It LOOKS cute...

This meme is courtesy of Kiel Adams. That’s actually a red panda, which is not native to Australia, but it gives a good idea of the “cuteness” vs. “dangerousness” balance of this continent.

Red Panda...not Australian.

Hello Friends!

Firstly, I just have to say: you’ve gotta love a country that’s newspapers quote people saying things like “I don't have a problem with people enjoying sci-fi, but church isn't the place to encourage escapism and fancy dress. We really ought to get our theology and world view from the Bible, not Frodo Baggins - as cool as he is." If you don’t believe me, I’ll send you the link. Also on this page were articles about time-travel themed shows being banned in China (apparently they are unrealistic and use far fetched ideas—so I guess that means that “Back to the Future” isn’t a documentary) and the new revelation that many dinosaurs were likely nocturnal, specifically raptors. Where else can you get such different pieces of information all in one place—and have them all be real, quotable sources?!

Welcome to Church...Australia Style

This week has been kind of slow. I think I’m just getting excited to leave on my trip south. Tuesday was all classes and so was Wednesday, but they included a midterm exam. Hope those went well. Oh! And I finally got an explanation of the grading system here. 85-100% is a High Distinction (like an A in the States), 75-84% is a Distinction (akin to a B), 65-74% is a Credit (a C), and 50-64% is a Pass (about a D). Anything below 49% is a Fail. There’s also something called “Conceded Fail,” where you get credit after the fact, but I don’t understand it at all, so I ignore it. I’m reasonably confident I won’t have to worry about that! So, with that in mind, I really hope I did well on my exams. J  Honestly, though, school days kind of blur together when I’m there all day for two days in a row, so sorry to tell you that I have next to nothing to tell you about those days.

Gold Coast Library

Oh! Except for that Tuesday was the Exchange Fair, so they asked any Griffith student who had studied abroad or who was on exchange to come rand represent their school. Plus, they offered free lunch. So, you mean to tell me that they’re going to give me free lunch and a drink PLUS a package of TimTams (delicious Aussie cookie or “biscuit” as they call them) to talk about why Rosen is a good school? Hot Dog! Sign me up! So I spent my break between classes that day telling Australians to come to Florida. It was lots of fun.

Thursday was my catch-up day. I cleaned my room, did homework, and Skyped with my Mom and Dad as well as Kyle. So much fun. Once Lachlan (Merle’s Grandson) came home, we essentially played a game of “What Is Different In US and Australian Schools.” After hearing about how strict their uniform standards are, Mountain View’s dress code is nothing! He also couldn’t believe that we had 50 states and that I could name them all, so he and Merle tried to name them all. They got pretty stuck on the Ms. I can’t blame them—we have more states that start with the letter M than Australia has states period. And they guessed a lot of major cities as states. Lachlan’s only response to me listing them all was: “I’m glad I don’t have to go to American school. I couldn’t list all of those!” Haha.

Speaking of Geography and the USA, I had someone ask me if I was surprised at how little many Australians knew about US geography. Honestly, I’m not at all. As far as Australia goes, my geographic knowledge was that Perth was on one side, Sydney was on the other, the reef was on the northeastern coast, Tasmania was directly below (and I thought Tasmania was a country until about 6 months before I arrived), and New Zealand was East, though it’s a lot farther than I realized it was. Most Australians know where Hawaii is and Alaska is (because they’re not part of the continent), and then where Los Angeles, New York City, Washington, DC, and Miami are, and that’s about it unless they’ve been there. I’ve just ended up telling people that I live in Colorado, which is the middle mountainous region. A few have asked, “In Denver?” and I just say that it’s pretty close. Australian distance perception is a lot like Colorado distance perception: if it’s under 4 hours by car, it’s fairly close.

Friday was ROCK CLIMBING AGAIN!!! Woot! And we weren’t rained out! Kangaroo Point is so much fun. There are heaps of climbing routes and there is a river right to the side and live music in the park across the river. It’s glorious. I was only able to climb once this week, but that was OK because we ended up having to leave early. There were also not enough belay-ers there, so it was difficult to get everyone to go a fair number of times. Next time we go, I’m going to try and get my belay card, I think, so that I can belay people on my own.

