I'll Try Not To Bore You...

And by saying that, I only mean it because this week has not had as much adventure as the past few weeks. But I'll update you anyways :)

Last weekend we went about an hour south of Surfers Paradise to a small beach town called Byron Bay. Gloriously beautiful place, I cannot even BEGIN to describe it. You'll just have to explore my photos, once they're loaded that is haha. Currently in the process of doing that. We mostly just hung out at the beach, ate food and gelato, and bonded. Byron Bay is famous for this lighthouse which is situated at the Eastern most point of the Australian mainland. Amazing! So we ran up there as quick as we could in order to see the sunset. However, there were 8 people for a 5 seater car. So what did we do? Hid Kristen on the floorish of the back seat, and shoved Kaitlin and Marcio into the trunk. Fantastic. Good thing the drive was only about 10 minutes.

This was the first lighthouse I have ever seen in person. I was awestruck! It was incredible and I took way too many pictures of it. The sunset was equally as beautiful....never seen anything like that. Colorado sunsets now have a competitor in my mind! We went to a place called the Beach Hotel on saturday night, it had live music and plenty of people. It was really, really fun! The town itself is so cute and quaint, definitely different than Surfers. I could see myself living there, if only for a while.

Sunday we didn't do much else besides eat food and gelato (new guilty pleasure, by the way). We were so tired! It was a lazy, rainy day. But unfortunately our bus ride didn't come until 4.30, so we ended up sleeping in the main lobby of our hostel for a couple hours. It was awkward/amazing. Ha!

We had our weekly traditional brekky this morning. Everyone meets at the cafe called Juicy Bits for some of the most delicious breakfast food we've ever tasted. Eggs Benedict with a large Chai latte is now my new favorite. And it usually keeps me full until brekky on saturday haha, which is nice. The less money spent on food the better!

Not many plans for this weekend. School and classes are starting to get tough for everyone, so people are just buckling down and studying most of the time. It's raining like crazy today, so Kaitlin and I are just going to have a movie day. Excellent work! Tomorrow, hopefully, we're hittin up the beach! Gotta love year round beach weather. It's glorious.

Hopefully I'll have some more exciting things to update on starting next week! Cheers for now!
Love!

Pictures! Finally!

Alright, so I've finally figured out a way for everyone to view my photos. Besides facebook, that is. Shutterfly offers a way for you to make a website that has pictures, videos, journal entries, everything I want to share. Well, I won't be using the journal on that page since I have this blog, but please feel free to explore my photos!

http://traveljunkiejj.shutterfly.com/

Love!

Sad News From Home...

This morning I woke up, and do what I do every Monday morning: head to campus an hour before class to get my copy of the The Australian Weekend Ed and sit at Juicy Bits (campus cafe) with a warm cup of Chai and read. Upon opening the paper this morning, I was greatly disturbed. News from home struck at my heart, and I wanted to scream. On the front page of the World News section are pictures from the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill. But not shots of the spill itself. Pictures of once beautiful sea creatures, caked in a slick, black evil from which they cannot escape.

I gripped the edge of the table, biting my lip to keep the tears that had formed in my eyes from spilling down my cheeks. I simply could not believe that mankind had let this happen. It was devastating, and it was all I could to go to class in one piece. You all know me... animal lover extraordinaire. I couldn't help it. The pain that those poor animals must have been feeling, to know that they are suffering, is more than I can physically bare.

But here I am, across the WORLD, not able to help. What can I do but send out my love and prayers for the victims of mankind's carelessness. If I were home, there is no doubt that I would be on a plane to the South with as much dish soap as I could carry to wash the black death off of the winged beauties. It really tore at my heart strings, and has yet to let go. My goal of saving innocent animals is freshly beating in my heart of hearts, and I will never stop helping them. I'm putting aside every selfish thought in my head, however few there are.

Let's embrace the animal kingdom with a whole new light, and promise to keep our fellow citizens on the same track. The men of BP deserve punishment for torturing innocent lives, regardless if they are human or animal. This situation better be fixed soon, or you might all find me on American soil rather soon.

Love.

June? Already?

I honestly cannot believe that I have been here for a month! Time is flying by, and a little too quickly I might add. Although everyone and everything says this is the winter season, I'm not seeing it. So as far as I know, the rest of this year is summer. And this excites me.

Nothing too much this past week. Just studying, chillin with friends, that sort of thing. We had Palaver, which is a massive party held every semester. It was amazing! Had to buy a new dress and shoes for the party, but who's complaining =) Spent a few hours at the beach yesterday, enjoying the glorious sun. We really did nothing of any importance, it was fantastic. Today we're all studying, and by that I mean laying in the sun and chatting with our textbooks somewhere nearby. I'm loving the chill life! It's so relaxing, and yet I feel more productive than ever.

I definitely recommend a small dose of Australian culture for anyone stressing about life. It's glorious down here, and there's plenty of room for all!

Spot X - Mojo Surf Camp

Although our weekend trip only lasted about 48 hours (of which only 8 of those we were actually sleeping), it's definitely something to put down in the books as "awesome".

Sitting in the rain on the curb waiting for the bus with backpacks and boxed wine (better known as "Goon") is where we found ourselves late Friday evening. Once the very late bus did show, however, we immediately knew this weekend was going to be worth it. A black bus, with screaming lime green designs all over it. It was a MASSIVE coach bus, and once the driver got off to officially check us it, we loaded up and found ourselves in a crowd of 40 or so Brazillians. Ha. Bring it on.

