Whitsunday Islands

I just got back from the most amazing weekend sailing around the Whitsunday Islands on a yacht! We left Thursday afternoon and returned today (Sunday). The morning started with me rushing to finish packing and running downstairs to the nurse to check my cut before I left. She said I was fine and didn't need a bandaid anymore yay!! I went outside wearing shorts, a strapless shirt, sunglasses and a white hat to find out that its raining in Gold Coast! I put my hoodie on and went to the bus stop with my friends and then we took the bus to the Robina train station and got on the train to head to Brisbane! It took an hour and a half to get there, the train ride is terrible it's so long! I was with my friends Beth, Heidi, Sarah and Katy and when we got to the airport we met up with other Bondies going on the same trip! For some reason I couldn't do the self check in so I had to go to the service desk and apparently I had no seat but then I got one way up in the front and asked her to get me a seat for my flight on the way back and I asked for a window seat :) I got some fries in the airport and wanted ketchup but it was 75 cents and when I told my friends I said 75 dollars instead of cents and their jaws dropped then we all stopped for a moment and realized I switched up the words hahaha The flight was about an hour and a half. We landed in Prosperpine I think? It was like a deserted place and the airport was SO SMALL only 2 airlines went there, Virgin and Jetstar. Anyways, we got picked up and drove about an hour to Airlie Beach where we stayed at the Xbase hostel. I was in a room with my 4 friends. There was a lizard in our room... I went to go get one of the boys from upstairs but when he got there we had lost the lizard and just hoped that it left  haha After that we were so hungry and our whole group got a free dinner but of course it wasn't filling at all but its free so whatever. Then we went to the liquor store and everyone bought wine, I'm not a fan so I was going to go sober on the boat for the weekend. That night we went out to the bars/clubs got some free drinks then bought our own drinks and basically had a good time! At the end of the night we went to McDonald's, typical. We were standing in line and this older girl was talking/flirting with this old man and she was asking him questions about his glasses and if he could see or not and stuff and then out of no where, my friend (she's blacked out at this point) yells at the girl "SHUT UP HE'S NOT STUPID" and then they got in a hugeee fight and it was SO FUNNY! This girl went crazy and then the old man got scared of the cat fight going on so he left and never got to order. Then the other girls friend, drunk out of her mind, tries to mellow things down and starts singing "HAPPY HAPPY MONDAY TUESDAY HAPPY HAPPY WEDNESDAY HAPPY THURSDAY HAPPY HAPPY" and it was hiarious!!! Then the friend got mad and left and this singing girl sat with us and we all ate together and had a good time hahahaha

Week 4

Wow I have not wrote in my blog in a long time! Guess I've just been super busy. The first few weeks I was really sick but finally I'm healthy!! Our group went on a day trip to Mount Tamborine where we went to a Glow Worm Cave, hiking, and wine tasting. The Glow Worm cave tour was about half an hour long and it was manmade cave but it looked really cool and the glow worms just looked like stars in the night sky! I knew it was going to be cold so this time I brought TWO sweaters with me and I was right, it did get pretty cold at times but the weather was bipolar. Hiking was fun, I got exhausted towards the end though. At one point we had to cross a river by balancing on rocks and I was holding things for a bunch of people while they helped one of the girls cross and I ended up slipping at the end and got my shoes wet :/ but I made it out with no leeches! There was an awesome waterfall and we went into the restricted area and went under the waterfall and took some really cool pictures! There was also waterhole where people in our group went swimming but I was still a little sick and it was cold so I refrained. There was a rock "slide" too which looked like fun and some people were jumping off the side of a cliff and our leader, Mazz, was really frustrated with one guy who just kept climbing higher and higher to jump. After that adventure we went Wine Tasting and I don't think I'm a wine person. We had white wine first then transitioned into red wine and one of them was disgusting and I was the brave soul that walked up and poured out my drink because I couldn't handle it. There was only one wine I liked but I don't remember what it was called. I had a terrible headache that night... perhaps from the wine. This was me when we got home:
http://thetimeistudiedabroad.tumblr.com/post/24631684904/when-i-get-home-from-a-day-of-sightseeing

I also went to the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. I FINALLY got to hold a koala and a got a picture! They smell disgusting and all I could think of was my medmicro class where I learned 70% of koalas have chlamydia. There were heaps and heaps of kangaroos! Not going to lie, I was a tad scared they would attack me so I approached them from behind since they cant jump backwards! We also saw crocodiles, tasmanian devils, tree kangaroos, and wombats. There was an aboriginal dance show too!