I was back at the Turf Club on Saturday for training and work in the Skyline Restaurant. Training was mostly in the bar area and then serving I was on drinks again. Highlight of the day: I didn’t spill anything the entire day! And one of the more experienced waiters did, so I felt better because it does happen to everyone. (People tell you that, but it’s kind of nice to see it affirmed in person.) Due to low numbers, I ended up getting off early, which I was ok with because it meant that I could take the bus home rather than a cab. Most days, I will take the bus down to the races and then Merle will pick me up because the bus doesn’t run after 5:00PM. However, Merle was out of town this weekend, so if I was on until closing, I would have had to find a ride or take a cab or something. So that evening was spent with me and Chloe hanging out and watching CSI, CSI: Miami, and CSI: New York all in a row.

Gold Coast Turf Club. I work in the Glass Box right to the right of the blue seats. No, I didn't take this photo.

The next morning Bertina (Merle’s friend) picked me up for church and brought me home again. I also got to to Skype with my almost-sister, Lindsey Pru, and that made me really happy. After we finished talking, I wasn’t really planning on doing anything more (a nap was looking likely) but then I got a call from my Canadian friend Michelle who it turns out, lives 13 minutes away by bike. She wanted to see what I was up to and invited me over to make dinner and watch a movie. Well, that certainly sounded like a much better plan than sitting with Chloe, so I hopped on my bike and made my way over. We made a really good vegetarian stir-fry and watched “He’s Just Not That Into You.” It was fun to watch it with Michelle and her roommate, an Aussie, because we kept discussing small differences of phrasing between our three countries that all have English as their main language. It was interesting to see what each of us picked up on from each other’s country-variant of English. We also talked about what the overall view of each other’s country was from our home country. My best description of how the US views Australia came out as: “If the world is a classroom and the US likes to think that they’re the popular kid, Australia is the smart, nice, outdoorsy kid that everyone likes but doesn’t talk about because they don’t do anything wrong or scandalous.”

Today, Monday, has been very ho-hum. I slept in, which was lovely, and woke to find a completely gray sky and lots of rain. Boo. But, some small voice inside of me kept saying, “Leah, today would be a great day to start running again. You’ve been slacking, my friend!” I grumbled, but am fully aware that I have not been running in far too long and that if I didn’t start soon I would be in really rough shape when I return to camp this summer. So, I finally gave in and got dressed and went out for a 30-min run in the rain. It was really nice—kind of cold, but I still enjoyed it. I wore my old running shoes and good thing, too. They are SOAKED. Lots of puddles to jump in along the way. J I think running in the rain may be one of my new favorites.

The rain in front of Merle's house.

Well, I think that’s about all for this time. Not that thrilling, I know, but hopefully, the next two will be much more interesting. Keep being wonderful and I’d love to hear from you!

Love Leah.

It's Fact: Most Australian Imports Come from Overseas.

Think about it…there you go. Haha. ;)

Hello Friends!

Once again, I’ve gotten off my regular posting schedule. I’m trying to fix it, but I think that being a day late is the best I can do this week. I’ll be back on top of it next Monday; it’s just been a bit crazy here for the last couple days. I honestly didn’t think I had that much going on this past week, but heck! I was busy! And it’s looking like I’ll be staying that way, too!

Thomas, me, and Larissa on the Batwing ride at Movie World. 

It always feels safe when you're riding in the same car as an "Out of Order" seat. 

I met up with Larissa on Wednesday and we planned our end of semester/pre-final exam period trip to Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road and, for me, Adelaide, for her, Tasmania. I’m excited about this trip. I think it’ll be a lot of fun. This will be at the end of May and beginning of June, and I hope we’ll have great weather. And what a way to chill out before final exams! Although, I am a bit nervous about driving. ;) Hopefully, I’ll be getting to Tasmania as well, but that is still up in the air and dependent on finals.

