club kidz do ~things~

27 days and I'm again starting to realize how different the US and AUS are.

Things I'll have to get used to again in the States
1. Looking to the right before I cross the street. Or is it the left? Ugh, I can't remember, but the likelihood of me getting run over when I get home is quite high because I legitimately don't know which side of the road cars are supposed to drive on. I was watching an American movie the other day and a car drove onto the screen on the right and my friend and I were both like WAIT WHAT THATS WRONG
2. Remembering that pedestrians have right of way in the states, because here they don't. Another situation in which I will think I am about to be run over but I hopefully won't be
3. Counting my runs in miles, not km. The first time I got on the treadmill here I thought I had ran my fastest mile ever and then I was like...wait...
4. "Winter"
5. Living far from campus. I am 100% spoiled living 2 minutes from the best coffee/the 24 library/my 8 am classes.
6. Money is so different! They don't have pennies here, and have $1 and $2 coins instead of bills. So when I buy a coffee in "change" I think oh wow, it's so cheap, because I'm using coins! If I could buy coffee with coins in the States, it'd be the cheapest cup of coffee around!
Also their money is pretty colors. Green bills with old dudes on them? Borrrrrrrring.

Things I'm so excited to get back to
1. TARGET.
2. My GYM. Aussies have the worst gym etiquette. Dropping weights, grunting unnecessarily, hogging foam rollers and mats...I JUST WANNA LIFT withOUT judgmental stares because girls don't squat here. #amIfratyet #bro
3. Starbucks. Yeah, I know chains suck, but I miss that iced chai like no other
4. "Winter"
5. Cheap clothes, cheap coffee, cheap lunches. Everything here is so much more expensive than at home!
6. My team, my friends, my family, my cat...

This week as been another fairly calm one. Only one more week of class! I've had a few wrap up assignments but other than that I've just been livin and playing frisbee and hangin out with friends!

Friday night Carol, Reina, and I went to see "This is Where I Leave You," the movie with Tina Fey and Jason Bateman about the family who loses their father, and even though they've never been slightly religious, the mother-Jane Fonda-insists that it was Dad's dying wish everyone sit Shiva to mourn him. It had us crying and laughing and cringing and I have decided I'm now in love with Adam Driver...so if you're out there reading this for some reason, Adam, I'll be stateside in a mere 3 weeks...heh. Hehe.
Also there was a scene in which the super hip rabbi leads a Shabbat service and Reina and were crying laughing and singing along to Hine Ma Tov and it was hilarious.

Saturday was spent lazing on the roof of our pal's apartment building, studying, tanning, and watching Star Wars. We played some soccer that afternoon and basically spring here is amazing and I'm obsessed with all of the Jacaranda trees.

Today a few of us went to Springflare, a color festival inspired by the Indian holiday Holi, and a part of the G20 cultural celebrations. So besides the fact that we got to throw a crap ton of paint powder at each other, we also watched some international dance performances and MELTED because Brisbane spring, while beautiful, is HOT AS HELL.

I'm secretly a French man

It was super fun even though eventually we all just turned brown from a combination of sweat and paint....the bus driver was very hesitant to take us back to UQ.

Next week classes end, the Pink Palace is having a good ol'American Halloween party-no entry without a costume, pumpkin beers, etc.-and I might be heading up to the Sunshine Coast on the weekend! A few last adventures before finals studying truly takes over.

weeeeeeeeeeeeeooooooooooo

Counting Down

A few things this trip has taught me so far:

1. I'm a very mean person without morning coffee.

2. Frisbee people are awesome all over the world.

3. Wherever you go, there's always someone Jewish (hai Reina).

4. I have to live in California when I grow up.

Basically, skype has stopped functioning, the phone I'm currently using can't handle viber or whatsapp, and I feel so far away from my family and friends and its been a bummer! I miss my everyone at home, and though I will be more than sad to leave my friends here, I've started counting down until I get to go home and hang out with my cat.

