Happy Cinco de Mayo! And PS-I took your avocado.

Hola, Mi Amigos!

So I know this is super short turn-around, but I’ve had a pretty great week, so I figured I’d get back on schedule with another great week.

Monday was spent trying to finish schoolwork for the most part. Monday was ANOTHER public holiday for Australia (Labor Day), so there weren’t a lot of other options. I also caught up on sleep from my 5AM wakeup call on Sunday (read “The (Wo)Man from Snowy River” to understand why).

Tuesday I had classes and worked on a lot of projects. I really can’t wait for the project part of the semester to be over. This is ridiculous. Fortunately, my Tuesday groups are pretty good, so that wasn’t too bad.

Wednesday I also had group meetings and classes. Wednesday made me a lot less stressed about school, though, because I spoke with my professor about my concern of working with my group mates and about ending up doing the entire assignment on my own. She told me that I could do just my 1/3 and get graded alone for it. YES! That makes life so much better for me. I basically have the paper written already, so my stress level dropped hugely.

After class, I was talking with my friends Kayla, Anna, and Michelle about our plans for the next few days. I couldn’t hold my excitement for two of my favorite holidays that almost don’t count (well, one doesn’t at all) that happen back-to-back. The first being Intergalactic Star Wars Day (May the 4^th Be With You!) followed by Cinco de Mayo. I forget that Spanish is not a common language here and that Cinco de Mayo is about as foreign to them as The Queen’s Birthday is to me (Fact: Her birthday celebration is not actually on her birthday). After I explained it, Kayla (one of the only ‘real’ Aussies I see a lot of) was very excited about this and changed the theme of her “Tourism BBQ” to a Cinco de Mayo Fiesta! I’m very proud to say that I led this influence. I do find it necessary to share the text she sent everyone to invite them. It went: “Ok, hunkabunks. It’s Mexican Independence Day and as you can guess from my beautiful olive complexion and sexy Latin tongue, I would like to celebrate my heritage with mi amigos. Ask your druglords for a couple bucks to bring for Mexicano food and drinks. Hasta manyana!” I should also tell you that Kayla is very white. Somewhere between lily white and flesh crayon color is about accurate. So this is possibly one of the best texts I’ve received in my life.

Michelle and I then walked to the bus stop to get on the bus that would take us home. We saw our bus and ran to get on it and made it, fortunately. However, shortly after the bus started moving, we realized we were going the wrong direction. The bus number hand been changed once it reached the school! We got off at the first stop and assessed our options. The first choice was to cross the street and wait for a bus heading the opposite direction. The second choice was to go into Baskin Robbins and buy ice cream for dinner. So of course, we went and waited for the bus. NOT! We decided that ice cream sounded like a far better option and chose that for dinner. After that, we decided that, if we were already eating ice cream for dinner, we might as well have potato chips for dessert. Healthy, right? So we went to IGA (supermarket brand here) and bought chips. At that point, we realized that we had missed the bus back in our direction anyways and figured we might as well walk. Michelle’s house is much closer to where we were than mine is, so we stopped there started talking and having a great conversation and I ended up staying for the night. We really had a great time for taking the wrong bus. Accidental adventures are the best.  Bonus was that Michelle (she’s Canadian, btw) had found a store that sold bagels. BAGELS! This may not seem that exciting, but bagels are next to impossible to find here. So I really enjoyed breakfast in the morning.

Thursday is a day that I don’t usually don’t go to the Uni, but, surprise, surprise, I had another group assignment. That afternoon, I went to the store and found another food that is next to impossible to find in Australia: tortilla chips. I mean, seriously, go into the chip aisle at your local City Market or Publix and you find about 100 varieties of tortilla chip. Not so in Australia. I searched the store and was having no luck when an employee asked if he could help. I told him it was entirely possible that they didn’t carry them, but that I wanted tortilla chips. Turns out, they’re with the Mexican food. Would anyone care to guess how many varieties of tortilla chips there were? There were 2. One “Original” and one “Extreme Cheese.” And there were only two bags of “Original” left. I cleaned them out. I figured that even if we didn’t eat them at the party that night, I could buy some salsa later and enjoy some good old chips and salsa American style. I also bought the makings for guacamole. Yum. I made it back to my house to take my laundry off the line and to leave Merle a note that I would be staying at Kayla’s house that night. My favorite part of the note was my P.S. “PS-I took your avocado.” I’m not totally sure still why I told her that. She doesn’t like avocados, but I felt that it was necessary to tell her. Go figure.