Last Saturday I went to Brisbane for the Riverside Festival. We went on the ferris wheel and had an amazing view from the top! We then walked around the city for a bit, witnessed guys dealing drugs out in the open. There was an air show and there were military jets flying super fast and spinning. I don't really know how to describe what I saw and I just asked my roommate, Sarah, and she doesn't know either. We ate at a Vietnamese restaurant and I got an Iced Chocolate which is like a milkshake and it is delicious! I had ice cream earlier that day too, it was the most delicious mango ice cream I have ever had in my life! FINALLY it was time for the firework show! We got there literally like 5 minutes before the show started and I used my Assyrian skills of pushing through a crowd and managed to get us on top of this concrete step thing and we had a perfect view :) The show was SPECTACULAR! I recorded it on my phone and camera. The fireworks were in sync with music and they played all kinds of music, I got really excited when Calvin Harris - Let's Go came on! This show beat every 4th of July firework show I've been to.

Theres heaps and heaps of other things that have happened but I'm getting sleepy and want to sleep so briefly: beach day with crazy wind getting sand all up everywhere, Res wars, writing notes to housekeeping, awkward/embarrassing encounters that make great stories, teaching my roommate Assyrian, teaching her how to do a roundoff, teaching her how to swallow a pill, doing laundry for the first time, dying need of water bottles, Love/Sex/Relationships class presentation, teaching my roommate my secret strategies and sharing life stories, reminiscing in my french and spanish and arabic and persian music, Tim Tam addiction, not being able to sleep till 4am, guys betting on me, hauling my suitcases on top of my desk shelf, hanging clothes around the room to dry, dealing with my long showers and no fan in the bathroom, meditation in Buddhist Philosophy, figuring out bus schedules, fishing (don't know if I wrote about that yet?), ride to pharmacy, thats all I can think of at the moment.

GOODNIGHT <3

Week 1

The first week of school didn’t really feel like school at all. Monday I had Buddhist Philosophy. My teacher just so happens to be from Burlingame so she has a normal American accent. We had to fill out a survey with very vague deep questions. One question was “Who are you” and you couldn’t write about your gender, ethnicity, age, origin, talents or shortcomings. After class I went to the doctor. However, first I had to see the nurse, which was a waste of time. She looked at my throat and told me its red and I need to see the doctor, well OBVIOUSLY it’s red. I had to give the doctor some background and he told me I had a sinus infection but that’s probably because I told him I always get them after a cold. He prescribed me some medicine but when I told him I normally take azithromycin he gave me the Australian azithromycin instead. He also told me to use my inhaler and nasonex. Apparently he’s been telling everyone that goes in with a cold to get an inhaler.

Orientation Week

Tuesday was spent running around getting the basic things done. I got my Bond ID card, O-week package, medical insurance card, GoCard (for the bus), set up my IT account, and got my card swiped to get access to my building. Then we tried to get 18+ cards but you needed proof of residence which none of us had so we just decided to skip it and stopped by the liquor store on our way back to campus. Alcohol here is crazy expensive!! Everyone bought cheap 10-dollar white wine, and obviously I did too, but I also bought some Raspberry Absolut for $40. Next round I’m getting Malibu. That night we planned to go to a bar that was walking distance but met up with the rest of our Arcadia group and ended up getting maxi taxis and going to Surfer’s Paradise! We went to a bar and there was a live band that was actually not that bad and during their breaks they played normal music so we were all dancing and having a good time together.

The Beginning

The morning of my departure was crazy!! The night before I had one suitcase packed with all of my clothes perfectly weighing 45 pounds and I had laid out everything to pack in my second suitcase and carry on. When I actually packed them in the morning, they were both overweight and could barely close. My parents and I spent all morning moving things around to balance out the weight. Unfortunately, we hadn’t solved the issue before it was time to leave so I threw everything into a bag and brought it along to figure out in LA. After everything was settled we had some family bonding time while we waited for our flights. We tried to figure out how I’d carry all of my suitcases by myself. My dad had bought two belts that we used to tie the carry on top of a big suitcase and then tie the other suitcase to the first one to carry them kind of like a train. Soon, it was time for my parents to leave and they bid me goodbye and hugged me several times. It was weird watching them walk away knowing I wouldn’t see them for 4 months.