sheryl in australia

sydney

2006-01-17T09:57:00.001+11:00

I never posted this picture, but I just got it from Eric. When Eric and Julia came to visit me we walked in downtown Sydney and came accross a Spanish festival where some people were dressed up. The guy looks like a guy we know so we had to take a picture!

my fish!

2006-01-14T13:54:00.000+11:00

this is the fish I caught when in Australia!

pictures!

2005-12-29T12:48:00.000+11:00

Now that I had time to upload a bunch of pictures, I am going to post quite a few... prepare yourself! It really is a lot, so I hope you have a fast connection.

You remember how I said I did the sky jump? well, this is a few stories below where we jumped

and here is another view. notice the christmas parade

in the bay of islands we did a speed boat tour... i know you dig the glasses, I did too

and we saw a hole in the rock

this is a cute family, don't you think?

a little bit of body surfing north of brisbane. i am in the middle, and my brother is on the right

this is in front of my beloved uni

reg, rob, and my mum and brother and I went to fitzroy falls

and to the nan tien buddhist temple (rob loves pictures)

this is a view of north wollongong

at the fight club for a bbq with the two canadian rob's and my bro

this is at darling harbour in sydney

in sydney at some cool fountain

this was after a morning of surfing in the gong

and this is part of the ultimate team

On Christmas Eve day we checked out a few museums, including the newly rennovated de young. oh yeah, and I got a hair cut.

and this is at the top of the tower

2005-12-09T19:59:00.000+11:00

A lot has happened in the last few days. I moved out of the house after heaps of cleaning. We were supposed to move out on Thursday, but when the realtor came he said he had to come back the next day to get the keys so we decided to stay one more night and order pizza one last time. It was fun but meant even more cleaning the next day.

After moving out I left at 5pm to drive to Melbourne. We went down for a hat frisbee tournament and got in around 3am. I had never played in a hat tournament, but it was a ton of fun and I met a lot of new people. After that, Tim and I went to Bell's beach to surf, but there was nothing happening. Oh well, the next day we drove to some beach and couldn't find any place to eat, so we ate salted peanuts, an orange and nutella off of a pocket knife because that's all we had.

The next day, after being eaten alive all night by mosquitos, we went swimming and then climbed Pigeon House Mountain. It was good to climb a mountain. We drove back to Wollongong and went through Nowra on the way where we jumped off of this bridge. Talk about a rush! Scary, but definitely worth the thrill, so I did it twice. The second time was off of the railing! Once home I showered and went to a BBQ.

Today I went sea kayaking and got pumped a bit by the waves. It was definitely fun though!

2005-12-01T10:56:00.000+11:00

I had a great time in Brisbane and New Zealand! I absolutely love Brisbane and could easily see myself living there except the beach is a bit far compared to Wollongong. I also had a blast in Auckland and the Bay of Islands. We dined VERY well, so I am pretty sure I put on a few pounds/kilos, but it was so nice for a change! The day after we got to Auckland we did the sky jump, which is a 192 meter semi free fall. It was a rush hanging off the top edge. On our last day we drove north through the beautiful country to the Bay of Islands where we took a trip on the fastest speed boat in the bay known as the mack attack.

crazy times

2005-11-23T09:28:00.000+11:00

I haven't updated in a while, but I have definitely been busy having a great time! Lately I went camping and tried sailing on a maricat boat and then went kayaking. I have also been playing some cricket and frisbee and have been spending time at the beach a lot, swimming and surfing and body surfing. I LOVE the ocean! I also made a thanksgiving dinner for 20 people with one of my friends, but I dropped the sweet potato pie on the street! I almost cried, but the few of us there ate it off of the cement with our hands... SO good! Oh! I got to see Julia and Eric, two of my friends from UC Davis, and we went to the blue mountains and around sydney.

Right now I am in Brisbane because my borhter and mum flew out here and we are travelling here and then to new zealand. My mum and brother fly home from there, but I go back to wollongong until dec 20th. One more month of aussie summer and beach and cricket and the north gong pub! I won't have a house when I get back to wollongong, so there might not be too many updates. I am living on a coach in the fight club, which is basically a dump of a house like the one in the movie fight club.

anyway, no time, but lots o love!

good day

2005-11-07T09:08:00.000+11:00

Yesterday was so fun! I woke up early and went out on a boat on lake illawarra and went wakeboarding! I have never been before, so I was totally excited to try it. It took a few tries to get up, but once I got up the first time, I got up every other time with no problems. The conditions were a bit choppy, so I did a few faceplants, but I had a really good time nonetheless. OH! The only scary thing was that there were jellyfish in the lake! How freaky is that?! I thought they were joking when they told me to watch out for the jellyfish, but then I saw a few huge ones in the water. Yikes! After wakeboarding I went to frisbee and then to a friend's housewarming bbq. A summer bbq in November! I love Australia!

