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!

Crazy Profs and Loads of Coffee

FIRST WEEK OF CLASSES TACKLED.
I'm going to give you all a day by day run down, with probably way too much detail about things you don't actually care about. But whatever. In 30 years I'm gonna read this and be like "oh yeah, I remember that prof with the mutton chops...good thing I obnoxiously wrote about it in horrendous detail!"
also, I really have nothing else to do yet. There aren't any assignments yet so I'm just trying to kill time between lectures. Yay school.

Monday
well, first of all, I stayed up way to late Sunday night. I'm not quite sure why it's a thing to go out on Sunday nights here, but I needed coffee at 3pm to make it through my evening classes. It's safe to say I will not be taking part in any more of those outings, because who wants to start off their week feeling all sleepy like that?
It's really weird for me to start off the week so late in the day. I don't have class until 2, and I am such a morning person that I actually hate this. I'd so much rather have my classes start at 8 in the morning and get them out of the way. But Mondays I have class from 2-7pm, and it's not very enjoyable.
My first class was Conservation, a third year bio course on...well, conservation. Which is actually my major, so I think that's why they let me in the class. It's the equivalent of a fourth year class at Cal, since they only have 3 years of uni here.
The prof for this class is the one with the facial hair reminiscent of 19th century presidents. He started off class by telling us he was inspired to become a conservationist by the old British tv show "The Goodies" and Midnight Oil. I am not kidding-the band Midnight Oil. He idolized Peter Garrett, the lead singer and, surprising to me, environmentalist (the lyrics to Beds Are Burning make total sense now). So this prof seems pretty entertaining, and I was impressed with his tweed jacket/wingtips combo.
Very professorial.
After an awkward hour break in which I finished Mindy Kaling's book-I'm into books written by comedians right now, apparently-I went to my Marine and Coastal Environmental Protection class, which I have been the most excited for. After meeting this prof I'm fully convinced that all professors in environmental fields used to be hard core hippies (I say used to, but I'm pretty sure most of them still would call themselves hipppies). This guy told us he had tinnitus from too many rock festivals back in the day. He also had Billabong and Quicksilver stickers stuck all over his laptop and said he spends his weekends on the coast, surfing and diving. I'm just so AMPED for that class. He was telling us about the guest lectures and the topics for the semester, and when he said "NGOs and how they benefit coastal areas" I just about peed my pants in excitement. And that's how I know I'm in the right place doing the right thing.

Tuesday
Class from 9-3, straight. HOW DID I DO THIS DAILY IN HIGH SCHOOL?!?! I have lost all my stamina and ability to be engaged in classes for a full 6 hours. It's just not a thing.
For the first three hours I have a lab for my conservation class. Labs here are very different from labs at Cal. They're actually RUN BY THE PROFESSORS.
WHAT?!?!?!
Yeah, the prof leads the labs. We're in a massive, long lab room, split up into sections separated by half walls. There are tutors-similar to GSI's but more plentiful and helpful-for each section, and for each pair of students there is a massive Apple computer screen. On each of the little half walls, there are Apple TVs which show what's happening in the front of the room, so you can actually see the professor and what he's doing. They also broadcast what hes saying over the speaker system in the room. So, if you're not in the very front of the room it's like watching a TV show or something.
It should be an interesting lab, though. We'll be doing conservation planning projects for a part of Tasmania, and today we did an exercise that involved protecting the highest number of species for the lowest cost. I'm hoping to get some valuable, practical experience out of this.
Directly after this I went to my International Conservation Policy lecture. Nothing specially significant or funny to say about the first day, other than there will be a lot of guest lecturers. Which is great, because the guy who ran today's class was borrrriiiiiing.
Normally I'll have a tutorial for that class my last hour of today, and it clashes with a lecture for another class. But not today! I went to my lecture for Australia's Marine Environment, which seems like it will be a lot of basic information I already know, but there's a super amazing 5 day research field trip to the Great Barrier Reef, so I will definitely be staying in that class. Besides, who doesn't want an easy class in their schedule?
Side note: tutorials are called tuts (read: toots). I think it's hilarious. And this is where my mom would tell me I sound like Uncle Mark and probably mention the biogas story we all know and love...or something.

