not. I'm VAL. I think my name means brave but I have not been known to do crazy things.
You're probably thinking "but...she's in AUSTRALIA."
Well, yeah, I'm in a different country technically, but Australia is hardly foreign. I chose Australia because I knew it'd be similar, and I spoke the language and knew how to act in this culture, etc etc.....
....Or so I thought.
The other day one of my American friends described Australia as "exactly different" from the US. Everything is allllmost just like in the states, but then it's slightly off. Some examples....

THINGS THAT ARE THE SAME IN AUS AND USA

1. Everyone is obsessed with coffee. Coffee culture is HUGE here. Which is great, because as a college student, I need the caffeine. But I've only seen like 2 Starbucks since I've been here, allowing more opportunity to try local coffee shops and order different drinks.

2. The language. Like I said, everyone speaks English here! Sure, they all have accents, but it's still English. Sometimes when I forget that I'm the foreign one, I'll hear someone speaking with an Australian accent, and I'll think to myself "Wow an Aussie! What a cool...oh wait..." I'm the one with the weird accent here! Except it's interesting, most people can guess I'm from California right away. They say it's because I'm blonde-ish (fake) and tan (real), but I really think it's because of my lack of accent. Or because I actually say things like "bro" and "for sure" and other words people associate with SoCal. Who knows. The other day some guy guessed I was from southern California, and when I asked him how he knew, he said it was because I was acting like I was too cool to be talking to him. So maybe that's how they all know.

3. The weather. It's winter here, but it's really similar to winter in San Diego, aka NOT WINTERY. It's like 70 degrees daily, but it does get pretty cold at night. Spring is supposed to be beautiful here, so I'm looking forward to that!


THINGS THAT ARE DIFFERENT IN AUS AND USA

1. The things they order when getting coffee. What is a long black? A flat white? A chai latte literally comes as a pot of hot chai tea, with your own milk to pour in, not the foamy sweet drink Starbucks serves. I've ordered a lot of coffee since I've been here, but I still can't figure it out. Also, when making coffee at home, everyone does instant. It's so much more wallet-friendly to buy a massive thing of instant coffee then some grounds. And it pretty much tastes the same since I can't afford the fancy grounds anyway.
(For the record, a long black is espresso over hot water, like an Americano, and a flat white is steamed milk over an espresso, like a latte but BETTER.)

2. The language. WHAT IS A JUMBUCK?!?! WHY IS A PUB CALLED A HOTEL?!?! Why does everyone say "good night Irene," why is cotton candy fairy floss, why is a group of kangaroos a mob, why is Brisbane referred to as Brisvegas?!?! (Actually I find that last one hilarious. No one can escape tourist America, even across the ocean.) Australian's seem to have slang for everything and none of it makes sense.
(For the record, a jumbuck is a sheep. I've only heard this used in reference to New Zealand and how they all marry or befriend sheep. Weird.)

3. The weather. It's sooooooo humid. Doing anything to my hair is pointless. Also, 70 is cold for them. I am terrified for when it gets to be summer. People are walking around in sweaters and boots and I'm sweating in shorts and a tank top. Running outside is really difficult because it can be like swimming. At ultimate last week I was drowning in both the air and my own sweat. Super attractive. I really don't understand why the ulti boys kept their distance.
(Just kidding, they desperately need girls, so I could show up in a chicken costume and high heels and they'd be like OMG SHE KNOWS HOW TO HOLD A FRISBEE THANK GOODNESS)

4. The clothes. In Australia, guys wear short shorts and it's totally normal. I kind of love it. QUADS. QUADS EVERYWHERE. BRING THIS TO AMERICA.
(I already miss Nordstrom. Thanks Mom, for raising me with excellent taste, but there is actually nothing like it here. Waaaaa.)

5. The toilets flush the other way. Or do they? I don't know. I can't remember how they flush in America. Sorry, can't bust this myth.

So, as you can see, I'm not being super brave or anything by coming all the way out here. Which is why I'm adopting the phrase "why the heck not?" Taylor, if you're out there, you're probably laughing and grinning because you know you inspired part of this. But really, what do I have to lose besides my life savings and maybe a limb? I'm saying yes to most things (don't worry Mom, I'm still saying no to the creepy guys at parties.) and it has made my trip so far an amazing experience.

This week, I said yes to a crazy pub crawl and a trip to the Australian zoo.
The pub crawl was really fun, but really long. It started at 4pm and we got to the final place at 11:30pm. My good friend Reina and I were in the same group, while all of my roommates were in the other. It was really fun to wander through the city at night and meet other international kids and Australians.
Hahaha. I'll illustrate the night with pictures instead.

Reina and me taking a dinner break

Martha and I spent our #oneclassWednesday in the city! We found a super adorable cafe in an creepy little alley and had a really delicious lunch. It had a massive open window looking out into the alley, and it was pretty funny because we were up in this lovely clean space, and in the alley you could see all the high school kids in their uniforms smoking cigarettes.

Felix Espresso and Wine Bar in the CBD

After lunch we walked through a great farmers market, splurged a bit on some tea in cute jars-which we can bring back at any time for TWO DOLLAR REFILLS WHAT A STEAL-and wandered over the bridge into South Bank.

noms

SOUTH BANK

That night I went to frisbee! Gosh dang I seriously love my sport. It's so amazing to have found a community and a game that I miss immensely when I'm away from it. I can't recall ever feeling that way about soccer even though I played for 10 years. I've been playing ultimate for 2 years, and I don't think I can stop...I'm playing in a tournament in about two weeks and I can't wait!
Friday afternoon my friends and I went to the science museum in South Bank and a free comedy show in New Farm. The science museum was nice! There was a coral reef exhibit and a dinosaur exhibit, as well as a bunch of kids stuff that we really enjoyed.

The comedy show was hilarious. We were a bit nervous we wouldn't find it funny because we wouldn't understand the jokes, but it was great! There were definitely some Aussie stereotype jokes that went right over our heads, but we were close to the front so the comedians picked on us a bit and it was really funny. The show was at The Powerhouse, which is literally a converted power station where they now do art-y exhibits and plays. It's really hipster. We walked in and instantly felt like we weren't cool enough or dressed well enough to be there.

Saturday I said yes to housekeeping and homework, so I'd say that's the most adventurous thing I've done here so far.
Sunday I said yes to the Australian zoo! We went with the international student group, QUEST, and were there from like 930 till 330. It's an amazing zoo, but that was just forever.
The Australia Zoo was started by the Irwin family, so it's main goal is conservation and preservation of wildlife. They had a massive 24 animal hospital with a "koala trauma" wing. LIKE WHERE ELSE DOES THAT EXIST. NO WHERE.
Of course we went to see the croc show, where they get a massive crocodile to snap at trainers and put their  lives in danger and what not. Since crocs were Steve Irwin's thing that was definitely the highlight of the zoo.

WOMBAT

Also WOMBATS ARE THE CUTEST THING EVER.

So that's my adventure for this past week. This week promises to be pretty eventful, with a holiday/no class on Wednesday for the Ekka (basically like a more hick version of a county fair) and a trip to Byron Bay on the weekend!
Hope you're all enjoying my blog as much as I'm enjoying writing it!