Eventually, I made it to Kayla’s house. Her house is about 200 meters from the beach. It’s amazing. And it’s a super cute house. Michelle was all about cooking that night and I was banned from the kitchen (I was kind of in the way), but I made an awesome guacamole and had fun discussing the limited Spanish that Kayla and I both know.

Anna, my German friend

Sonny gets to pin the tail on the donkey. And he wore a poncho. 

Around 7, everyone arrived. We had an awesome chicken taco bar and Coronas and chips with guacamole and salsa. Plus, Murf, Kayla’s friend, had a surprisingly large collection of Spanish music to give a great atmosphere. It was fantastic. We also played “Pin-The-Tail on the Donkey,” like the mature university students we all are. I won and was given a lime for my outstanding efforts. It was so much fun. I was also taught how to make a “kangaroo tail,” which is just a fancy way of folding your towel to be able to whip it at your friends and cause welts. Nice to see that friend abuse is thriving in every culture. We also realized that we had people from 6 different countries at our fiesta, and none of them were Mexican or from a Spanish-speaking country. Lol. But we had a German, an American, a Canadian, two Japanese, a Korean, and 5 Aussies. It was a great little party.

Kayla tries to confuse Michelle

My turn. I actually did pretty well after I hit the window frame. And I make that sombrero look good.  

After the party wound down, I just hung out with Kayla and Michelle for a while, playing “Name that State/Provence” from each other’s country. Between the two of them, they were able to name all 50 states, although there were a few cities that they thought were states and vice versa. I was able to do Australia and Australian capital cities, but Canada was hopeless. I feel like I should probably know more about my neighboring country, but I just don’t think it was ever something covered in school. Kayla, however, knew all of the Canadian provinces and most of their capital cities. Basically, she showed me! Haha. Kayla also had a lot of questions about American history and politics, which I did my best to answer, though I’m not sure I did a great job. I should brush up on my history to be able to answer her questions if she asks more!

Friday was not terribly interesting. I caught up on emails and such and walked over to the outlet mall to get a new waiter’s friend (corkscrew/bottle opener combo tool). Of all the things that I’ve accidentally taken through security, I never thought a bottle opener would be the thing that got me stopped. And they took it! What am I going to do, bottle open the pilot to death? Oh well. It was only $2, so not a big loss. Plus, it was easy to replace. After I walked over there, I had a strange feeling to go to the Nike Outlet store. So, having plenty of time before the stores closed and I needed to be heading home so I wasn’t walking in the dark, I went. I’ve had a short list of souvenirs that I wanted to buy for myself since I’ve arrived. On that list is been a stuffed koala, an opal, some Aboriginal artwork, and an Aussie soccer jersey. But, as is everything in this country, jerseys are expensive. Really expensive. Part of me was beginning to doubt that the jersey would happen—it just cost a lot. But, while in the Nike store, a bright gold jersey caught my eye. I went over and HOT DOG, I found an Australian Women’s soccer jersey for $25. $25!!! That’s nothing in Australia. Really, that’s nothing for a jersey, but especially in Australia. I was so excited. I couldn’t believe my luck! Yay for good feelings about going to a store.

That night I did my RSA or Responsible Service of Alcohol. I have to do it to work at my job, even though I’m only working about 4 more weekends. Which is weird to say. So little time. Anyway, RSA may be the most boring thing I’ve ever done. 3 hours of online classwork. Ugh. I will argue that it was more monotonous than drivers ed or any other online class you’ll ever have to do. But, I do now know a lot of laws about Australian drinking laws, which I guess is the point.

