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