And.... I'm Back!

Let's start this post with an apology, for a severe lack of writing for the past year.

However, after some glorious changes to my life, I've decided to pick up where I left off, though there are more things to focus on in life than just traveling. Mostly because I'm poor, and traveling is fool's dream right now. So let's put this lack of money and lack of new stamps in my passport behind us, and move forward and embrace the things I do have right now.

Thanksgiving may be over, but there is always time to be grateful for the things in your life that we most often overlook. Lately I've found myself in a funk, feeling frustrated for not having all of the answers I desire at this moment. And if my maturity serves me right, this has led to a severe lack of gratitude for the positive things in my life. I've wasted countless hours playing the "I don't know... What if... I failed..." game, which has resulted in even more hours of regret about the past. But, ugh, enough! The past is done, there's nothing I can do to change it; all I can do it learn from it at this point.

So let's be grateful for the things we have now. Because that's what's important. Those who live for the future never truly live, right? Isn't that what they say? Well something like that I guess. As I've begun to embrace this way of thinking, I notice I've been smiling more. Eating better. Writing more.

Loving More.


In the end, live in the moment. Love those around you, and don't be afraid of yourself. At least, that's what works for me.

Cheers

Travels Just Around the Corner

Two finals down! Thank goodness. Now the only thing standing between me and the end of this semester is one paper and one more exam. Simple stuff! Just lots of studying to do for that exam, a ton of info to remember! That should be no bueno, but I'm willing to do it to keep up my good marks.

And I think my other incentive is the fact that I booked some wonderful travels last night with the girlies! And we leave on friday! Definitely going to be an amazing trip. Three nights in Melbourne, three in Sydney, and three in Adelaide. Feel free to google maps that! Quite the flight pattern, but at incredibly cheap prices. We also managed to score some very cheap hostel prices as well! Now all we need to do is stick with ridiculously cheap food, and I'd say we did pretty well in planning a 10 day trip! Impressive, at least.

I find myself hoping that visits to these three incredibly different cities will help to open my eyes to more of what Australia has to offer. It's impossible for the entire country to be as boring (sometimes) as where I'm living, or as Americanized. I came abroad again to escape America and experience something new! Some new culture that would amaze me with every turn of my head. So far, not quite finding that. Praying I get to find it in the next week. All I've heard about Melbourne is that "Jess, you will love it" which excites me. Sounds like my kind of place! And Sydney, well you can't come to Australia without going to Sydney. That would be like going to New York City and not going to Time Square, or going to Egypt and not seeing the Pyramids. I don't know too much about Adelaide, but I've been assigned by my partners-in-crime to investigate it! Ha ha. Sunniva, Kristen, Kaitlin and I begin the journey late friday night the 6th and return to the Gold Coast on the 15th. I'll be sure to fill in all of the details once I return, unless I can squeeze in a quick update at a hostel internet cafe.

All of that aside, I found out some very sad news the other day. The lecturer for my film class, one of my most favorite teachers I have ever had the pleasure of knowing, always misses class or his office hours. He never told us it was anything but for "personal reasons", occasionally saying he was sick. But I managed to find out that he is actually suffering through his second round of Leukemia. I guess he had it once before, but now it's back. I'm deeply saddened for him! My thoughts are with you, Scott! God speed.

Cheers

Beautiful Sunday Morning Update

Time could not be moving faster if I wanted it to! The semester ends in three weeks time, and then everyone will go their separate ways into the world. This week will definitely be the most stressful of all for me, which I'm not looking forward to. Just hoping everything goes smoothly! I've got two finals, one monday, one tuesday, and a paper due. Plus a few minor homework assignments and studying for another final. And I've got to do it all by thursday at the latest! Me and girlies are leaving for Melbourne on Thursday night for a few days, then to Sydney for a few more days. I must say that I'm most excited for these trips because I've been itching to see a new city for quite some time now.

Nothing else really going on as of right now though... This past week went super fast, and I really think it's only because I've actually been well enough and strong enough to go back to classes. That was an adventure! I feel so far behind, yet at the same time I don't have much to do in order to catch up. I guess just attendance reasons make me feel like I'm missing out so much. But oh well! It'll all be over soon, and hopefully I'll get to feeling better before I have to start the next round of classes.