On Thursday, I spent a lot of the day messing with plane tickets and reservations at hostels and such for my mid-semester break right after Easter. I’ve taken to calling it my “Spring Break,” since it is, after all, to me at least, a break in the spring semester (even though it’s the winter semester here). So, now that it is finalized, I will be taking an overnight bus to Sydney, leaving on Monday, April 25^th and arriving about noon the next day, where I’ll stay in a hostel for the night before getting on a plane the next morning to Cooma, NSW. Cooma is in the Snowy Mountains and, yes, I’m going out there solely to ride a horse. I’m spending that night in Jindabyne and going out riding the next day. Since I won’t have a car and there is no local transportation other than the airport shuttle, the ride leader offered to pick me up and take me out to the ranch. Yay for friendly Aussies! I’ll ride for about 3 hours that day (I think that will be sufficient to fulfill my wish to ride in the Snowy River country) and will stay another night before flying back to Sydney the next day. I’ll spend the rest of Friday and all of Saturday in Sydney (I’m attempting my first time couch surfing—wish me luck!), and then on Sunday morning, will be going to the Hillsong Church before flying back to Gold Coast. This is kind of my “fulfilling what I want to do” part of my Australia time—I’m really excited for this trip.

this is what i'm going to be doing in 2 weeks!

For one of my classes, my group is required to go to a sporting event and do a presentation on it for the class dealing with stakeholders and event operations. Because of that, on Thursday night, I went to the Australia National Finals Rodeo with two girls from Finland. Oh my goodness, SO MUCH FUN. We arrived and literally had seats in the top of the arena, but it was pretty much empty, and we moved down to the lower bowl, right near the gates. Now, I am by no means a rodeo expert, but I have been to a rodeo or two before and understood what was going on. The other girls, though, had no clue. It was kind of funny because they kept asking lots of questions about it. I answered the best I could and I hope I didn’t confuse them. They seemed to have a really great time. I feel like I should state that it was their idea to go to this event, not mine, and therefore I feel no guilt in their possible confusion.

At this event, though, we were supposed to take photos for the presentation. The girls were like, “We should get a picture with a cowboy,” but were too shy to ask. That is one gift I have—I’m fairly shameless about asking for photos or things like that. So, they chose a cowboy and I asked if he would mind having his photo taken with us for our class project. He was very confused but agreed and his friend took the photo for us. Then, later on, as we were watching the steer wrestling competition, we recognized him. He won the round and we were like, “Yup, we picked the right cowboy.” Haha.

Me with Heini (blonde hair), Johanna (dark hair), and a very confused, but winning, cowboy named Steven.

Friday, I was supposed to go rock climbing, but the rain put the kibosh on that one, sadly. Instead, Friday was spent doing laundry, cleaning, and getting my email under control again. I also did homework and cleaned my room! Aren’t you jealous of my life in Australia?! KIDDING! My day was boring, I know. But, theoretically, the weather will be beautiful for the next week or so and we should be able to go back to Kangaroo Point next week. And then who knows after that.

Saturday was pretty good. Shane, the General Manager of the Gold Coast Turf Club, called on Friday and asked if I was available to come in to work the next day. The next day I went to the Turf Club and to the Skyline Restaurant, expecting to do the same thing I had in The Dome (running drinks for people). Skyline Restaurant, though, is a full service, fine dining restaurant. I am honestly not sure why I was sent there, but I did the morning training session before I was sent to another room. Whoops. Anyway, while I was in the other room, right before I was going on my break, a man slid his chair back and stood up really abruptly while I was behind him. Needless to say, I was covered in three beers and a rum and coke. Fortunately, it didn’t get on anyone else. I cleaned up the mess and my shirt before going on lunch break. I went to get my purse, (still in the Skyline Restaurant), and was stopped by David, the manager of that part of the club. He said he liked my attitude and wanted me to be trained to work the fine dining and bar aspects of the club. Which means I’m guaranteed shifts for the next 6 weeks. Plus, I can use those skills back home. So, I am now going to be trained in the fine dining part of the Turf Club rather than just the Dome/casual restaurant. Yay! Later that day, I also spilt a big pitcher of water all over the table. Fortunately, again, no one was sitting there, so it just soaked the tablecloth before we cleaned up. As I told David, ‘I was…off today.” But, minus the beer and water spills, it was a good day. And I’m looking forward to the next few weeks of training.