Saturday was work and training. What a crazy day. It was the Prime Minister’s Cup, so it was a FULL day at the restaurant. Plus, our refrigerators went out. That was not exciting news. Basically, we stole every bucket, milk crate, and container we could find in the club and filled them with ice to put all of our products in to keep them cold. But, even with all of that, we still had a pretty good day. And I didn’t spill anything! One of my co-workers, Venessa, was joking around and started to call me “Miss USA,” which caught on with a lot of the staff, so I’m a bit concerned that next week, that’s what everyone will call me. I told her that just because I’m an American doesn’t mean she can make fun of me. She argues that it does mean exactly that since I am in Australia. Fairly certain that means she gets the point in this round. I think it’s pretty funny, though. I told her if she’s going to call me “Miss USA,” I would need her to provide me with a tiara and a sash. We’ll see if she delivers. Hehe.

Sunday was Mother’s Day! HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY MOM! While I was a bit sad to not be able to spend Mother’s Day with my own amazing mom or really even be able to call her (international phone rates are killer), I did still have a pretty great day. There’s a woman at church named Elsa, a friend of Merle’s, who has been trying to get me to meet her daughter and grandchildren for a few weeks now, but timing just hasn’t worked out. Sunday, however, Merle was going out to lunch with some other moms who’s kids were out of town and so Elsa invited me to go up to her daughter Leanne’s for a Mother’s Day BBQ. I was happy to not be left to procrastinate on my assignment at the house and went along with her. Firstly, though, we had to stop by her house. She lives in an adorable log cabin in the middle of town. It’s a super cute little house. Then we headed out to Nerang, a new suburban area of the Gold Coast. Elsa has three daughters and all three were present at the BBQ with their husbands. Leanne and her French husband, Elian, are so nice and great hosts. I enjoyed talking with them and had a great afternoon hanging out on their back porch. They live in an absolutely beautiful house right on the edge of the forest and it didn’t hurt that the day was clear and beautiful. It was also really fun to just get to hang out with a real Aussie family and have a great BBQ with them. The family is definitely one of those families that doesn’t just love each other because they have to, but they all LIKE being around each other, too. All of the sisters and their husbands and the kids and the grandma just like being together and it’s so obvious. It made me miss my family! But they were really great and have invited me to come back for a weekend stay before I go. I’m also trying to convince Leanne that she should be the camp nurse for a summer. Hehe. We’ll see if that ever works out. She’d be great, though.

That evening, I got to have a fantastic Skype date with Kaleb. I love talking to my friends and hearing about Kaleb’s Italian adventures makes me so keen to visit Italy some day. I can’t wait to see all my friends, though, and to have my cell phone and be able to call without making a huge plan around it! Plus, we discovered that on May 11^th, we will have been friends for 1 year. Weird to know the exact day, eh? But it’s our friend-versary! Yay!

Monday was fairly bland. It rained pretty much all day, which is never on my list of great ways to start the day, but that did mean that I got a lot of homework done. I’m feeling a lot better about my assignments now than I was last week, but I do still miss Rosen and knowing exactly what is expected of me (and getting fast feedback!). I am very much ready to be done with school. I think my brain doesn't like being in class still in May...it just finds this to be fundamentally wrong. Plus, as my friend Lizzy says, "Studying Abroad gets in the way of Studying Abroad." Haha. But, while I'm ready to be done with classes for a bit, I definitely have a new appreciation for my professors here. I have had some bad luck with group member assignments for projects and they have been super understanding and helpful in making the best of the situation for me so that my grades don't fall apart and my stress level has gone way down because of their help. I've had two professors who especially helped me out and I cannot say think you enough to them. I also Skyped with my Mom. It was so good to talk to her and wish her a Happy Mother’s Day. They also enjoyed laughing at me when I used my Aussie vocabulary without even realizing it. I used about 5 Aussie-isms in one sentence and they thought it was pretty funny. We’ll see how long it takes me to lose my Aussie vocab when I get back. Probably a while.