I had to go to a counseling session this past week in order to get extensions on some of my assignments. Basically, if you can plea your case, they'll give you the extensions for all classes/tests/assignments etc. I really had no interest in talking about other things, but they make you fill out a questionnaire beforehand where you essentially rate aspects of your life on a scale of 1 to 10. Well, I'm not one to lie, so I was as honest as I could be. Little did I know that we were going to discuss the things that had been rated poorly! It wasn't part of the original reason for going, but she suggested that it couldn't hurt to speak about it. And now, I must say, I have had quite a good head on my shoulders the past 48 hours. I'm highly enjoying it! Let's hope it keeps up.

So here I'm sitting, drinking a wonderful cup of English Breakfast Tea, contemplating my life. Again. Nothing new on those lines. There is just too much to do and too much to see, I really need to start cramming it all in. Truly live life to the fullest! And that's what I'm going to do. Starting with trying something new every chance I get. I find that inspirational quotes really do hit home for me sometimes, so I'm definitely going to start living by those as well.

Cheers to life!

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!

Time Moves Quickly

It's hard to imagine that I've been sick for three weeks already, but when I've been sleeping most of the days away, I guess it makes sense. But at least I'm able to eat some solid foods now! Enjoyed a quesadilla the other day that was quite delicious, although it tasted nothing like Mexican food ha ha.

Haven't really done much of anything this week. Been watching this show Master Chef Australia, and it's finals week. Someone gets eliminated every night! I'm so addicted, I must know who wins! That's been about it, really. That and sleeping and watching movies. I went to a place called Teriyaki Mate yesterday with Sunniva and we had the BEST dessert of my life. Banana tempura, which is essentially a caramelized banana with ice cream and caramel sauce. AH! So fantastically delicious. We've decided to go there once a week just for dessert ha ha. Pathetic, really. Guess I just take after my Granny that way!

I've just noticed how most of this post is about food. Well, I guess that's what happens when you've been deprived of it for nearly two weeks =)

Went out to see a movie last night, which was nice. I haven't been out to the Cinema since March! And goodness knows that's one of my favorite things to do. However, when it costs $16 dollars for one movie, I can now understand why we haven't gone out much. Missing Elvis Cinemas just about now! We went out to meet the bus at 12:14, but we had about half an hour to kill. Epic photography shoot, let me just tell you. However, the bus never came, and that's because we looked at the weekend schedule, not the weekday schedule. HA! Hello taxi ride.

Got into a bit of an argument with one of my roomies yesterday, so that was pleasant. Selfishness is quickly becoming one of my least favorite traits in a person. More and more everyday! It amazes me how people can act that way and think it's okay. Or perhaps they don't realize how incredibly rude and wrong they are. Oh well! Such is life. Somethings will never change.

Headed to what I'm sure will be my favorite trip of the summer this weekend! Horseback riding on a 3500 acre ranch. Bring on the smiles and memories!

Cheers!

Dolphins, Gelato, and a Taxi Ride

Still feeling pretty under the weather, but I thought that a bit of fresh air and a stroll along a beautiful coast line would help me out. And it did! Kaitlin, Sunniva, and I headed south to Rainbow Bay yesterday to enjoy the scenery and the beautiful weather. It was the most gorgeous stretch of coastline I've seen yet! The trees were typical palm trees, laying next to clean cut black rocks, with crystal clear water splashing over everything! And there were surfers everywhere. It was unbelievable. We walked on a path that hooked around the end of the bay, then up a steep hill to the main lookout point. Beautiful! And the city of Coolangatta was beautiful as well. Seeing all of that was just what the doctor ordered.

We headed down the other side of the bay, around the beach again, and found a rocky pier that had some vicious waves crashing into it every few seconds. It was so loud! But again, amazing. We walked out as far as we could without getting soaked and took some fantastic photos. There was a bunch of kids on boogie boards out in the vicious waves, riding them until they crashed into the receding water. It was hilarious! It was as if the whole purpose of being out there was to be drop kicked by the waves. So long as no one got thrown into a rock, it looked like tons of fun. And watching it was highly entertaining.

