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!

Melbourne

I've been here for about 2 months now. If you know me well, you know I'm ADDICTED to my google calendar, so I keep clicking through it and every time the box for November 23rd shows up with HOME written in massive blue capital letters, I get a little sad. As much as I miss Berkeley-see my post from two weeks ago-I don't want this whole study abroad thing to end...well, the study bit can end. But the abroad part? NO PLEASE.
(actually my classes are prettttty great. Berkeley, add some damn marine science classes.)
After a week packed with studying and more frisbee, Martha, Reina, and I went to Melbourne for a few days! We were seriously antsy for an adventure after spending the majority of the week in the library writing papers. Insane that it's already midterm season! SCARY that it's already midterm season! I'm in this weird limbo where I know I need to be studying but I also know I want to be out exploring more of Brisbane and Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast and doing fun things on the weekends...so where do we say OKAY ENOUGH let's give ourselves a break?
At Berkeley I think I've perfected giving myself breaks. I don't study on Fridays as a rule, and I have frisbee and Kol Hadov and Hillel to distract me. I also don't have as much of a drive to go out and do things because I'm always in Berkeley, I have time to go into San Francisco and around the bay forever, you know? But I'm only studying abroad in Australia once! I need to go see EVERYTHING! I'm trying to find the balance between working hard in my classes and seeing everything I want to while I'm here.
That's where Melbourne comes in, I guess.
Okay yeah. So Melbourne.
Thursday afternoon we flew into Melbourne. There was the most gorgeous sunset on the way in. Like, Lion King status.

Airports in Australia are SO CHILL compared to America. They didn't check our IDs once, or look at our boarding passes until we got on the plane, or make us take off our shoes and belts or ANYTHING. Crazy. Martha's taking a class on terrorism, and we were walking through the airport talking about her terrorism reader-in America, we would have been tackled and interrogated for even mentioning terrorists anywhere close to the airport. Interesting that Australia has much fewer incidences and interactions with terrorism then we do. Also-GUN CONTROL HERE. So few shootings. Compared to America, where shootings are becoming commonplace. Throwback to the one in the Vons parking lot of my hometown last month. Awful.
WOW what a tangent.
Anyway. Melbourne.
That night we checked in to our hostel, found a random Thai restaurant for dinner, and went to bed early in preparation for...
GREAT OCEAN ROAD.
Friday morning we got up suuuuper early and stepped outside the hostel to wait for the tour bus. There was a family waiting so we chatted with them for a bit. Soon a green bus pulled up and we stepped on behind our new friends. The driver mumbled something, aggressively waved us off the bus, and sped away. Confused, we stood there for a minute trying to figure out who to call or why we didn't get let on the bus, when a white bus pulls up. It seriously looked like a van your parents would tell you to watch out for on the street. The driver jumps out, names all of us correctly, and tells us to hop in.
We were still a little sketched out, especially since we were the first people on the bus, but once we drove through the city and picked up about 15 other people, the driver put on some great music and we were super excited about it all. The other people on our tour were from all over the world. Most had been traveling for an extended period, something I admire people for because I definitely don't feel like I will have the time for that in my life ever...but if my grandparents could see every state capitol and at least 127846217988 of the countries in the world, I can do it too! Starting with checking off Australia. Woot.
Our first stop was a Torquay Beach, where we had morning tea and spent a little while looking at the view.

We stopped a few other view points before heading inland to see koalas in the wild. I didn't get any pictures, because they're basically impossible to see up in the trees, but we did come across some birds who were NOT afraid of us at all...

SUPER CASUALLY landing on my HEAD are you KIDDING
After that we headed up to the highest point on the Great Ocean Road.

Then we went back inland for a short rainforest hike. We saw the oldest trees in the area, which I took pictures of but I don't remember anything about...sorry...

We also saw the 12 Apostles, Loch Ard Gorge, and London Bridge.

SO AMAZING. I'm so glad we did a Great Ocean Road tour, because I have never seen such impressive views.

12 Apostles

"The Razor"

London Bridge

Loch Ard Gorge

12 Apostles

12 Apostles

Friday night we got Italian food in Little Italy, crazy gourmet gelato, and crashed.

Saturday we spent in the city! Our hostel was right next to Carlton Gardens, which is a World Heritage Site and has the Melbourne museum and the Royal Exhibition Hall, as well as really pretty foliage.

Then we headed to Flinder's Lane, a tiny street lined with coffee shops and restaurants. There is a whole alley where artists can legally graffiti, and there was some pretty impressive art.

Next was Federation Square, lunch in South Bank, and the National Gallery of Victoria.

South Bank was awesome! There were so many street performers. We saw some like 7 year old kids singing and dancing like Dream Street, and a pair of guys dressed up like Transformers posing for pics.

Cool exhibit relating audio and drawing.

 MOM DAD YOU'LL BE SO PROUD
We went to the art gallery!
I RECOGNIZED SO MANY NAMES
I GEEKED OUT OVER GLASS PIECES
WOW MUSEUMS. Thanks Grandma Grandpa Mom and Dad for making me/forcing me to appreciate museums when I was a kid.

Then we went to Eureka Skydeck, the tallest building in Melbourne!

Sunday morning we went to Queen Victoria Markets, a massive farmers and flea market in the middle of the city. I didn't snap any pics, but it was so crowded and crazy that I doubt they would have turned out anyway.
Then we got BAGELS. And we all realized we hadn't had a single bagel since we got here. What is that? A JEWISH GIRL NEEDS BAGELS IN HER LIFE.

Overall Melbourne was awesome. It's a very European city, with tons of cafes and outdoor dining and cool bars and restaurants and is just generally a cool city. Brisbane feels much more industrial in comparison.
We also ate reaaalllly well. Melbourne has AMAZING coffee. Thai food, Italian food, burgers...it was all delicious! The bar scene was fun too, but we did not last very long out because we were so exhausted from walking around all day.
So, that was the extent of our trip! It was a blast. I'll post more pictures once I get them from Reina and Martha! Love these girls to death. We had an awesome time together and I can't wait to travel with them again! Next stop: Sydney, over our mid-semester break. Counting downnnnnn

#tinywineglass

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.