I also leave for New Zealand in 7 weeks. Holy buckets, that’s soon! I’m getting very excited, but also a bit overwhelmed. I have a lot to do. Wow. I’m also sad because it means the end of my semester is quick approaching. Yikes! So much I still want to do! I think the next few weeks will be pretty busy for me!

So, that’s all for now. Sorry for so few photos—I just didn’t carry my camera around this week. That’ll teach me! Sorry also for the back-to-back updates, but I just wanted to get back on schedule (not that my plan actually worked...Blogger was angry with me and didn't let me post yesterday, so you get updated on Tuesday). I hope you all have a fantastic day! If you forgot, call your mom and tell her you love her! I’d love to hear from you guys and know what’s up in your life.

Cheers!

Leah.

The (Wo)Man From Snowy River

Hello Friends!!!

Excited to be staying on "Snowy River Ave"

So, I’ll go ahead and apologize for not updating at all last week (April 19-25). Honestly, though, that week was incredibly boring. Like, beyond boring. I went to school, did laundry, did homework (including a paper about how “Twilight” has increased tourism to Forks, Washington), made an Easter Egg with Lachlan, and celebrated a ridiculous number of Australian holidays. Seriously, this country doesn’t go to work in the month of April. There was Good Friday, Easter Saturday, Easter Sunday, and Easter Monday/ANZAC Day, but since ANZAC Day fell on another holiday, they took Tuesday off as well! And they’re off today as well for Labour Day. That’s honestly about it. And I also apologize for being so late this week, too, but that is just because I’ve been trying to catch up. So I will not be posting about this week until next week to get back on my little schedule. Clear as mud? Good. BUT this post will also be really long because I had an awesome adventure.

Well, I guess I did more than nothing last week, but none of it was worth a whole blog about. So I’ll just do a recap this week. Monday I went running (that’s the most interesting thing I did), Tuesday I went to school and took care of classes and working on projects, Wednesday, I went to school and kind of sorted out a few more projects (a bit nervous about these ones) and, when I got home, Lachlan, Merle’s grandson, greeted me at the door asking if I’d help him decorate his Easter egg for class that he’d known about for two weeks and had just told his parents about and started the night before. I had a Skype date with Kaleb at 8:30, so I told him I’d help until then. We made a very nice egg in the end. Lol. Thursday I worked on more projects (can’t you tell what my life revolved around this week?) and met up with Larissa to finalize our plans for Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road. Friday I went to Church (Good Friday, don’t you know) and had real Australian Prawns (yummy), made a video about the Rodeo, and did lots of laundry. On Saturday, I went to work and went to a Thai dinner for Merle’s birthday with Merle, her son, David, and Lachlan, her grandson. Lachlan also gave me Easter chocolate for helping with his egg. Sunday, we went to an Easter service and then went to “The German Club” with Bertina and her husband, Norman. That was lots of fun. I was probably the youngest person by about 20 years, but I had some fantastic German Pork Knuckle and really enjoyed talking with Merle and Bertina. It was a lot of fun and the food was great. Monday, I packed my stuff and whatnot before I got ready to leave on my trip. J

And so began my trip. Monday night (now I’m talking about the week of the 25^th), Merle dropped me off at the bus station in Surfers Paradise for me to catch a Greyhound Bus to Sydney. Yeah, that was an adventure that will not be repeated unless no other option exists—other options including covered wagon. Ok, maybe not that extreme, but if I have another option, I will probably not do that again. 15 hours later, I arrived at Central Station in Sydney and went to my hostel to drop my bags and then go exploring.

Now, those of you who do not know Kiel Adams, let me explain: Kiel is a very dear friend who brings out my geeky side in a way that I will rarely admit to, especially when it comes to movies (well, I guess I just did admit to it, dang!). So, when he heard I was going to Sydney, he sent me a short list of places to visit. This was not a list that said things like: Sydney Opera House, Harbor Bridge, Olympic Park, etc. No, no. This list said: Tumbalong Park, McDonalds by Tumbalong Park, Merlton World Tower, Sydney Monorail, Chinese Garden of Friendship, and Darling Harbor. Why, you might ask, did he want me to go to a McDonalds in the middle of Sydney? Apparently, this was a location for the Power Rangers Movie and he wanted a picture of it. Once again, confession time, Kiel and I have watched this movie within the last 18 months together to relive our childhood, so these scenes were familiar to me. I wasn’t sure if I would actually want to spend the time it would take and the money on the subway system to get to said park, so I told him maybe.