Now, confession time. I skipped church on Sunday. (Bad Leah!) I didn’t hear my alarm and wasn’t awake by the time Merle had to leave. Which means I slept in, which was lovely. I also went over to Harbor Town to buy a carryon suitcase for my Australia travels as well as for my eventual flight home (weight will probably be an issue). I ended up with a Barbie pink one. It’s beautiful. I’m very happy with it. But you probably don’t care that much. Sorry. Sunday wasn’t really one worth talking about.

Barbie would be proud...

Today (Monday), Larissa and I went with her friend Thomas (the Swede) to Movie World. Oh, goodness, incredibly fun. It is a little disorienting, though, to see things that you associate with Disney in the same space as things you associate with Universal. (Not really Disney movies, but movies that are associated with Disney World…make sense?) But we went on all of the big rides (except for Lethal Weapon, which was closed) and saw Batman and a stunt show and a car stunt show and had a glorious time all around. The Superman Escape ride is crazy fun. I loved it and wanted to do it again, but the line was really long by then. The 4-D “Journey to the Center of the Earth” ride made me laugh, mainly because it was like watching a 3-D abridged version of the film. If anyone needs basic plot points to a random Brendan Fraser movie, I’m your girl. There was even a Harry Potter store…which was kind of weird. I also love Aussie humor. My favorite example of it from today was after the ride operator had our group of three seated, he shouted out, “Any single riders? Did anyone who has no friends at all come to the park today?” What? Lol. That’s one way to get volunteers. I have a VIP Pass now, so I can go to Movie World, Wet and Wild, or Sea World whenever I want between now and June 30, which is perfect for me. And it only cost $65? Hot dog, sign me up!

Yup, that's a Batman Mask. Be jealous.

Maybe one of my new favorite coasters...

It should be noted that I don't mean weird as in "How odd for this to be here." I mean weird as in you leave the store and just kinda think"...umm...weird."

We’ve recently had an additional being living here with us. His name is Casper and he is a funny little white and gray dog with an under bite. I have affectionately nicknamed him “Monster.” Monster belongs to Lachlan, Merle’s grandson, but he’s been on vacation, so we’ve had the dog. He’s quite loud, but really fun to play with. Except you can’t take him outside without a leash because he likes to run and then he gets lost and can’t find his way home. So I just played with him in the house. I had fun, at least!

Casper aka Monster

This upcoming week is much less busy for me, except that Merle will be gone for the weekend, and it will just be me and Queen Chloe in the house for a few days. (Yes, that’s her on my bed in the photo below. She thinks it’s her bed sometimes.) This upcoming week is also my midterm exams. So…yeah. Grading here is weird. I have no clue how I’m doing. You only have to get a 50% to pass and it is uncommon, apparently, to get an 80% or a 90%. You can imagine my surprise when my professor said, “You all did fairly well on your quiz. The class average was a 68.” AND EVERYONE WAS OK WITH THAT! I kind of freaked out. There is no curve—that is the grade.  At Rosen, there would be a freak out in the class if the average was 68 without a curve, but here, that’s good. I just don’t get it. I’m doing my best and hope it will work out. Oh well. Future plans in the next few weeks, aside from travelling, include Sea World, going out with Anna (my German friend), hanging out with Kayla and Michelle (an Aussie and Canadian, respectively), hopefully rock climbing on Friday (if it doesn’t rain), working, and going to the Australian Outback Spectacular with Larissa and her brother when he comes to visit. Sound like fun? I think yes and I can’t wait.

Chloe. Oh, to be a cat. 

Hope life is fabulous for all of you! Love you all and Keep in touch!

Toodles!
Leah

He Just Smiled At me and gave me a Vegemite Sandwich

For the record, Australians really do eat Vegemite a lot. It’s often eaten as a breakfast food on toast. It’s not terrible in all honesty. Very salty and not something that sounds like a great “wake up” call to me, but not unbearable. And yes, I have tried it.

Mmm...Vegemite

Hello Dear Family and Friends!