Wednesday
Wednesdays are great because I only have one class! It's a 8 am...but I'm done by 9 and I have the whole day to do things (read: study).
The lecture is for the marine environment class, and today it was totally pointless. Like I could have skipped it and been perfectly fine. I think every science class ever HAS to start out with "what is science" and "this is the scientific method." But HELLO, we are third year science students. WE KNOW THIS STUFF. I KNOW WHAT A HYPOTHESIS IS. I am waiting for the day when a science prof says, "You all know about the basic principles of experimentation, so let's move on," because I am soooo over taking notes on it for each science class I take. Oy.
Today UQ was holding their "Market Day," which is like Caltopia on steroids. Every club and organization tables around the quad and harasses students to join. I came across a few cool clubs, but it was $5 to join, so I figured I'll like their facebook page and actually pay the membership if anything really cool comes up.
I did find ultimate frisbee though! I had emailed them a few weeks ago, and they told me about their different leagues and what not. Wednesday night there's a social league, but the guys at the table thought I'd be above that because I've played for a few years. I'm setting some high expectations for myself here...
In addition to Wednesday nights, they put a team or two into the mixed league in greater Brisbane, which plays in the city on Monday nights. Hopefully I can play both nights! I've missed frisbee so much!
Martha and I both only had one morning class, so we went to the "beach." In the middle of the city there's a man-made beach, with what is basically a salt water pool. It was nice to feel like we totally left our normal stomping grounds for a while.

And then I went to practice! It felt so great to be playing again. I was running around during the game grinning like an idiot. They really need girls on their team so a few people immediately thought I was the best thing ever because I was both a girl and I could throw pretty well-NO PRESSURE OR ANYTHING.
Afterwards I met my friends at the UQ rugby game. Rugby is weird, but we had a great time. No one really cheers for their team though! I'm so used to massive students sections screaming "roll on you Bears" and many other, more explicit things, but nothing like that happens out here. It was like a crowd for golf but we were watching people pound on each other. It was weird.

Thursday
Thursday morning I have another lecture for my conservation class. Today when we walked in the prof was blasting a Radiohead song. So that's cool.
That afternoon I had a lecture for my marine environment class where we learned how to write a scientific paper, which again, we ALL KNOW HOW TO DO. Another lecture I could have skipped. This class should pick up next week. I hope.
The end of my week is surprisingly chill. I have hardly any class compared to Monday or Tuesday. This is probably bad because I feel like I'm done with the week by Wednesday morning, but once I have assignments and things it'll be nice to have so much free time.
Thursday night my roommates and I made an Aussie version of slutty brownies. Normally, slutty brownies are a layer of cookie dough, a layer of oreos, and a layers of brownie. Instead of oreos, we used Tim Tams, the best thing to have ever been placed on this earth (second to Ryan Gosling). If you haven't tried these cookies you need to CHANGE THAT. I'll bring some home, because from what I've heard they only sell them here and in Israel. So go Israel.

SO GOOD.

Friday
One 8 am lecture for conservation. None of my other roommates have Friday class. Actually very few people at all seem to have Friday class. I'm glad it's early so I can get it out of the way, but just in case I don't make it every lecture it recorded and put online.
The only thing significant is that the prof managed to work Johnny Cash into the lecture. In between a slide on deserts and a slide on Mediterranean biomes there was a slide with a picture of him in a Johnny Cash shirt and an audio clip of a song. Just for fun.

And that's my week! Class wooooooooooooooooooooo
its the freakin weekend

Bridget, me, and Martha taking on Brisbane

O-Week and Kangaroos

Well, we survived orientation.
I want to say "barely" right there. Like oh my gosh, I baaaaaarely made it through the sea of information without Moses, I am still so confused about how to get around campus, oh em gee...
But honestly, orientation was so laid back compared to Cal's. At Berkeley it was 48 hours of nonstop team building and new knowledge. Here, we went to a session on how to enroll in classes, a safety hour about all of the animals in Australia that will kill you (everything), and a program specific to study abroad kids where they gave us free cookies. So basically, it was a breeze.
We've spent the rest of the week getting acquainted with campus and other international students, as well as finishing getting all the stuff we need to live and be functional people. There is so much stuff I bought in Berkeley when I first got to school that is necessary to daily life that I just forgot about here. Things I forgot I use often. Like ziploc baggies and coffee filters and pens and paper and all that stuff that is just normally in your house, I totally forgot I would need. After multiple trips to the store and some trial runs with the cheapo coffee pot in our house, I finally feel settled in and ready for school to start.
Aaaaanyway.
This week I've been going to a lot of events put on by a group called Quest. Quest is pretty much a bunch of Australian uni kids doing things for international kids. They held a BBQ Tuesday afternoon. And when they say BBQ, they mean hot dogs on bread. Yeah, BREAD. Not even buns. That's what an "Aussie BBQ" is. Needless to say, I went expecting burgers and fries, and I got a sad potentially not even Hebrew National hot dog in a sad piece of bread with sad ketchup.
Tuesday night they threw a party at a club in the city. Which means 500 sweaty international kids crammed onto a super tiny dance floor. And it was pretty fun! I met an Australian boy who took some time off after high school and moved to Canada where he became an ice road trucker. I am not kidding. He spent like 20 minutes telling me about a time when he brakes froze up. I pretended to be interested until he left to get a drink, and he hadn't offered me one...so I bailed and went and danced with my friends. It was great.

roomies

Wednesday we had a few other orientation things, and then that night Martha, Bridget, and I went over to South Bank on the ferry for a "Night Noodle Market." South Bank is my fave part of the city so far. It's so cute! It reminds me of Prospect Street in La Jolla, but with more cocktail and dessert bars. The noodle market was nice-a lot of cheap Asian food, cool music, and a ton of people. We rode "The Wheel of Brisbane" that night too! It gives you awesome views of the whole city and the river.