Back to my exploring. I left the hostel and just started following the fun looking streets (not the best way to avoid getting lost, but a fantastic way to have an adventure) and ended up at the Chinese Garden of Friendship. What luck, right? So I went in (Concession prices make life so great—only $3 instead of $9) and took pictures, thinking that this would make Kiel happy. Truth is, I probably would have gone in anyway, it was absolutely beautiful. I loved that little garden and took lots of photos (a few are below). Plus, if you want to at this park, you can dress up in traditional Chinese costumes and wander the park in them. It makes for a very fun atmosphere for sure. I didn’t dress up, but I took sneaky photos of people who were dressed up. Hope that doesn’t make me too creepy!!!

Chinese Garden of Friendship

I think this contrast is really interesting...

Girls in Traditional Costumes (aka Leah being creepy)

Me at the Fountain

After wandering the garden, I walked out and just kept heading towards a free Easter Weekend event at Darling Harbor called ‘HOOPLA!’, which was more or less my destination. As I went along, I came across this park that looked vaguely familiar. I looked around a little more and started to laugh. I was pretty sure I had just found Tumbalong Park. I checked a map to be sure, and what do you know, I was there. I had just stumbled upon it. So, being a totally mature 21-year-old, I began taking photos for a totally mature 22-year-old, and managed to look like a completely ridiculous American taking pictures of a park. Nothing in the park, just the park. Congratulations on looking crazy, Miss Jarvis. After this, I kept walking towards the Harbor and found the McDonalds. Once again, being as epically cool as I am, I took photos of a McDonalds. Go me. I also broke down on my avoidance of “American Food” and bought French Fries and a chocolate shake at Macca’s (as the Aussies put it). Whoops. One slip up isn’t too bad, though, eh? I think I’m doing pretty well. Now, if there were a Chipotle in Surfers Paradise, it would be a different story. Once I got to the Harbor, I took some photos of the Harbor and the Monorail and watched part of HOOPLA! before the rain came and I scurried back to my hostel. But, I did feel very accomplished that I was able to find this park and McDonalds on accident and take photos of it. Is that weird? Hope not!

Tumbalong Park

Tumbalong Park in the Rain

McDonalds...aka "Ernie's Juice Bar"

Darling Harbor

There is something really fun about bunkbeds. I’m just going to say it. I love bunkbeds. And being in my hostel in my PJs and my hiking boots (the only shoes I brought with me) and sitting in my bunkbed reading, I almost felt like I was back at camp. It was kind of funny. But, the point of this being, bunkbeds are awesome.

BUNKBEDS!

The next morning, I went to the airport and checked in for my flight to Cooma. Now, Cooma is tiny. Cooma doesn’t appear on most New South Wales maps, much less on any Australian continent maps. The airport is smaller than the Pavilion (for camp people) or the food lab (for Rosen people). Tiny. And in the middle of nowhere. So, when planning my trip to go horseback riding in the Snowy Mountains, I had based my transportation around the Snowy Mountain Snow Express, a shuttle service advertised on the website for the Airport (the airport only has one airline and one shuttle service). You can imagine my joy when, after trying to call and make a reservation for three weeks, I finally got a call back. Now, totally flip that joy around to panic, which occurred when I was told, “We don’t run the shuttle in the non-snow season. We’ll start in Mid-June.” Enter any expletive here. I had spent a lot of money on tickets to get to this town in the middle of nowhere to go on a childhood dream (explain more of that later) and now I was going to be stuck at the airport? Crap. I asked the woman on the phone if there was any other way to get to Jindabyne (where I was staying) and she told me my other options were a cab (which would cost $160 each way), renting a car ($100 a day), or hitchhiking. As I said, crap. So, once again, being the completely responsible and mature young adult I am, I definitely called my parents in tears, freaking out about $320 cab fare that I didn’t have. Now, I will take this opportunity to say that I have the best parents in the world. I am certain that the last thing, well, close to last thing, you want as a parent is for your child to call from 10,000 miles away in tears. They’re great, though, and helped calm me down and told me that they would transfer some money so that I would be good for travelling. Thank goodness!!! (LOVE YOU MOM AND DAD!)