30th party

2005-10-30T15:50:00.000+11:00

Last night one of my friends turned thirty and had a nice party in a sports bar. We all dressed up and had a fun night!

andy, me and coach

because i am a picture whore...

coach, me and nick

andy, kicka (birthday girl), me and emma

andy, stu, me and nick

adelaide and blood

2005-10-28T15:00:00.000+10:00

I went to Adelaide last weekend for the mixed nationals for frisbee and I had a great time. We played hard but only managed to get 13th out of 18 teams... oh well, we still had a blast playing hard.

Yesterday I gave blood! It was my third time, and I am embarrased to say I cried... again. I guess I am just no good with the needles. They missed my vein on the first go so they had to go for the other arm. It took almost 15 minutes to give 470mL, because I guess they forgot to tighten a pump or something so it went slower than usual.

I don't have any pictures from Adelaide, but here is a team picture from uni games 1 in tamworth

and here is the uni games 2 squad in brisbane

on the drive home from brisbane we stopped at a few beaches, so here is one of them

more later, but I have my first final exam tomorrow, yikes!

2005-10-16T16:58:00.000+10:00

Things have been pretty busy around here because I only have one more week of classes left. I have been working on a group project and a paper, so I have had my hands full. I have a study week and then two weeks of finals before I am completely finished!

Yesterday I went to Sydney to go shopping and then we stayed out for a while. I met a cool Scottish girl (friend of my roommates) and we all played pool and had a few beers. Today I went to a bbq, but the weather hasn't been too nice. It has been raining on and off, but hopefully it clears up soon!

This weekend I am taking a road trip to Adelaide to play in the mixed nationals frisbee tournament. It will be quite a drive (about 15 hours), but I am really looking forward to playing!

back in wollongong

2005-10-07T11:56:00.000+10:00

I had an absolute blast at uni games! We played 12 games and ended up in 12th place out of 19 teams with 6 wins and 6 losses. Although that doesn't sound very impressive, our team did well for how many players we had. Most teams had 14 or more players, but we went with 9.5 and had either 2-3 subs. (One girl was also playing soccer so she missed some games)

On the day we had 4 games we won all of them and another day we played a game and were down 1-6 but came back with a nine point run and ended up winning the game! It was a very exciting tournament and I definitely got plenty of playing time!

I don't have pictures from anyone yet, and I only had ones from the drive on my camera, so here they are...

the giant prawn!

a fake ayers rock:

uni games

2005-09-24T08:17:00.000+10:00

I am leaving in about an hour to drive to Brisbane for the australian university games. I am way excited, and I know I am going to get a great workout because we only have one or two girls subs for the whole week. I think we play 3 to 4 games a day, so that's a LOT of running!

I probably won't have internet access for the whole week, but I will definitely update when I get home!

this and that

2005-09-16T10:31:00.000+10:00

it's been a while since I have updated, and I guess it's because I haven't taken any pictures in the last month, so I haven't had any to post. I just looked through and realized that I didn't post the pictures from the big frisbee party at the end of August. It was a themed party and you had to use your imagination and dress up as anything that started with the two letters "t" and "f." Paula and I decided to go as The Fockers from the movie Meet the Fockers. Some others went as the flanders (the neighbors of the simpsons) and had awesome costumes.

mr. and mrs. focker

3 of the 4 flanders (one had to work late)

some of the girls

Lately I have been keeping pretty busy. School work has picked up so I have been spending more time in the library. I went to the beach last Saturday, but today the weather is overcast and cold. The last week has been super sunny, but I guess it is still cold and windy every once in a while.

Tomorrow I am heading to Sydney for a frisbee tournament, and the weekend after that I leave for the week long break to spend it in Brisbane for uni games. I am so excited! It will be really fun playing and there are themed parties every night, and we are staying in a hotel with a pool and spa!

paula's birthday!

2005-08-23T08:44:00.000+10:00

I had a wonderful weekend! Friday was Paula's birthday so we had a margarita (sans a blender, but it was still nice) and then went out to eat and then dance. On Saturday I went surfing and then played golf, and on Sunday I went to the beach for a few hours and played some cricket, footy and frisbee. After the beach I had frisbee practice. It was a great weekend, and here are a few pictures from friday night...

me with the birthday girl

out to dance with paula, blundell and farhan

rob (the canadaian roommate) with the girls

anders (the swedish roommate) with the girls

we love the birthday girl!

birthday and climbing

2005-08-17T12:05:00.000+10:00

My birthday was last Monday and it was good to turn 21. It was a bit of a quiet one, but there is a bbq/party at the end of the month to celebrate the 6 August babies on the frisbee team which should be fun! I did have a nice cake and crown!

