Woohoo, last week of classes!

Aussie word of the day: bikkie - cookie or cracker

I am half way through the last week of classes! Hooray! I had a neuroscience quiz today that was far easier than the last one (thank goodness). Other than that, I have a paper due in two weeks and two finals spread out over the rest of the time I'm here. I can't believe my trip is almost over! Weird...I feel like I got pretty much everything done that I wanted to, however, so I'm ready to come home with gifts and stories aplenty. I'm going to go enjoy my first homework-free Tuesday night in ages. Cheers!

Why aren't I sleeping?

Aussie phrase of the day: threw a wobbly - to get overexcited over something, to throw a "shit fit"

Don't you hate it when people read a book and then complain about the movie that is based on it? Too bad. The Da Vinci Code was whack. I understand that some things had to be changed for the sake of screen, and I accept that. HOWEVER, there were many changes that needn't have been made, and for those who have read the book, they proved wildly irritating. I won't give examples as I'm sure many of my readers (do I have "many"?) haven't seen the movie yet. Let me say this: if you've read the book, prepare to be frustrated. If you haven't read the book, prepare to be confused and often bored. Strong acting, poor plot adaptation in many ways. Ian McKellen stole the show, I must say. LOVED him as Teabing, as I expected I would. Still not sure how I feel about Hanks as Langdon, but he did a pretty good job, I must admit.

In other news, there's one more week of classes, and then revision week and finals. It's really nearing the end here, folks. I think I'm going to keep up this blog once I return home though, as I've gotten fairly fond of it. Don't expect entries to be anywhere near as exciting from Cali or PA, of course...ok, it's ridiculously late and I finally got my friends out of my apartment...I'm going to sleep! Cheers!

My weekend in the Whit.

Aussie word of the day: chunder - vomit, puke, chuck, etc.

So on Thursday, Corissa and I flew to Airlie Beach, which was lovely but a fairly small (read: one street bisecting one street) . We checked into Southern Cross sailing as soon as we arrived, and then checked into the YHA hostel around the corner. The following hours consisted of shopping in the few stores that looked promising (I picked up a lovely sarong), eating yummy seafood (and drinking crappy sangria), engaging in a failed pursuit of girly drinks, a walk along the teenie tiny beach, etc. The night ended fairly early, as there really wasn't much to do ("we're having dinner at 5, I feel like an old person..." - Corissa). We pretty much just chilled at the hostel, with a brief run for ice cream (I had strawberry, but would you believe that this place sold BEETROOT ice cream? Eww...) and a night time beach jaunt.

Check out was at 10 the next morning, and then we retraced our shopping steps of the day before (there were that few shops), had lunch, and met up with the bus that was to take us to the boat ("Boomerang") at 1:30pm. The ship was small and cozy, with a fantastically crazyfun crew of 4. Bretto the skipper, Benny the deck-hand, Megs the host/cook (who provided much gluten-free numminess for me!), and Dave the Slave (volunteer). The cast of characters who were taking the trip included three Irish girls, two Israeli girls, a group of four Scots, a couple of English folk, a girl from Chili, a few German, Norwegian, and Danish guys, a Canadian, and the two U.S.ers that were me and Corissa (I think that was everyone...). The ship was so small that Corissa and I had to share a bunk, but since nearly all our time was spent on deck, it didn't matter all that much.
The whole cruise took 2 days, 2 nights, and included two snorkel dives, a trip to Whitehaven Beach, and much gorgeous sailing.
We were supposed to be able to go scuba diving as well, but the boat for that never showed up. That was a huge bummer, but what can ya do? Saturday morning, we were awoken by ACDC music being blasted at 7am. Did I mention that Corissa and I had a speaker right over our bunk? Not so fun...I also got seasick on the deck twice that day, but didn't let it ruin my fun. What they say is true, better out than in! All in all, quite a cool experience, and the reef is amazing. I saw a billion fish, and even an eel! No turtles though.
Sunday we docked at 10ish am, and disembarked. We were filthy, salty, sweaty, tired, and gross, but we all headed to the pub an hour later for the "after-party" before people took off in their various directions.
Most people were spending the night in Airlie, so they showered and whatnot, but as Corissa and I were flying home that afternoon, we just grabbed some lunch (which I now know was wheat-laced...as I'm wheat-sick today). We grabbed a celebratory drink with the rest of the gang. As we were walking out of the path/driveway, I got hit by a car. Seriously, a car backing (thankfully very slowly) out of the lot hit me in the butt with it's bumper. No damage, but not cool, either. I shouted something inaudible, and then, along with the Canadian (who, as it turns out, was on our flight to Brisbane), we headed to the tiniest airport that I have ever seen. I kid you not, the parking lot was bigger than the entire airport. Two terminals, two x-ray machines...and the waiting area was mostly outside. We got on the plane from the tarmac. Good times. Take-off was then delayed an HOUR thanks to some issue over an elderly passenger's O2 tank. When we finally landed in Brisbane, we had missed the last airtrain (the train from the airport to the city) by 8 freaking minutes! Why does it have to stop running at 7:31pm on Sundays???!?!? We ended up just getting a cab, as we were WAY too tired to deal with figuring out the bus situation by then. It turned out not to be a total loss, as our cabbie (Matt) was a chill dude who played Metallica (and told me he was wearing a Metallica shirt under his work shirt) and discussed sub-culture social theory with me. The people you meet, man. We finally got home in the area of 8something, split off to our own apartments, and conked out. Well, that's not entirely true, because if you know me, you know I had to unpack first. Yeah, it's a sickness. I felt so much better after showering though, I cannot even explain. The wheat-reaction had already set in, which sucked, and remained in the form of headache, dizziness, exhaustion, and low fever today. Blah. I'm a bit better tonight, but I think I'm gonna just eat some soup and go to sleep really early. My sociology workbook is all I really have to do this week (do Wed.), so I can afford an early night. Ok, that's about it...Cheers