So I boarded my plane and headed off to Cooma and the Snowy Mountains. This plane flight was an experience. It was a tiny propeller plane with 21 seats and that’s it. The plane looked like a toy. The pilot did the safety talk and moved people around to help balance the plane weight. I don’t think that’s ever happened to me before. Very interesting, but I still felt very safe (Thank you, Professor Milman and “Current Practices in the Airline Industry” for making me feel safe and knowledgeable of that kind plane!). When I got to Cooma, I asked the only airport employee (literally, the only one—he did baggage, the information desk, the café counter, all but ticketing, which was done by the pilot!) how he would recommend getting to Jindabyne. He told me, unfortunately, that a taxi was probably the only way I could get there and then maybe catch the school bus back on Friday morning rather than another taxi. As had become my motto for the day, crap. Then, suddenly, he told me, “Wait 5 minutes.” I told him, “If you know a way to get me to Jindabyne for less than $100, you can have 5 hours!” So, about 5 minutes later, this man came back and told me that his friend, Steve, was from Jindabyne and would be able to drive me there for free. OH MY GOODNESS. Thank God for Aussies (or Small Town Aussies)!!! So, I got a ride with Steve to Jindabyne. Steve is a private pilot for a wealthy Sydney family and flies them around the world for about 4 months out of the year and then spends his time off fishing in Jindabyne. Hard life, yeah?

21 Passengers

The Cooma Airport

It's a toy!

I can't find my baggage...

Long story short, I made it to Jindabyne! Jindabyne is a very cute little town in the mountains. It’s a lot like Salida. I knew I would love it instantly. I moved into my hostel and set out to explore. I wandered into a cute little ski shop and the woman there asked where I was from and she had been to Colorado! It was very exciting for me. Her name was Joan and she told me to come back and see her if I had any questions at all. I love that the friendliness of small towns is universal. After that, I went back to my hostel and took in the beautiful scenery from the balcony off my room. The town is on the edge of Lake Jindabyne and at the headwaters for the Snowy River. There were only two other people staying at the hostel: Dave, who is the executive chef at one of the ski lodges in the area (he was there early to begin working on his new menu for the season), and Steven, who was from Adelaide and was out to fish for a week. Steven is also talking about moving to Colorado, so that was fun conversation. Both of these guys were really nice and I enjoyed talking to them and getting to know them the first night. Dave and I ended up watching “Robin Hood” (the one starring Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman) and laughing a lot at it. If you haven't seen it for a while, it's worth renting for a good laugh.

View from the balcony off my hostel room

I suppose now is as good a time as any to explain why I went on this little adventure. When I was little, we had only a few movies in the apartment at camp. One of these was  “The Man from Snowy River.” This was probably one of my favorite movies for a good 4 years. It takes place in the 1800’s Australian bush and involves a lot of horseback riding. Since being in Australia, I've learned that the movie is based off of a poem by the same title by Aussie Poet Banjo Peterson. He's a big deal to Aussies. Anyway, ever since I was a little kid, it has been an ambition to go horseback riding at Snowy River. And therefore, it makes total sense that as a 21-year-old in Australia, I fulfill this dream. Plus, I was a bit homesick for mountains. So I went. And am I ever glad I did! (Insert theme music here).

Horses!

Me and Geo, the Brumby!