Also, I really want my old hair color back. I'm over being blonde-ish.

These past two weeks have been full of (pretending to be) studying, hanging out with my friends, and cooking! I mean yeah, every week is filled with cooking, because your girl has gotta eat, but I made turkey burgers and eggplant lasagne and am back on the overnight oats grind! FOOD FOOD FOOD

Last week we recuperated from spring break with a few movie nights at the Pink Palace. Another night Reina and I went fishing with some friends in the Brisbane River. We wanted to catch a shark.

We didn't.

Me and Reina pretending we know how to fish

I played in a frisbee tournament last weekend! It was a really fun day even though it was like a million degrees. The teams were switched around every game so we were always playing with new people. Definitely not my personal best day of ultimate, but a fun day running around with my friends.
That night a bunch of us frisbee kids went to a birthday party and hung out in NORMAL CLOTHES. Everybody looks 100% different in jeans rather than ultimate shorts and jerseys.

Other than that...Gilmore Girls is on Netflix now, so....

This past weekend we went camping in the Glasshouse Mountains! Glasshouse is an hour or 2 north of Brisbane, just inland from the Sunshine Coast. We boosted it from St Lucia Saturday morning after the boys made us pancakes-screw gender roles amirite ladies-and took the train towards the Middle of Nowhere QLD.
We walked through some neighborhoods and along the roads until we found the trail head.

Da Crew: Reina, Alec, me, Bridget, Max, Carol, and Graham

It wasn't a very long hike, but it was pretty darn steep, and with a bunch of gear on our backs we took plenty of "koala breaks" to try and find the little guys up in the trees/catch our breath. Sadly, we couldn't find any.
Then we got the peak...

WOW WHATTA VIEW
We could see the ocean on one side and rolling hills and mountains on the other. And then we spent some time trying to figure out if there was anywhere in the US that could look like this, and decided that while maybe there are similar views, nothing could possibly feel quite the same.

After a while of staring at the view and taking pictures of each other pretending to be pensive and climbing into the crevices the rocks created, we wandered down the slope in front of the rocky peak into a forest of short little trees which looked exactly like manzanita. After doing a bit of research earlier today, I'm not sure manzanita is native or grows wildly in Australia, so either it's an invasive plant that took root in Glasshouse and flourished or it's another strain of manzanita or just another plant altogether. #ecology

We set up camp on the mossy patches in between the trees where no one on the ridge could really see us...because...it's not exactly legal to camp there. But the boys had done it before, and in my mind, what better place to get arrested for illegal activities than a foreign country? The conservationist part of me kept thinking about what kind of ecosystem we were destroying, but the 20 year old adventurous (HAHAHAHA) part of me was like why the hell not? Because sometimes you have to say yolo unironically and just do the damn thing.

The rest of the day was spent hanging out, throwing frisbees over the trees and trying to catch them before they flew over the cliff (yeah...I make sure to have a frisbee with me everywhere I go these days...), and assuming we wouldn't get caught.

j chillin

da truest homies, of course in a selfie taken by the selfie queen, RayRay

We split up into a few tents and Bridget and I spent the night in ours FREEZING because it decided to rain and become super windy right as we were going to bed. Of course I'm not the kind of person who would have thought to bring a sleeping bag to this country, so I was huddled under a blanket wearing all of the clothes I had brought trying not to wake Bridget up while I shivered. YAY CAMPING
This morning I was the first one up, as I always am thanks to some weird need to have done something productive before 8am, so I hung out watching the rainclouds blow over the mountains in the morning light and all of that good 6am stuff.

Once every one woke up we packed up camp and hiked back down the mountain, smelling and looking about 50 times worse than we had on the way up.
An older woman asked me if we had been camping, and I responded with "Er, no, of course not! We're uh...training. To hike...far..." (run away run away).

I am so happy we got it together to go camping this weekend, because this is what I came to Australia to do-crazy things out in gorgeous nature.
Also, I have amazing friends. Thanks to the guys for teaching me how to camp not right next to your car (Dad, we've never gone real camping....).