On Saturday I went to the beach all day and played football and frisbee. After that I drove up to the Blue Mountains with a few friends and on Sunday we woke up and hiked and rock climbed all day. It was fun, and I was with almost all professional climbers who are or have been sponsored in the past! I didn't get many good pictures due to lack of a zoom.

This week I am just going to classes and celebrating birthdays. One was on Monday and then Friday is my roommates birthday so we are going out to eat at a Mexican restaurant in town. Then on Sunday there are two birthdays and then one on Tuesday! So many birthdays in August!

school's in session

2005-07-31T20:13:00.000+10:00

I haven't updated for quite some time, but things have been going well. School started two weeks ago and I am taking human physiology, biochemistry and a nutrition and innovation class. I think they will be difficult but hopefully interesting! The new roommates are great and we all have fun hanging out together. We took pictures so I will post them once I get them from the roommate's camera!

Friday and Saturday I went to the beach. It is winter here but it is pretty nice! A little windy, but not cold enough to keep me away. It is supposed to rain later this week so for now I am enjoying the good weather. Today I went to Sydney to play frisbee in an indoor tournament. I still love playing frisbee and the team here is so fun. Everyone has a great sense of humor and jokes around making it a lot of fun.

I will update soon with pictures!

uni games

2005-07-11T20:13:00.000+10:00

I am back from uni games and I had a great time! We played hard, but we only got 6th place. Oh well, we still had heaps of fun and got to play a lot of hard games. We only lost most games by 2 or 3, and we won two games 15-0 and 15-4. We went out each night and dressed up for a few of them because there were themes. My favorite theme was the first night which was western. I am so excited to now have Wollongong sports wear! I have a hat, polo, sweatshirt and a team jersey!

Today Paula and I walked downtown and then went to the beach and the light house in Wollongong. I have been here 5 months and I hadn’t been there yet, so it was about time!

Paula and the beach with the steelworks

same view I guess… it’s pretty

me on a cannon

pretty relaxing

2005-07-02T12:49:00.000+10:00

The last few weeks have been really relaxing and fun. I have been watching movies a lot, surfing, and playing frisbee. Our new roommate Rob moved in on Tuesday, so now we have three in the house. Just now a girl stopped by and she is going to move in on the 12th. She is australian, yay!

I got a flag for my room, and it is pretty big!

I leave for uni games in Tamworth tomorrow so I will be gone for a week. I am really excited to play a lot of frisbee!

busy busy

2005-06-20T20:32:00.000+10:00

i have been super busy the last few weeks. I went to IKEA with the six chicks for Marie's birthday and we had Swedish meatballs and took pictures with a lot of furniture. I love IKEA!

On Friday I went to the blue mountains and the jenolan caves with Blundell, Paula and Meghan.

here we are with the three sisters rock formation

meghan, paula and blundell

me and paula with some columns in the cave

lovin the cave

On Thursday night we went to the end of session party

Two of my roommates have left to go home to North Carolina, so now we are down to 4...

kiama and lion king

2005-06-03T18:48:00.000+10:00

I have been pretty busy, so I haven't updated, but I have been having fun! On Tuesday all of the "6 chicks" (my roommates and me) took a day trip down to Kiama to have a picnic lunch and check out the blowhole. It was nice and relaxing and we got ice cream and sat by the ocean. Here are some pictures...

here are all of my roommates and me!

and we saw pelicans!

Then on Wednesday Meghan, Johanna and I went to see the Lion King in Sydney. It was a great show and the costumes were amazing!

yay!

2005-05-29T17:13:00.000+10:00

this is me yelling: Happy Birthday David!

nothing new

2005-05-24T17:21:00.000+10:00

I haven't updated because not much has been going on. I have been doing school work and just the normal things.

Actually, right now there are 11 people living in our house because one girl has her mum and cousin visiting and then there are 3 Swedish girls staying for afew days. They are on an around the world (kind of) backpacking trip and are staying here to do laundry and rest some. They are all really interesting to talk to, so it's nice.