There was another outlook, so we hiked up the steep path to that as well. While we were looking out at the horizon, some guy started shouting about a pod of dolphins and a few whales playing in the waves. We ran over to where he pointed, eager to see some real marine life. Well, we never saw the whales, but we did see a pod of dolphins! They were jumping in and out of the waves, about five or six of them, and because the water was so clear we could see them even underwater. We watched them while the circled the entire lookout, then continued down the coast. It was too cool. The highlight of the last few weeks, that's for sure! That's definitely not something we can see in Colorado ha ha. After a quick break in the shade and out of the vicious wind, we headed back to the main street. We found a store that sold food in bulk, so we stocked up on some dried fruits, nuts, and chocolate covered goodies and headed to the bus stop.

Last night everyone was going out for dinner and drinks to celebrate Chris' 21st birthday. I felt like death after all of that walking, but I decided I could at least go for dinner. Not that I could eat anything, but being there would mean something to Chris. We found ourselves at the Hog's Breath Cafe in Broadbeach, which is a pretty popular chain down here. We didn't realize it was an attempt at an American restaurant until we noticed all of the license plates on the walls, one from each State, among other American-esk things. It was cool! I had decided that swallowing wasn't so painful at the moment, thanks to extra strength tylenol times 3, so I ordered a quesadilla. Well, it didn't taste anything like mexican food, but it was delicious! And I could actually eat it. My throat felt rather raw afterwards, but it was worth it. My first solid meal in more than a week. How thrilling.

Everyone was going to a club called East afterwards, but I had no interest in that. All I wanted was to sleep! My bed was calling, and I could no longer ignore the comfort it offered. With the tickets everyone had to get into East, they would receive a free drink. Kaitlin wanted her free drink, but then wanted to leave after that. So I agreed to wait outside for her. At this point, my throat was protesting my early decision to eat solid food, so I found some gelato and sat outside at a little table, playing games on my ipod. I only had to wait about twenty minutes, and it was worth it because riding the bus alone at night is scary. She and I wandered over to the bus stop, only to find we had just missed the bus by five minutes. At this point in the night, the buses only come once an hour. Last night was particularly cold for Australia, we were both dead tired, and I just wanted to be home. So I said screw that to waiting for an hour and decided to take a taxi. Cost me $15 bucks, but I didn't care ha ha.

Once I got to the warmth of my bed, I took some nyquil, hoping for some legitimate sleep. Needless to say, that didn't happen as well as I would have hoped. I'm wicked tired this morning, and my throat is screaming at me. The plan for today? Nothing of any productivity. Sleep, liquids, movies, that sort of thing. Ugh can't I just be better already?!

Cheers!

An Update From the Sickly

Oh to celebrate the joys of solid foods! How I wish I could partake in your glorious tastes! And one would think that after nearly a week of antibiotics, that I would be able to. Truth is, I'm in as much pain as day one, and that's with extra strength Tylenol. Why?! Oh why?! I just wish I could eat instead of drink. But oh well. Such is life, I guess.

Finished my biggest assignment of the semester today and turned it in well before the deadline. I felt accomplished! Now that that's done, the rest of the semester should be smooth sailing, minus a final in five weeks. Not too shabby! It's nice to feel almost done... a ton of stress off my back, that's for sure. And goodness knows I don't need any stress on top of this mono crap. Ugh! Otherwise, I didn't do too much today. Watched a movie, black and white! I'm really starting to love old films. You can't go wrong with the classics. There's just something about the, oh what's the word...the innocence of them. That's where true Hollywood comes from.

Not much else to report, I'm afraid. Going to try and get out of the house for a bit tomorrow. I think some fresh air will do me some good, so long as I bring plenty of pain killers and avoid the sun. I'm just hoping that sleep will be my friend tonight. I could really use a decent night's sleep for a change, that would be lovely. Other than that, not much planned for the weekend. Just rest, as the doctor ordered! Really, really hoping for the ability to swallow by monday. That would be glorious. This is two weeks in a row that I've missed Eggs Benny breakfast on fridays! Not happy for that. Guess I'll just have to make up for it once I can eat again. However, this is an excellent diet plan. Loving it!

Cheers!