Nev mustering the heard

On the trail

The next morning, Nev, the owner of Threadbo Valley Horse Riding, picked me up at the hostel and took me out to the ranch. Originally, it was supposed to be me, a family of four, and Nev going out on the ride, but as Nev was preparing the horses, the family called and said they weren’t coming, so it was just the two of us. I rode a beautiful brumby named Geo—who had a personality all her own. I went out for about two and a half hours and just enjoyed being outside and riding a horse and exploring mountains. I was fulfilling my childhood dream!!! Plus, as we were riding through the bush, I saw not one, but TWO wild kangaroos hop across the trail. How freaking awesome is that? You can’t get much more Australian than riding a brumby through the bush and seeing wild kangaroos!

Once I got back to Jindabyne after my fantastic horse trekking party, I went out again with my camera to explore the town even more. There was an absolutely beautiful little church at the top of the hill that overlooked the entire lake and valley and had a wall of windows at the front of the sanctuary. What a treat it would be to worship there and see God’s creation all around you! It was amazing.

Church on the Hill

View from the Church

After thoroughly exploring Jindabyne and getting fairly lost, I found my way back to Joan’s ski store. I went in to ask her what the best way to get back to the airport was and if a cab was my best bet or not. She looked at me like I was crazy for even considering a cab and said, “Well, if you’re good to leave by 10AM, my husband is going to Cooma at that time. That will get you a lot closer and then you can take a cheaper cab ride to the airport.” HOT DOG! I thanked her repeatedly and was stoked to have another less-than-$160 way to get to the airport! What a relief that was.

One great thing about places like Jindabyne is that they have visitor centers with maps and such so that the tourists (like me) don’t get lost in the forests surrounding the town. I went in, just to see what was in there, and shortly behind me was a woman in the visitor center uniform wearing a backpack and carrying a laundry basket. I didn’t think much of it until the basket’s contents moved! I kind of freaked out a little bit (in a good/geeky way) when I realized that the basket was holding a baby kangaroo! I asked about it and she told me that she was a part of a fostering group that took care of orphaned wildlife when the mama animals were hit by cars. I couldn’t believe how cool it was! Out of curiosity, I asked if she had fostered any other animals. Her reply? “Oh yeah. I have a wallaby in my backpack right now.” WHAT?! That might be the coolest thing I’ve ever been told. She took off her backpack and pulled out a purse-like bag with a wallaby in it. I love that! I couldn’t help but laugh a little and just think, “God bless the Aussies.” Who else in the world would carry a wallaby in their backpack? That’s just awesome.

A WALLABY! In a Backpack!

That night, when I got back to the hostel, Steven asked if I liked trout. I was like, “Yeah, sure. Why?” Apparently, he had had a pretty great day fishing and had caught lots of trout and had offered to make dinner for himself as well as Dave and me. How fun was that? Pretty darn fun. I helped out as much as I could (fish is not my cooking strength) and we had a great dinner of fresh trout and veggies. Really, it was just a heap of fun.

I woke up fairly early the next morning to pack and get ready to leave. I just have to say, though, that early morning sunlight in the mountains looks beautiful everywhere and it made me just miss home/feel at home at the exact same time. For me, early mountain mornings are so refreshing for my faith. Yay for God Moments in the Australian Mountains! Anyway, I went to the ski shop and met Peter (Joan’s husband) at 10 and headed to Cooma with him. After he dropped me off, I found a coffee shop and settled in for a few hours reading on my Kindle until I could go to the airport (my flight didn’t leave until 3:20, I was in Cooma by 11). What a lovely way to spend a morning! I really did enjoy myself a lot and just loved absorbing the small-town atmosphere, something that doesn’t really exist on the Gold Coast. So great, so great.

This is a pretty great way to spend your morning...

The flight back to Sydney was much less personally stressful (knowing that I had transportation options there!) and once I landed, I took a train out to my first ever Couch Surfing experience. I stayed with housemates Richard and Jazzy in a suburb of Sydney. Both were really nice and I had a good time talking with and hanging out with them. We watched some of the Royal Wedding and discussed their travels around Europe and Jazzy’s time working in Africa at a hotel. They were both very interesting people.