Yeah, remember how at the beginning of this post I was saying I'm counting down the days until I get home? Well, I just looked at that number again...
It's 34.
34 days?!?! Are you kidding me??? I had 134 when I got here! WHERE DID THEY GO???
I'm ready to go home, but not quite ready to leave these amazing views and these great friends.
Can I just take the little bubble of a world I've created in Australia and plop it down right next to San Diego?

34 days. Final stretch yo.
(Literally though, finals start in 2.5 weeks.)

Sprang Brake

Monday, September 29th

HELLLOOOOO from Heron Island! I wasn't sure I'd have access to my computer or any internet while we're here, and even though we do, I'm trying to use it really sparingly. Technology detox, if you will. PLUS why would I want to be staring at a screen when I'm in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef??

Seriously, in the last few days, dream have come true. Heron Island is a TINY island, and by tiny I mean like 800 meters by 300 meters. There's a fancy people resort on one side and a research station on the other, and it's pretty much just stretches of beach and tropical foresty business in the middle. AMAZING

We left UQ on a bus Friday night at 11 pm, drove until 8 am ish, and then took a two hour ferry ride from Gladstone to here.
Saturday they fed us and stuck us right in the water. We snorkeled around the dock and the shipwreck and saw SUCH AMAZING FISH. Gonna be real, Finding Nemo is unrealistic because coral is rarely those vibrant colors, but the fish are beautiful shades of green and blue and pink...we also saw a few reef sharks and whitetip sharks which I never thought I'd be close to. AH SCARY
Yesterday was a swim on the north side of the island. The way the current runs and weather hits the island makes the north side really calm, flat, and sandy, so it's a perfect place to swim. After lunch they boated us out through the channel to the edge of the reef flat, where we jumped off in our fins and wetsuits to snorkel for an hour or so. We saw more sharks, spiny lobsters, gorgeous corals, and more species of fish than I ever knew existed.

Last night we went on a night snorkel in the harbor. We were split into groups with a tutor, so it wasn't just 50 kids swimming around blindly. They gave us flashlights and attached glowsticks to the top of our snorkels and we went out to the shipwreck and back. Since the tide was higher than the day before, we were able to swim into the wreck and see the fish and other organisms that had found a habitat there. On the way back in, we saw a barracuda, two green sea turtles, and a squid. The squid literally turned up in our faces out of nowhere, and was such bright pink and orange and WOWEE WOW so cool! It was so frantic about having 5 flashlights blinding it that it almost swam right into Bridget.

Since the point of being here is to do a research project, we're examining the amount of alive coral vs dead coral in the research zone and in the marine park zone. We're expecting that the coral will be more degraded in the research zone, because there's pretty consistent collection and surveys being done. We woke up at 5am this morning to catch the low tide, and got our measurements done for the research zone, so tomorrow morning we'll get up at the crack of dawn again and do the marine park! I actually love being up that early, because it makes the day seem so much longer, and I'm pretty obsessed with this place...
We spent all day today snorkeling and laying on the beach. Bridget and I saw a MASSIVE reef shark and a few stingrays.
This is seriously a dream come true. I have spent the past few days with salt in my hair and sand on my feet and no makeup and 100% outside and no cares except this project but even that is super chill and I LOVE IT HERE. It is so surreal to me that I'm IN THE GREAT BARRIER REEF. I swam in one of the 7 wonders of the world. WHAAAAAAAAAAAT

It's almost dinner time, but I'll hopefully write again when we get back to Brisbane Wednesday night!