Ah, what a week it has been! My parents just left on Saturday after 2 crazy fun weeks of Australia and sunshine. Sad to see them go, but I am so glad that they came down to visit!

Flying over the Red Center

The Rock

So, last I wrote, I was on my way to Uluru. What an adventure! Once we got off the plane, it was so nice to be somewhere that was warm and not humid. Everyone talks about the Red Center being super hot, which it totally can be (last month it got up to 45 Celsius, which is a nice and comfy 114…yuck), but for our time, it was about 27 Celsius, which is more like 77 Fahrenheit, which was lovely. The weather kind of felt like the summer weather at home—until the flies came out. The flies in the Red Center are HORRIBLE. It is so dry out there that they try and get the moisture from your ears, nose, eyes, and mouth. You spend half of your time trying to brush them away! Fortunately, they don’t bite, they just irritate.  But there are thousands of them and they are everywhere. But, oddly, they seem to understand that they are not allowed indoors because they were not in any buildings we went in. I made a game of guessing how many of the flies Jammin would have killed at various points in time throughout our time there. My final guess would be that he would have killed somewhere between 100 and 150 flies. Honestly, they wouldn’t be missed and really, no one would probably notice. We arrived and checked into our hotel room at the Outback Pioneer Hotel and Lodge. Our hotel room was kind of funny. It honestly would have fit in very well in the 50s. Very basic, cement walls, old TV, squeaky beds. But it was cute. We had fun. The best two parts of the resort were the pool and dinner. The pool was great just because we were in the desert and, I mean, really, a pool can’t be beat in the desert. But dinner was a blast. The Outback Pioneer is definitely a resort that knows who their clientele is. For dinner, we went to the Outback BBQ. Actually, it was an incredible idea. The idea is that you purchase meat from them and then YOU get to grill it on one of the 20 grills available. Mom was beyond thrilled that she got to go “throw a shrimp on the barbie.” Seriously, she kept saying it. Over. And over. Haha. But we had a blast. There was a guy there who played lots of popular songs and just giving it a great atmosphere.

Grills...

Throwing another Shrimp on the Barbie

Bright and early the next morning, well, not actually bright as it was 4AM and the sun was not up, we climbed into a bus with 13 other people and a very friendly dog named Bandi and we were off to the camel ranch. We got to the camel ranch and were told how to mount our camels and how to keep our seats and not end up on the ground (pretty long fall).  Dad and I rode Rasheed and mom was on one that I didn’t learn the name of (sorry, mom!), but they were very sweet. The ride went out into the outback and gave us a great view of the sunrise on Uluru. When we got back, we had a fantastic “brekky” with homemade beer bread with jam, butter, and vegemite, and tea and coffee. What a trip!

Us with the Camel

Mom with her Camel

Camels

Bandi!

Later on (around 11), we took another bus to Uluru. When we got there, we looked at the map for the available walking trails in the area. All of them gave an estimated time to complete. The walk that went the entire way around the rock said it would take about 3.5 hours and was an easy walk. Well, being from Colorado and spending so much time in the mountains, we figured that 3.5 hours would be the amount of time that it would take people who didn’t hike a lot or spend a lot of time running/exercising. So off we went with our fly nets (best purchase ever), our water bottles, and our map, thinking that we would be done with this nice little hike in maybe 2 hours. How badly mistaken we were. Just under three and a half hours is how long it takes healthy, active people to complete it at a good pace. I think we really only stopped three times. We paused a few times for some photos, but for the most part, we were moving. After we finished that part of the hike, which was completely worthwhile, we had another two miles to go to get to the Cultural Center. Ugh. Haha. We enjoyed it, though.  By the time we got to the Cultural Center, we were all super hot and sweaty and tired and ready to just sit for a few minutes or hours.