The next morning, I woke up bright and early and headed towards the main part of the city. I had already seen a lot of this part of the city earlier in the week and when I had gone with my parents, but I went back to see it again from a different perspective. Sadly, I found out that there is no “42 Wallaby Way, Sydney.” Tragic. Another Disney dream dashed on the harsh rocks of reality, right next to flying elephants and always amazing hair. Lol. I had a great time exploring “The Rocks” (the oldest part of Sydney) and around the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House and Darling Harbor before I set out on a bit of a mission to try and find one of the last souvenirs I wanted for myself: a piece of opal jewelry. Long story short, after much wandering, a bus, and a monorail ride (just for you, Kiel…well, and for Kyle Gates, too), I found a shop that had a huge selection of opals. I told them my price range and ended up leaving with a beautiful blue opal ring. I’m so happy with it. It’s gorgeous and sparkly and is almost kind of shaped like Australia. Haha.

Sydney Harbor Bridge

I finally saw the Opera House in the Sunshine!

Soaking up the Sunshine while I can!

The Monorail

My Opal :)

The next morning, I woke up at about 5AM to catch a train to Central Station to drop off my bags at the bag storage and then catch another train Parramatta and then catch a bus to make it to Hillsong Church. I am so glad I went, though. It was absolutely amazing. I was not really expecting to have a “great church moment” there because I haven’t had those experiences at other mega-churches before, but just wow. It was a very powerful and connecting service for me and I loved it. It was totally worth waking up at 5 to be there. It was also really good to see that many people in the same place worshipping God together. And it was one of the most ethnically diverse church services I’ve ever been to. If you’re ever in Australia, I would definitely recommend that you try to make one of these services a part of your plans. It was great.

Hillsong Church (PS-you feel creepy taking photos during a church service)

On the train on the way back from the church, I realized I had about an hour an a half before I had to start going towards the airport and that, if I got off at the next station, I could go explore Olympic Park. Which I decided would be a good idea. It’s pretty amazing to see the Olympic grounds in person. They’re HUGE. I’m definitely glad that I didn’t make a special trip out to the Olympic Park, but it was a fun little detour/time killer on my way back to the airport after church.

Olympic Stadium

Me at Olympic Park!

That afternoon, I flew back to Gold Coast and settled into real life again. So, that’s where I am now…trying to play catch up and trying to make sense of my assignments. Ugh. I never thought I’d say that I miss Rosen’s group projects, but…I miss Rosen’s group projects. At least I know what’s expected of me on those! But overall, I’m enjoying school a lot. Excited to get back to Rosen, but I will miss Griffith. I only have 4 weeks left of class, so 8 days of classes, then a study week (aka Leah’s going travelling again), and two weeks of exams, and then two weeks of New Zealand. As of Sunday (May 8), I will only have 9 weeks left before I’m back in the States. Crazy, eh? The time has honestly flown. I still have a lot I want to do, too! Later this month, I’m going up to the Sunshine Coast and hopefully to a rugby game and the Australian Zoo. I’m also going down to Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road and Adelaide during my study week and can hopefully fit in a few days in Tasmania around that, but I’ll have to wait for my finals schedule to be released (May 21…eww).

So, that’s my grand adventure and the reason I haven’t updated in a few weeks. (Sorry to worry you, Dawn!) I will get back to my Monday postings this Monday because I’ve had a pretty fun week but if I make this post any longer, you’ll fall asleep reading it and I don’t want to be “that friend” that bored you to sleep (not death, I’d like to think I’m a little more exciting and interesting than THAT!).

As always, I hope everyone is doing amazingly and is having fantastic and exciting lives. All of you who are prepping for camp, I am so incredibly jealous, but also much more excited for you and for this great summer! Everyone else, I hope finals are going well/went well and if you’re not in either of those groups, I hope that your life is going swimmingly, too!

I’d love to hear from any of you by email, comment, message, facebook, anything—it makes me feel extra loved. Plus, I miss you guys and I want to know about your lives!

Love you all!

Leah.