Monday, October 6th
Well, I'm finally back in Brisbane. And, I DID write another piece to this blog post on the plane Thursday morning, but, alas, my phone was pick pocketed in Sydney and my notes did not save to the cloud. More on that later...
Where did I leave off...
Last Tuesday on Heron Island we finished up our research, went for another boat snorkel where I swam three feet away from a giant sea turtle, went snorkeling with Bridget in Shark Bay where we saw two  MASSIVE sting rays-at first we were like oh its just a stick in the sand lets keep going WAIT WAIT THATS A TAIL THOSE ARE BARBS WE ARE ABOVE A STING RAY GET OUT GET OUT-and I spent some time alone on the beach before realizing I was actually the only person on the beach. I legitimately could not see another person. HOW CRAZY IS THAT
That night we spent sunset on the jetty and jumped off into the warmest ocean water I've ever experienced.

Wednesday we presented our research, said goodbye to our four new Danish boyfriends-jkjk just the guys we roomed with, #greatdanes-and had to restrain ourselves from running to hide in the forest so as not to get on the ferry back to the mainland. Because after all an amazing 5 days of sun and sand and hanging out in the coolest place in the world, Brisbane was sounding pretttyyyyy boring.

We got back to the Pink Palace around midnight on Wednesday and left for the airport to fly to Sydney at 5 am Thursday. So Wednesday night was a frantic unpacking-packing-sleeping for an hour-caffeinating adventure.
Reina, Bridget, Martha and I checked into our hostel in Bondi Beach and went straight towards the opera house to meet up with our (Aussie) friends Jess and Renata, who were also in Syndey for the weekend. The 6 of us took the ferry across the harbor to Manly Beach, which is kind of tourisy but really gorgeous. We spent a few more hours lying in the sun and taking goofy pics before heading back toward the bridge and opera house for cool sunset views.

And when we were getting off the ferry, in the massive crowd, someone plucked my phone out of my backpack.
In reality it's really not that bad, because there's the mystery that is the cloud that put my Heron Island pictures on my computer, and I just have to order a new SIM card for like $5 and get a phone that will last me the next 6 weeks. It's a BUST though because I couldn't take pictures in Sydney! And it was hard to stay in touch with friends/my group of 4 in Sydney couldn't get too split up because somehow between us we ended up with only 2 functional phones by the 2nd day....SO we went old school and actually MADE CONCRETE PLANS
I never realized how dependent I am on my phone though. I was sitting by myself at one point waiting for my friends and I had nothing in my hands, and I was thinking "wow I must look so lame sitting here alone" because I couldn't even PRETEND to be texting anyone or anything...
Needless to say, this weekend was a good technology detox, even more so than Heron Island, and while I will be keeping this next pone glued to my hand so it doesn't get lost, I won't be using it as much. I've become too dependent on wifi and snapchat. NEW YEAR NEW ME-Chag Sameach y'all!

That night we were all so exhausted from multiple 5am mornings in a row and a combined 4 hours of sleep between all of us we crashed at 9pm. WOOO SPRING BREAKERS GETTIN CRAZY IN BONDI BEACH
Friday we met Jess and Renata on the beach and did a gorgeous coastal walk to Bronte beach.

That night we met them at Jess's aunts house in Paddington, the cutest little part of the city EVER, and had dinner and shopped in the book stores nearby.
Saturday was Yom Kippur, so Reina and I were fasting, but in the morning we all went to the Paddington Markets, which is basically just a really cool street fair.
Then Reina and I headed back to the hostel, where we watched Temple Adat Shalom's Kol Nidre services. Yup, my synagogue in San Diego is so cool that it STREAMS IT'S SERVICES. And since the time change puts us a day ahead, we watched the Kol Nidre services on Yom Kippur, but we both agreed it was better than no services and it was pretty enjoyable.
That afternoon we met back up with Bridget and Martha for an adventure downtown to the Botanical Gardens, which are gorgeous and right across the water from the opera house.

Sunday was spent shopping, sunbathing, and eating around Bondi Beach before flying back to Brisbane that night.

Overall, it was an amazing week and a half and now I have to try and convince myself to focus because there's only 3 more weeks of classes and 6 more weeks in this crazy country! I'm not ready for it to end!!
I've never been so tan or blonde or spent so many days happily being lazy in the sun and ocean.
Here's to SIX MORE WEEKS