It took us about 4.5 hours to finally get to Spot X, meaning we arrived at about 1 in the morning. After a quick tour (in the complete dark, mind you) we found ourselves with two germans, one irish girl, and one scot in a hostel/dorm style room. Six Americans. Talk about a room full of party animals! Ha ha kidding kidding. After a few hours of sleep, everyone headed out to surf while I found myself walking down the beach. Did I mention it was pouring down rain? That was a huge bummer. But it managed to clear up a few hours later, and stayed clear for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday night was a big party, with live music, dancing, a DJ, good food, and wonderful new friends. We met a ton of people from all over the world, including a bunch from England. We bonded over London and Brighton, and I soon found myself more homesick for London than ever. Needless to say, their wonderfully amazing accents didn't help either. But it was still a good time! We went for a moonlight walk on the beach after the band finished playing, and then found ourselves back in bed, if only for a few hours again.

The atmosphere at Spot X was amazing. Everyone was so chill, the ocean was amazing, the music was lively, and everyone was having such a good time. I could have stayed there forever! Alright, maybe just a week or two. But still. Definitely a place to go back to at some point.

The kids all went surfing again Sunday morning while I ventured out to a rocky point on the beach. It was beautiful! I took over 200 pictures in 48 hours time. How fantastical. On the way home we stopped in Byron Bay for dinner and quick look around, although 45 minutes was hardly enough time. We've already decided to head back there for a weekend as soon as possible! We got home last night tired, sore, and somehow still hungry.

I'm pretty sure I slept for 11 hours last night. However! It was the best sleep I've had since I've been here, so no complaints. My entire body is sore, and I really have no idea why, since I didn't surf. I'll get pictures up to Shutterfly/Facebook as soon as I can! Hopefully my shutterfly link works for everyone...? If not, shoot me a comment/email and I'll see what I can do.

Love!

Of Groceries & Thinking Stairs

How ya going!?
(Aussie greeting--similar to our "hey what's up" or "how's it going")

Because there is so much to absorb, and so quickly at times, I've been keeping a running list of everything I want to write in my posts. I'm going to try and knock a few off of the list this morning, providing the most entertainment possible for my wonderful audience. Whoo!

One of the most interesting things about restaurants and bars here is that many of them are Bring Your Own Beverage facilities. And I mean that literally. There'll be big signs posted outside of the place, informing customers that they do not serve beverages, regardless if they are alcoholic or not. The reasoning for this? Alcohol permits are very hard to come by, and pretty expensive too. So, restaurant owners made it simple by not serving nay drinks at all. We went bowling a couple of weeks ago, and the group of guys in the lane next to us show up with red cups, soda, and a handle of rum. I was quite amused! You could get arrested for that sort of thing in the States.

Another fascinating thing is ordering groceries online to be delivered to your front door. How about that! It's a 30 minute bus ride to the closest store, and then the bus only comes twice an hour, and then it's usually late. So having to carry multiple heavy bags with cold items on a public bus that costs 2.20 roundtrip is no fun. So my flatmates and I just order them online, for a $5 delivery fee. Between the 4 of us, that's cheaper than each of us riding the bus. And yet, I'm not quite sure if this makes me lazy or if they grocery delivery man thinks we're too old to leave our house...? Hmm...

I've also noticed that all of the tall buildings over in Surfers Paradise are not actually office buildings. They are hotels! All of the sky scrapers. Or they are holiday apartments, which is just a fancy/bigger hotel. Just goes to show how much of touristy town this is. Also. Gay Australian Accents. I'll let you picture that one on your own.

And for those of you who greatly appreciate Lolli Cup, they serve it on campus! Another reason for you to visit.

So I think I'll wrap up this lovely update with an insight into the structural fascinations of Bond Uni. The campus is split in two by a gorgeous waterfall/fountain thingy. On either side of it, there are staircases. It's the only way to get from one side to the other, so one must take the stairs. Well, these aren't your ordinary stairs. They're the kind that are too small for little steps, and too big for regular steps. Know what I mean? So for the first two weeks we're all so frustrated by these damn stairs, and trying to find alternative routes. Then this past monday, an Aussie in one of my classes who has been here at Bond for a year or so explained the purpose of the stairs to me. "They're called Chinese Thinking Stairs," she says. "They're purpose is to frustrate you, forcing you to use your brain to figure out the most natural step-to-step-ratio." Well then.

Bring it on, stairs. I'm ready for the challenge.

Love.

A Morning Tea Update

So biggest news of all: the AUD dollar dropped a ton, leaving us foreigners with more money in our pockets! Currently, we can get $100 AUD for only $82 US. That is fantastic! Everyone is rushing to ATMs to withdraw oodles of money before something changes. This still does not take away from the fact that I need a job.

I'm becoming more and more accustomed to the culture here, even though it doesn't vary much from the social culture of England. The land is streaming with people who couldn't be more carefree--even our professors! Each and every authority figure on this campus refuses to be called by their proper title. I'm on a first name basis with 3 out of 3 teachers, all of whom have doctorates. See? It isn't all about ego and title.

This weekend is our trip to Spot X, a remote beach where the surfers can find the best rip curl. Although I won't be surfing, all of my friends will be. I'll be there for moral support, you know...lying on the sand, taking pictures, riding horses in the surf...that sort of thing. It's the last of these trips for the season, since winter technically starts in June. And on that note, all of the natives keep complaining about how cold it is getting. Hello! 72 degrees is not cold, my friends. All of us from the North are so amused. People are bundling up in boots, hoodies, and scarves while us "crazy foreigners" are lying on the beach in bathers (Aussie word for swim suits).

Just finished my lovely cup of English Breakfast tea, so that's all the time I have! Class in 20 minutes, then off to the beach! Gotta love the bum life =)

Love!