Just a quick check-in between adventures

Aussie word of the day: lolly - sweets, candy

Happy (belated) mothers day to all, and a shout-out to my mom, the birthday lady. Happy birthday, lady! Anyway, I'm off to the Reef this weekend, so I just thought I'd give a quick "hi" and "bye" before I left. That's about it, so cheers!

Didn't think I'd do it, didja?

Aussie phrase of the day: piece of piss - an easy task (i.e. "getting her to join us was a piece of piss")

Guess what I did Sunday? You'll never guess, so I'll just tell you. I jumped out of an airplane at 14,000 feet while strapped to a guy named Steve. Yes, ladies and gents, I, your very favorite Muppet, went skydiving. It was incredible!! One of the scariest and most amazing things I've ever done. Some friends and I went to Byron Bay this past weekend, and other than skydiving just took it easy in the little beach town.

Next weekend, as I've mentioned, it's off to the Great Barrier Reef. I wish I could just skip my classes and get straight to the weekend, but at least there isn't too much going on this week other than a neuroscience assessment. Ok, I'm gonna study for that a little more and then hit the sack. Cheers!

6 weeks to go...

Aussie word of the day: Esky - cooler

Well, all but one workbook, one novel, one paper, two quizzes, and two finals are done. Gee, writing it like that, it looks like a lot more left to do than it seemed like in my head. Ah well. This weekend I'm off to Byron Bay with some friends, and next weekend it's up to the Witsunday Islands with Corissa. Right now I'm nursing my bad knee, as I went a little hard on it in the gym this week and it's protesting loudly. Ok, that's about it for now, just felt like giving a little update. Cheers!

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, OY, OY, OY!

Aussie word of the day: Rugby - game of the Gods

Went to a rugby game with Corissa tonight, which was entirely awesome. Australia beat New Zealand 50-12! Amazing game, though I don't claim to understand it all. The guys wear no padding, but surprisingly only two throughout the game had to be removed from the field due to injury (and only one of those two on a stretcher...he so got a concussion.) Anyway, it was very cool. That's pretty much the news from my camp for the moment. This weekend, for a change, brings with it school work galore. I am so jealous that Arcadia is wrapping up! Ah well, not too much longer, and I'm going to the Whitsunday Islands in a couple weeks to check out the reef, so I've got that to look forward to. Sleep time, now that I've seen to the needs of my Cinco-de-Mayo'ed roomie. Cheers!

You know you're roomie is homesick when she downloads and blasts her Alma Mater (Penn State)

Aussie word of the day: Akubra - wide-brimmed hat made popular by Crocodile Dundee

So my sociology paper finished up with a resounding 2,390 words. (assigned range was 2,200-2,500 words, to those who care). And I finished tweaking my stats project. Good things both, as they are both due tomorrow. I also finished my Gender/Postmodern book on Sat., and gave a fabulous seminar for which my paper is due next Tuesday. All that's left to conquer this week is an itty-bitty group oral presentation on O.C.D. on Thursday, and then it's smooooooooth sailing, with a reduced load of generally only one thing due a week (as opposed to this week, which killed).

My weekend, aside from the heavy pressures of school work, was fairly decent. I went out for Yum Cha (Dim Sum) with Corissa, Sam and Jess, and of course since we were in the city, we had to do a little shop-browsing. Queen St. typically has live performances by no-name cover bands on weekends, so we weren't surprised by the music blasting as we walked...we were, however, surprised by the huge throngs of people and added security. We took refuge in Lush (a natural bath/body products store that I LOVE), and glanced out from the doorway to see what all the hubbub was about. The band was none other than that of Russell Crowe. No wonder there was extra security...

Sunday Corissa and I made an appearance and what was supposed to be one of Brisbane's biggest events, the Seafood and Wine festival. What we found was a strip of overpriced kiosks hocking Beer and Fish & Chips. We booked fairly fast, though not before eating some of the very hard to find non-fried food. She had prawn skewers, and I had a lovely seafood pillow. The prices were fairly obscene, but at least the food was good. I guess we were both just spoiled, as we were expecting something akin to a New York or Monrovia street fair, and were left very disappointed.

Anyway, I'm off to enjoy some leisure reading, something I haven't gotten to do in ages. Cheers!