Fly Nets

Eternal Hike

Reflection from Water Hole

A bit later, we were picked up by the Uluru Express (creative name, I know) and taken to the “sunset viewing area.” Fact of the matter is: getting to Uluru is expensive. For us to get there and back was going to be $42, but if we wanted to stay until sunset, it would be $50. We decided to stay until sunset, but Dad’s reaction was classic: “I think God would be upset knowing that they charge an extra eight bucks for a sunset at a rock.” Oh, Daddy, what a great way to phrase it. After taking a few million photos, we got back into the van and waited for everyone else to join us. BUT, right after the sun seemed to be all the way down, the last rays of the sun hit the rock and seriously made it glow red. It was beautiful. I ran out of the van and snapped a few hundred more photos. (I think between the three of us, we took nearly 400 photos of this rock). That night, we were exhausted. Honestly, it felt like we had done the “Senior High: LET’S DO IT IN 1 DAY!” Eagle Peak hike. Everything was tired and sore, but we had such a great time doing it, none of us regret it at all. We didn’t go throw another shrimp on the barbie that night, though. That was the only night we didn’t have un-American food. We caved and had pizza. Oh well. Once is ok, right? But we pretty much were all passed out by 9:30.

Sunset

The next morning, we were back at the airport and flying to Sydney. We knew going into this day that it would be a bit chaotic, but fortunately, life was a bit on our side that day. Our flight got in 45 minutes early (YES!) so we were able to get to our hotel (which was so cute, I’ll come back to that in a minute), get changed and all “frocked up” (Aussie-ism), and over to the Opera House in plenty of time to get our tickets, have a glass of wine and some crackers and cheese, and get to our seats to see “Carmen.” HOLY COW. What a show. Those singers have incredible voices: no microphones and totally filling sound. It was amazing. To hear the songs that everyone knows (whether or not you realize it, I’m sure you would recognize at least one song from Carmen courtesy of Bugs Bunny or various commercials) in that place was breathtaking. Now I wish I had paid more attention in French class so I could have understood more! Haha.  And to not only see one of the most famous opera houses in the world, but to have the opportunity to see a show IN the Sydney Opera House? Please, pinch me! It was incredible.

Darling Harbor

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Harbor Bridge

The next morning, we slept in (for the first time since my parents arrived) before walking from our hotel over to Circular Quay. Oh, so back to our hotel. We stayed at this super adorable boutique hotel in the middle of this up and coming bohemian neighborhood. Some of the rooms had one twin bed in them and were tiny! For you camp people, these rooms are about the same size as the party room closets. For those of you at Rosen, they’re smaller than a Rosen dorm. Anyone else…use your imagination. But it was originally two buildings that were merged into one, so there are hallways that have angles, half staircases, elevators that don’t stop on certain floors, and stairs to nowhere. It was like a really cool funhouse! Not I would want to wander it in the dark on my own…that would be freaky.  Anyway, we walked from our hotel through the Botanical Gardens (which were beautiful, I can only imagine how amazing they would be in spring when there are flowers!), past the opera house and Sydney Harbor Bridge, and to the dock for our Harbor Cruise. On our way, we found this…restaurant?...cafe?...eatery called “Harry’s Café de Wheels.” Apparently, it is one of those ‘Hollywood Must Dos’ in Sydney since the outside is covered in photos of celebs eating at Harry’s. Even Colonel Sanders! Lol. So of course, we had to stop! What a fun thing to stumble upon! What they’re famous for is a dish called the “Tiger,” which is a meat pie with mashed potatoes, creamed peas, and gravy on top. Interesting to look at, but very tasty. If you’re in Sydney, check it out.

Harry's Cafe de Wheels

Mmm...tiger. (This time for real)

Our harbor cruise was fun…kind of what you’d expect from a harbor cruise in a big city. We found out later that there was one that took you out on a tall ship (like an old pirate ship or the ones in Pirates of the Caribbean), but we didn’t know about it, so we didn’t get to do that. Maybe next time I’m in Sydney? We’ll see. But we did get to go past lots of cool parts of historic Sydney and see many of the sights from the water, including one of the only places you can get a picture with both the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbor Bridge in it.

We're on a boat! And behind us is the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbor Bridge

Loving This!

