The trip to Slicker's Riding Ranch this past weekend was more than I could have ever asked for. After meeting the rest of the group at 6.30 am Saturday morning, we headed out to the Sunshine Coast. It took us about 2.5 hours and a stop at McDonalds for coffee to get there, but everyone loves road trips! Once we arrived, I immediately knew it was going to be a good weekend. We had to wait around for a bit to get all of the horses saddled up and ready, as there was about 11 of us from Bond, then about 25 or 30 others there. Each person was matched with a horse based on number of times on a horse, weight, and height. That's how they do it at these places, I guess. I'm sure I've been on a horse more times than I could count, but I know I'm not advanced. Plus I wanted to stick with my friend Kaitlin, who had never even touched a horse before ha ha.

Therefore, I was paired with a horse that wasn't a beginner horse, because there were too many beginners and not enough horses. I found myself on top of a fiesty Redhead, rightfully named Redman. He normally leads the experienced group, so walking for 6 hours in one day was not necessarily his cup of tea. But we managed! We rode for about 3 hours up and down mountains, through rivers, over valleys and rock croppings, to find ourselves at a Winery, which is considered a hidden gem. It was the most beautiful ride I have ever been on! We had a glorious lunch, then headed back to the ranch. We were all so dead tired that we didn't do much that night but stuff our faces with pizza and junk food and sleep.

The next morning, I switched horses with another girl who wanted a faster one for the experienced ride. I took her horse, Sonny, and we headed out for a four hour property ride around the 3500 acre ranch. It was such a good ride!! We went through bigger river crossings and more hills that day, but it was equally as fantastic. The feeling of running a horse up an incredibly steep hill is something else..definitely an experience I'll need to do again. It was a perfect weekend! I'm still pretty tired, and sore as all get out. But that's alright.

Sunday night was the series finale of Master Chef Australia, which I have been following since the beginning. Therefore, I became addicted! It was the most exciting episode, even though my first choice for the winner didn't win. But it was still fun to be apart of it! It's the highest grossing television show in the history of Australian television. Pretty exciting! Ha ha the simple things in life.

I've actually managed to get to classes this week so far, which is refreshing. Getting out of the house for something as simple as classes is so nice. I also met up with a group of 12 or so people and went to $8 movie mondays to see Inception. Words cannot describe the brilliance that is this movie. I had already decided that I needed to see it again ten minutes into it! Otherwise, I've just been hanging around the house and around campus this week. It's been raining cats and dogs for the past three days! Pouring like no other, which is no bueno because I have no umbrella and walking to campus is, well, outdoors. Ha!

Planning for the beach this weekend. The weather is really starting to warm up, minus the rain! We're also going to visit a place called the Carerra Markets, which is essentially a flea market of sorts. Let's see how that goes! Only two weeks of classes left! Then a week off to travel to Sydney and Melbourne, then finals week. I only have one final, and so do most of my friends, so I'm pretty sure we'll be traveling around that week as well. Not sure where to go yet! We'll have to figure that all out pretty soon. And then it's three weeks off until classes start again haha. It never ends!

Cheers!