Life has been hectic, and I've realized how awful I am at blogging. So here's a run down of some of the most experiences of my life:
1. Our Great Barrier Reef/ Whitsunday Islands trip. We left over Easter Break, and although we were sleeping in airports, travelling at 4 am and had a 3-day non shower stint while we were on an AMAZING sail boat, it was the greatest trip I've ever taken. We had such a good time, we went snorkeling on the reef, met some great people from all around the world on our boat, and even got to party for a while in Airlie Beach after our boat trip. Then we headed back to Melbourne, stayed in the Marriott (which felt like luxury compared to slave-ship conditions on the sail boat!) and explored there for awhile. We all wanted to stay forever, but knew we had to face reality sooner or later.

2. Justin Bieber, the second time, for free again. My friends have amazing hook ups and got center stage, 6th row back. I could literally smell J.Bieb's cologne. It was amazing. We all thought he was sick though, he seemed a little off. But it was still an amazing concert.

I've taken 2 exams so far, and have one more this week. Then it's homeward bound on Saturday. I'm so excited to get back to my friends, family and familiarity. But I know I'm goi

This past weekend a group of us went to the Blue Mountains, which is a GORGEOUS "mountain range" about 2 hours West of Sydney. Although they are claimed to be mountains, they're more of plateau's and canyons. None the less, it was breathtaking and probably the best weekend we've spent here. Everything went smoothly, there was no drama and it was so relaxing to get out of the city.
Some of my friends went canyoning, which includes climbing, repelling and jumping around waterfalls, rocks, etc. I was extremely stoked to go and was all signed up for it, but I sprained my radius (wrist) last weekend, so I made the decision to not go and make it worse. Everyone told me I made the right move but hearing and seeing what they did makes me so jealous! I definitely want to experience it at some point in my life, maybe Colorado in the future? Who knows!

We also made a home made meal for ourselves in the hostel on Saturday night. It was beyond delicious. We made pasta, sauce, garlic bread, and vegetables. Between the 5 girls that went in on it, we finished it all except one small plate of spaghetti, which we recruited one of the guys for. It was so much fun to cook for ourselves and eat some GOOD food for once. Although, the school has been a little better about what they've been serving. Maybe they got the point, and by the time we leave we'll be eating meals that match what we paid for.

These pictures don't even do the scenery justice! But it's as good as it's going to get via internet.

My friend, Lauren (Bama) and I even made the 2 hour ride home interesting. We weren't sure when the canyoning people would be done, and we told them we'd wait for them but ran out of things to do. So we left, but thought it was only courteous to leave them notes along the way home so they know we got everywhere safe. They only found the first note (which we wedged into the sign at the canyoning place), but the rest were epic. We even ran into a man at the train station who came up to us and said "I saw the note you guys left for your friends and really enjoyed it". We thought it was hilarious.

Things that have been major players in my life lately:

A) The fire alarms--go off CONSTANTLY here. I'm not sure if people pull them or they're just faulty. Who knows, there may actually be a fire every now and again. But in the month of March it has gone off about 4 times. We've all been asleep, or about to fall asleep, so me and my roommates just stay in our room and wait it out. We figure if we get really hot, or someone comes knocking on our door, we'll know what's really going on. I feel worse for the fire fighters, who need to travel up our massive hill every time some idiot pulls the alarm.

B) The coffee-- I am addicted. Gloria Jean's is more addicting than Starbucks, which I never thought would happen. My friend, Emily and I, can easily convince each other to go down the massive hill for a cup at any time. It's been a major hole in my pocket, and the juice head who makes my drinks has started to recognize me. In other words, I'm going to tweak out once I get home and have no Gloria Jean's to run to. On another coffee note, in one of my classes we're making coffee's and will soon be tested over them. Today, I made a latte and cappucino! They were both very good, but I was wired after class.

C) Vent sessions with the tied down girls-- There are so many girls here with boyfriends, it's honestly surprising! But it's great because we all go through the same dilemma's with our men. So we all have a blast talking about the problems and working them out with each other. It's honestly such a relief! Not to any discredit to any of the boyfriends (including Ryan), but it's so relaxing to just complain about you guys sometimes =]

Overall, I miss everybody back home...tons. I honestly can't wait to get back, but things are so hectic here that I don't have time to think about it (which is probably a good thing). I'm taking a break from a major project to write this post, and I have to finish two more by the end of the week. Then I'm off to Broken Hill (which I'll for sure post more about later) to do my Famil Tour. But we're all down to about 4 weeks here, so I want to soak up as much of it as possible!
Miss everyone at home, and the food is still awful (but getting better at s

Weebly and I had a disagreement, so here are my older posts (sorry for the inconvenience!)


March 9:
I know I say this in every post but it's been crazy! I've been so incredbly busy, I barely have time for my homework! (which ps, there's way too much of, it's ruining my vacation.) So I'll start with the big stuff and try to remember things on my way:

Hunter Valley Wine Tasting Trip- amazing! I never liked wine before (not that I ever drank before Jan 15th of this year), but I found some I really enjoyed. The mascato and the merlot's were my forte. The scenery was gorgeous, we went to 3 different vineyards. Pictures are up on facebook for everyone to see. We also tasted some different cheeses at a winery that had a basketball hoop out front? Which was odd. (Ryan would have loved it though!)

Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras- Blast in a glass. We got there around 3:30, stood on the street for 4 hours waiting for the parade to start. When it finally did, it was great. It got long, going for about 3 hours total (a lot of time to be standing in one spot). But it was definitely an experience. They had cage dancers, floats, trannies, leather, carriages, everything you can possible think of. The opening act was "Dykes on Bikes" so that should tell you something! Definitely different from Nebraska, that's for sure. I'm glad I went and saw it, but I still love my straight boyfriend =]

I got some letters yesterday from Ry, Rae (my 5 yr old cousin!) and my Grampa. That was so exciting, but I was already having a homesick kind of day. I dreamt that I was already home, telling my parents how fast the trip went, etc. When I woke up, before I opened my eyes I was thinking how nice it was to be in my own bed. Then I saw the rest of my dorm room and wanted to cry haha. But if I stay busy and don't think about it, I'm not homesick, so my subconscious must be dying right now!

The food here sucks. It's so bad, which is surprising coming from a hospitality school. So tonight, before bible study, I think I'm going to grab some food somewhere. Speaking of bible study, I'm not sure if I've talked about it yet, but it's so educational, I love it. We talk about chapters (currently we've done Eph. 1, and Mark 4) and really just disect each verse, which I've never done before. It's blowing my mind that every single word in the bible has meaning. I've always "known" that but never really seen or experienced it first hand. So cool.

Well, I'll try to write more later (but then again I always say that).

Feb 24:
Holy cow this week has been crazy! I'll start where I left off last week... (Friday)
We had an "ice breaker" party at the student bar, then we all went downtown Manly. It was super fun, and we stayed out dancing until the club closed down. Normally at home when that happens, you go to ihop or go home but here all we had to do was walk across the street and we were at the beach. amazing.
Then Saturday we went to Sydney for the first time! It's such a beautiful place. Nobody litters, everything is clean and huge (and expensive). But we went inside the opera house, through the botanical gardens, to Chinatown, and just walked around really. I'll post pics of all of it later. The funnest thing that happened that day was in the botanical gardens. Lauren, Michelle and I were walking the gardens while everyone else took the tour train and we ran into this 16 year old boy. He stopped us and asked if he could interview us for his youtube page, so we agreed. He asked us how we felt about underage drinking, etc. Then he asked what people in America do when they party, and so of course we got on the topic of fist pumping. We taught him how, and he posted it on youtube that night! It's too funny, I'll make sure to post the link on here.
Sunday I got to skype my parents while they were in Texas with my Grandparents, Uncle and cousins, so that was good to see all of them. Turns out my parents bought a house in Texas 2 blocks away from my grandparents! It's amazing, I saw the link ha. So my mom will live down there 2 weeks out of every month and my dad will move down there officially (and sell the Bellevue house =[ once he gets his retirement form the post office/government. So cool!
This week of classes has been crazy, I've got so many projects and ridiculous work loads. Wednesday Emily, Molly and I went back to Sydney to watch the Queen Mary 2 take off for their cruise, the ship is ginormous. That was very cool. Then today (Friday) we went there again to hit up the flea market. I ended up buying a New York Yankees zip up. Only I would go to Australia just to buy American memorobilia. But it was super cheap, so I'm not too concerned! I'll try to write more later, life has been hectic lately!

Feb 17
This week has been insane. And it's only Tuesday night.
Monday I had 4 classes (they last 90 minutes each, and all of mine are back to back so I had about 15 mins to eat lunch). I'm taking 3 Event classes (one of which is at a 300 level, their highest. That one makes me nervous!) and 1 Human Resources class, taught by a frenchman who is hilarious, but very strict and radically minded. For each class we have a lecture and a tutorial. For one of my classes I have 3 lectures and 1 tutorial, all strewn throughout the week. The tutorial for that class was amazing Monday morning. We learned how to carry, serve, and remove plates/silverware within a dining room setting. We're gonna be doing wine tasting, napkin folding, etc in there so I'm super excited for that.
It's too late now, I have to go to bed but I'll write more later!

Okay so now I'm back! Tuesday night we played some basketball up on the side of the school. It was super fun, and I feel like we all bonded a lot just through messing around and playing n everything. Being active is a big part of everyones life around here, which is great! Monday we did yoga, tuesday we played the bball, wednesday was pretty chill but we went on a long walk around the city, Tonight is thursday and although I haven't done a lot of physcial activity (besides those forever long stairs and hill to get to the school!) it's been a blast.

Wednesday we attended a bible study on campus, which was sooo cool. It's taught by a pastor who had started a church in Hawaii and felt led to start one here. We talked about the first chapter of Ephesians, which seemed very routine to me at a first read but really held so much more. It's amazing, I've never been in a bible study where we legitimately read through the bible line by line and disected it. I absolutely loved it. We'll be meeting every Wednesday, which I'm so excited for. Then tonight (Thursday) a couple of us walked down to the church in Manly, where we met some others (mostly adults and international students) who hold another bible study. Although we didn't do any reading or scripture tonight, we played a really fun game and just got to know each other a bit better. We're planning on attending the services Sunday night. It's a catholic church but the pastors are non-denominational, so that should be new compared to my lutheran backgrounds! =] I'm super excited and glad that I've found a church to attend and be comfortable at here though. The people here are also amazing, just the 4 or 5 other americans that came with me tonight (I didn't bring them, we all kind of discovered this together and went with one another) are such an inspiration. I feel so free to talk and practice my faith here, which is ironic because I'm so far away from home, but I really love the feeling! Praying and hoping it's something that I can bring back to the states solidified!

Well, I feel like I've rambled for a while ha. Tomorrow I have no class, so I'm going to go to the gym downtown and then do some shopping before our icebreaker party on campus tomorrow night. I'll hopefully make it out to the library to get some readings done too!

So I'm here in Aussie Land! I'll be editting the pages above more than this blog-part. Still feel free to comment and what not. I'll try and check back as often as my crazy schedule allows!