When we docked, we were next to the Museum of Contemporary Art which had a big sign for their current exhibit, Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer’s Life. Now, Annie Leibovitz is one of my favorite photographers in the world, so I asked my mom and dad if we could PLEASE go see it. Mom and Dad agreed. I don’t think Dad knew who she was really, but he definitely knew her work (Google her name and you will probably know some of it, too, if you don’t recognize her name. She has taken some incredibly iconic shots of amazing people. Think of the John Lennon and Yoko Ono photo, or the pregnant Demi Moore photo…those are her work).  What a great experience we didn’t even plan on!

Annie Leibovitz for Disney

The next day, we walked to the Sydney Sky Tower—an observation tower that looks out over the Sydney skyline. It’s very cool to be that high about anything. We spent a while wondering around up there before we went in search of a subway station to take us to the one and only Bondi Beach. We spent that afternoon/evening playing at the beach and watching the surfers. The water at that beach is so blue and the sand is so white, it’s absolutely amazing to look at. Once we were back in our neighborhood, Dad and I made it our mission to introduce Mom to gelato. Three stops to ask directions later, we were having some incredible gelato. I hope we didn’t get mom addicted!

Bondi Surf

Bondi Beach

Sydney Sky Tower

Bondi Surfer

Sadly, the next morning, Mom and Dad were back on their way to the USA and I was back on my way to the Gold Coast. So…now it’s back to real life. Haha. Once I got home, I had one project to finish (DONE), two papers to write (still trying to finish the second one—this was a mental break. UPDATE: this second paper was written and saved under the title of "The Use of Rhetoric to Obscure Lack of Content" as it could be answered in half a page but had to be a full page for the grade), and an exam to make up (ALSO DONE). Is it weird that I find the use of scantrons for exams here in Australia to be fairly comforting? Its like…wait…I know how to use this! It’s not new! Yes! Lol. Yeah…vacation is definitely over. But, I'm getting lunch with Larissa on Wednesday, going to the National Finals Rodeo on Thursday with some girls from my Sport Event Operations class, and hopefully rock climbing again on Friday. So this week will still be pretty busy, but I’m happy with that. I’ve also booked my mid-semester break trip to Sydney and the Snowy Mountains to go horseback riding and to go to Hillsong Church, so I’m definitely looking forward to that. Speaking of break, does anyone have an opinion on CouchSurfer.org? I’m considering how safe it is when I’m travelling alone. If I can avoid spend money on hostels, I’d be stoked, but I’d rather be safe than thrifty and/or sorry. Both work.  

Aren't they cute?

And, continuing on the traveling theme, after much deliberation with my parents over the last two weeks, I have decided to not travel to Europe this summer. Financially, it just doesn’t make sense. Australia is a fairly expensive country and the exchange rate is not my friend right now. And while I’m not homesick, I do kind of miss being home. I like being with my family…I know, weird. Plus, it just makes more sense to save Europe for a future adventure. This will not be the only time I travel and leave the USA, so I don’t need to cram it all into one trip…it makes sense to spread the adventures out over more time. So my plan is to finish my semester here, fly to New Zealand for a bit (hopefully for about two weeks), and then head back to Colorado for a while before flying back to Orlando to begin my 4^th year at Rosen. So, if anyone has suggestions about New Zealand, I’d love to hear them!

I can't wait!

Anyway, if you are still reading at this point, you deserve a cookie and a glass of cold milk. I wish I could supply that, but apparently, they have a thing about dairy products being shipped internationally. And if you’ve been unfortunate enough to try my cookies, you know that you’re better off getting them from the store (unless it’s the already made dough, then you’re safe). I love and miss you all and would love to hear from you and know what’s going on in your corner of the world! I hope life is treating you all like rock stars because that is exactly what you all are—minus the excessive drugs and crazy fan girls/boys.

Yum.

As the Aussies say, “Keep Calm and Carry On.” (And I just learned that was a British WWII poster to keep up morale pending an invasion that never occurred and therefore was a slogan that was never really used…interesting).

Good Advice, Britain. 

Love you!

Leah

PS-There was a Christmas special on television. On April 4^th. What the heck?

Weirdest Christmas-releated photo I could find. 

PPS-I will put more photos on Facebook. Blogger just is difficult. 

PPPS-Hope you enjoyed all the photos and silliness. I love you all!

smile!