Noodle Market

Me chillin on the ferris wheel

Yesterday, we went out to the suburbs to meet a friend of a friend of Bridget's who grew up in Brisbane. She gave us a massive list of places to go and things to do. Our bucket list went from 6 things to 46 in a second. There's a glow worm cave she told us about and if I don't make it out there I'll be severely disappointed.
And then today....

YES. IT HAPPENED.
We did the stereotypical Aussie tourist thing and went to an animal sanctuary to hold koalas and feed kangaroos. Yeah, I paid to hold a koala for 5 seconds AND IT WAS AMAZING. Like why did I not do that last time I was here? They're not cuddly though. She kind of clawed at my hair. But it was okay because I got this fantastic picture:

AW YEAH

Since my generation is obsessed with ourselves and documenting everything, I took a ton of selfies with the 'roos.

my new Aussie boyfriend

They're so soft and they have giant teeth. I was kind of worried one of them would spontaneously decide to punch me because that can like kill a person, but they were so tame and relaxed and probably actually miserable from being touched by children all day. But it was fun, and definitely something you have to do while you're here.

Woooo! Classes start Monday and I actually can't wait. I'm excited for all my courses and to have a routine and what not.

Here we go!

Gold Coast

Spent my weekend on the Gold Coast, looking at views like this and pretending it's not winter here.

Yeah, my weather app blatantly lied when it said it'd be 75 and sunny all week because we sort of froze out on the coast. It was super windy and we complained about it like the California kids we are. We had a good time anyway, and we'll definitely be going back.

Martha, Bridget, and I left Brisbane Thursday morning and took the train to Surfer's Paradise. The public transit system here is supes great. We can get all over Queensland like nobody's business. Going back to NextBus and guessing when the 51B might show up is going to be rough.

Our hostel in Surfer's was pretty nice. We had a two bedroom suite type room to ourselves, and when we checked in the owner gave us a ticket for free entry to a bar that night. So Surfer's was living up to it's reputation right away (yeah, hate to break it to ya Dad, but Surfer's Paradise is not a luxurious beach front town. It's a tourist-trap party haven, famous as the place where kids go on their spring break trips).

Bridget, me, and Martha

We wandered into town on the beach and scoped out the city a little bit before deciding to cook dinner in our lil kitchen.

SUCCESS

Afterwards, we were supposed to meet downstairs to get a bus with the hostel to the bar. But we were still so jetlagged and tired that we were all ready to go to sleep at 8 pm. So we napped, got ourselves amped up for a night out, and made it to the bar. Whheeerrrreee we mostly avoided creepy older men and bailed early. 

The next day we hopped on a bus south to Coolangatta, a stretch of the Gold Coast that's a bit older, quiter, and less tourist-y. We checked into our hostel and met our two other roomies, a girl from Scotland and a girl from Barcelona. After that we made our way to the beach...

...such a gorgeous coastline! If I'm being completely honest with myself, it's similar to San Diego's, but everyone has an Australian accent so whatever. I'm in ANOTHER WORLD OKAY

After a while we decided we actually needed to do something, so we found a little cove, rented wetsuits, frantically ran around trying to find goggles, and jumped in to the water near "Danger Point."

my first time actually wearing a wetsuit...and obviously rocking it.

But there were no fish. 

We literally saw nothing.

Sand.

We saw sand.

And WE FROZE. Ohhh my gosh the water is cold. Thank goodness for wetsuits, because otherwise I would have died.

That night we actually did fall asleep at 9 pm. Yesterday was spent hiking Burleigh Heads National Park. It was actually one of the prettiest views I've seen. SUCH blue water.

Surfer's Paradise in the background

From the very top you could see hundreds of surfers. When we finally made it back down to the bottom of the hill/mountain/foresty place we sat and watched them for about an hour before going to get lunch. There were literally TONS of surfers in the water, and they were all impressively good. I fell in love with a guy in an orange wetsuit. He got creamed by a massive wave at some point and I think I actually shrieked.

The swells were seriously massive though. Some of them were definitely 10 ft, and these guys were surfing them like total pros. Made me wish I had attempted to get up on a board more than once or twice.

Bridget creepin on those Aussie surfers

Last night, like the crazy kids we are, we went to the movies to avoid the bar at our hostel. Bridget went surfing this morning, Martha ran, and I went and sat on the rocks by the water with a flat white (what they call a latte. I think.). It was a gorgeous early morning, and there were a bunch of surfers out again.

