WE'RE HALFWAY THERE

woaaah livin on a budget because this trip is makin' me BROKE
yeah I know that's not the song but my brain is fried from studying and watching the Bachelor sooooo...
It's really been 2 MONTHS.
I have 2 MONTHS left.
HOW AM I GONNA DO EVERYTHING I WANT TO DO

Some highlights so far:
-Coolangatta with Martha and Bridget like 2 days after we got here. We wandered around the Gold Coast so jet lagged and still kind of strangers and well you could say that that is a bonding experience
-"snorkeling"
-orientation week and realizing that bush turkeys are the Berkeley squirrels of this campus
-#oneclasswedneday adventures which mostly just include food...like that french toast with chocolate ice cream on top is STILL on my mind
-finding that cool comedy show in the city
-Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary where I was a giant tourist and held a koala
-Pancakes before getting dressed up to go to the races
-kayaking in the rain in Byron Bay and avoiding being sick in the ocean by about 5 minutes
-seeing a green sea turtle. WOW. That guy was ANCIENT. #dreamscometrue
-playing with Disc-respectful at Halibut. Also in the rain, but still just a fantastic weekend
-discovering Tim Tams
-discovering gummy snakes
-discovering that eggs here are orange which makes me worried about what America does to their chickens
-Tone With Todd at the UQ gym. That man has more energy than anyone I've ever seen. But he seriously needs a new playlist. Lifting to Ed Sheeran is weird, dude. Just saying.
-trips to Indro for shopping or, more realistically, window shopping
-Queen Street farmer's markets
-the man-made beach in South Bank
-the Man-B-Que with the neighbors and the hilarity that was Carol and I playing GOF
-getting dressed up for Martha's 21st
-BUML on Monday nights. Frisbee people are pretty much just the best
-Great Ocean Road and basically everything about Melbourne

Things I still have to look forward to:
-Heron Island and Sydney over the mid-semester break
-turning in all of these papers that are currently taking over my life
-the Flight Facilities concert that we spontaneously bought tickets to
-a trip to Cairns...?
-Oktoberfest which will be taking place in the spring not the fall so I don't really know how to feel about that
-hiking trips!
-more frisbee
-more good food
-more good friends

Dawwwwwww. But seriously, these last two months have been amazing. A whirlwind, but amazing. I feel like I've done so much but there's still so much to do! These papers need to write themselves so I can get back to exploring.

So as you can probably imagine, this week was mostly studying again, especially after Melbourne.
It's finally starting to really warm up, so spending all day in the library is a real bummer. The Pink Palace doesn't have air conditioning being in my room instead of the lib is not going to happen, and I'm fairly certain we're all going to melt in about a month or so.
By Thursday we were chomping at the bit to do something outside, so Friday we went to the beach! A bunch of us got up super early and took the train to Surfer's Paradise.

Friday night Reina, Bridget, Martha and I went to South Bank for sushi and to see what we thought would be a cool light show exhibit thing but was actually just two giant stacks of bamboo with lasers projected on to them.

So that was disappointing.

We also did I good amount of baking this week for some study breaks.

Martha and I made a quiche...but we accidentally used a pastry crust so it was kind of weird. I told her I wouldn't tell but I think it's HILARIOUS. Like the time my mom made cookies and they baked so flat we had to throw out the cookie sheets. One of those cooking fails that really shows how skilled you are in the kitchen.

(but actually my mom makes a really good cobbler so not all baking hope is lost)

Chocolate cupcakes with cookie dough inside. The best.

Apparently I have frosting skills CAKE BOSS PLS HIRE ME

This week is back to studying and studying. Hoping to play in a frisbee tournament next weekend so I have something to look forward toooooooooo! The light at the end of the tunnel of lab reports and papers and quizzes...

Thanks for reading my blog for the past few months y'all! I hope it's still entertaining...even though the life of a student gets mundane around the middle of the semester, even when she's abroad.

Counting down till mid semester break!