Aaaaaand that's pretty much it!

Loving Australia already, but there are definitely things I miss. We went to the grocery store today, and I couldn't find shredded cheese. OR TORTILLAS. WHAT WILL I DO WITHOUT TORTILLAS.

I found some awesome cookies though. So that's a plus.

Also dryers. Those just don't really exist here. Which is A MASSIVE BUMMER because it's winter so everything is cold...homes here are built to keep cool air in because it gets so blazingly hot in the summer months, but in the winter it means it stays freezing inside. When we moved in, there was a notice on the fridge from our housing peeps telling us all that, and basically saying we have to suck it up. So yeah, I miss dryers. Random.

Dang, I'm feeling a little pressure about this post. I think it's finally the one I'll link to facebook, so props to all y'all for reading all of this. I think I'm funny, so I hope you do too...

(but seriously let me know if I sound lame)

So Fresh So Clean

Hello! I'm finally coming to you actually from BRISBANE!

I am 100% exhausted. Our travel day turned insane, and it took us a total of 30-some hours to get from LAX to our new house.

Martha, Bridget, and I met up at LAX and boarded our flight to New Zealand. We hadn't booked our tickets together so we were scattered all over the plane. I was next to this adorable and very obviously newly wedded couple, who chatted with me for a good portion of the flight and didn't mind when I actually snorted water out of my nose from laughing at Tina Fey's book (knew it was gonna happen). So we're going to Auckland, la dee da, when all of a sudden...

our destination changed. The little plane moving across the map on the screen in front of me was now going to Fiji, not NZ. Finally the captain tells us the fog is too thick in Auckland, and we'll have to stop in Fiji to refuel before going to meet our original connecting flights. Or, well, not meet them. Because this detour added about three hours to that flight. Which meant we were all sitting in the same place, gettin gross and breathing all the same air, for almost 16 hours.

This flight was also just super weird (in the hilarious almost awesome way). When you went into the dinky little restroom, there was like, Sirius XM's Top 20 on 20 channel playing. Like I had myself a dance party to "Fancy" in the bathroom on this plane. Super random.

Strange things also happened with my little video screen. First of all, it was set up as a little kids screen, and it didn't change for half the flight. Which was okay, because I mean, who doesn't like watching all of the Shrek movies one after the other? But when it finally decided to switch to the regular "for adults" features, it really went all out. Right as Shrek and Fiona were falling in love with their lil green babies, the screen went black, and some awful attempt-at-being-sexy lets-get-it-on music comes on, and a guy sings in an awful tenor 1 that very few people can sing "Let's daaaaaaance naked under palm treeeeees..."

Dead serious. It scared the crap right out of me.

Anyway, when we finally got to Auckland, we had obviously missed our connecting flight to Brisbane. They put us on a flight that didn't leave for another 6 hours and gave us a voucher for "$10 dollars off Duty Free when you spend $99!" So kind of them, really. It took us and all of the other displaced passengers about a year (read: two hours) to get our bags, go through customs, check in to our new flight on another airline, and go back through security.

We then made a phone call that cost SEVEN DOLLARS A MINUTE  to let the university know we were coming in much later than expected and settled in to wait for our plane.

And finally, at like 6pm Brisbane time, WE MADE IT. WE SURVIVED. All any of us wanted to do was shower after way too many hours spent too close to too many people and be so fresh so clean clean (insert Andre 3000 rap here).

Our house is pretty great. Some of the things are kinda janky, and it's dusty, but we can fix that. I lucked out and have a good-sized room to myself with my own bathroom.

So now after a (sort of) good nights sleep, we're setting out to explore the campus and surrounding area today. Tomorrow Martha, Bridget, and I are going out to the Gold Coast for a couple of days! First adventure!

Wish me luck!

ONE DAY MORE

ANOTHER DAAAAAAAAAAY, ANOTHER DESTINYYYYYYY
Seriously though, I leave tomorrow.
For Australia.
For four months.
HAHAHAHA what.

I have spent the last week or so pretending to pack while really just watching random Australian tv shows on Netflix and reading Tina Fey's book-which is hilarious, I plan to finish it on the plane and am somewhat concerned that whoever is next to me will hate me for laughing out loud every 10 seconds. In addition to that, I've been doing random things with my friends in Escondido in an attempt to soak up as much of summer as possible. It's winter in Australia (WEIRD HUH), and my friend who is currently studying abroad in Chile is freezing her butt off in the southern hemisphere. But my trusty weather app says it will be 75 and sunny in Brisbane all next week, so I think I can get used to the Australian winter.

Hopefully my next update will come to all of you (read: Mom) from Brisbane! Can't wait/am definitely freaking out.