I don't have any new pictures and my camera is still not working, but I will try to do something interesting so I can post about it!

buddhist temple

2005-05-16T19:12:00.000+10:00

I haven't updated for a bit, but things have been going great. On Friday I met a bunch of people who work together in the sky diving business, so that was pretty cool. On Sunday I went to the Nan Tien Buddhist Temple and it was gorgeous! It is the largest Buddhist temple in the southern hemisphere! Here are some pictures... a girl from sweden came to visit the two swedish girls i live with.

here is where you can put incense

you can't take pictures inside, but my roommate took this from the outside

these little guys were everywhere!

here are all the girls + ben who drove us there
(Marie, me, Johanna, Hedvig)

creepy!

police encounter

2005-05-10T17:19:00.000+10:00

About a month ago it was a friend's birthday so we went out to celebrate. We were about to walk home when a friend suggested that we ask the cops for a ride home since they were right in front of us. It turns out that he knew one of them, so they agreed to give us a ride in the back of the paddy waggon!

of course we had to take pictures!

sad news

2005-05-04T14:00:00.000+10:00

I have been feeling pretty crappy for the past few days and it keeps getting worse every day so I finally made a doctor's appointment. I haven't been sleeping well and have been waking up almost every hour since I can't breathe, and I haven't been eating since it hurts even to swallow my own spit.

I went to the doctor and after waiting for an hour he saw me and told me I have tonsillitis. I am now on penicillin so hopefully it goes away soon!

australianized

2005-04-28T21:42:00.000+10:00

I guess I can say I have offcially been australianized because I have tried vegemite. Contrary to what I have heard, it's not that bad. I can't say I'll be eating it on a regular basis, but I would eat it if someone gave it to me. It's pretty salty.

I am still having fun and today I played oztag. It's flag rugby and we play every week like IM sports. We lost today but it was definitely a close game. Tomorrow I have frisbee practice, and I am getting excited because in July I am going to "uni games," which is a huge competition between australian universities.

Hopefully I will go to the beach again tomorrow if the weather is as nice as it was today!

beach

2005-04-25T19:37:00.000+10:00

This weekend was pretty relaxing. On Saturday a few of my roommates and I went to the beach and then out to dinner at Chili's. On Sunday I felt a little sick so I stayed home and watched movies all day. It was nice to relax! Today is Anzac Day so I didn't have any classes. I went to the beach again and have been working on homework off and on. We took a walk today in some woodsy area and I got a huge spider on me, so that was way too much excitement!

Not a very exciting weekend I guess, but it has been nice to relax. There are only three of us in the house this weekend/week because the other three are in Melbourne. They have "reading week" for their classes and so they have pretty much the entire week off. Sometimes I wish I were taking more liberal arts classes instead of science!

newcastle

2005-04-17T20:36:00.000+10:00

I had one of the most relaxing and nice weekends. On Friday I caught the train with Blundell (real name = andrew, but nickname = last name) to go up to Newcastle. Tyler (my roommate's boyfriend from Kentucky) also went with us. It took about 5 hours to get there and we got there around 8, so we stopped in an Irish pub and then went home. Tyler and I got glasses from the pub because they say "MJ Finnegan's Irish Pub, Newcastle Australia" on them. We stayed up late talking and just chilled.

On Saturday we drove around and went to the biggest lake in Australia (it's salt water and there is a shark in it somewhere). Let me tell you, I really, really miss driving! I love being in the car with the windows down! Anyway, we ate fish and chips next to the lake and walked around a bit. Then we went to the beach and climbed on top of an old fort.

After that we got groceries and then took naps. We had a wonderful bbq meal with sausages and salad and bread. I love bbq's like no other! Eventually we went to a bar to see some bands play, but we missed them all because we got there kind of late.

Sunday morning we woke up and had a delicious breakfast with eggs, sausages, bacon, english muffins, juice and coffee. yum! We sat around and then went to the train station around 1:15. The train left at 2 and then we had to take a bus from Sydney to Wollongong because the train track is stopped for repairs or something. I got home around 7 and now I am tired and pretty content.

Here are a few pictures... unfortunately I really didn't take many while there.

me and blundell

the fort

we climbed it!

me helping with the food

on the train home they checked our tickets, so I asked the guy for a picture.

next on my list is a fireman. I still haven't posted the police men pictures yet, but I will once I get the chance to get them from my roommate.

pictures

2005-04-15T10:18:00.000+10:00

I know I just updated, but for the first time in weeks my internet is working, so I am going to post some random pictures from my computer. like me with NEMO!

here is me with nemo and his friend

here is the hair photo with just me

this was at cape tribulation

we found this dead lobster being eaten my ants. i thought it was kind of pretty

newcastle

2005-04-15T01:12:00.000+10:00

I had a pretty busy week with school, so I am glad it is finally over. I played oztag (flag rugby) today and I think I jammed my thumb, so that's unfortunate. I also have some funky bite on my arm which isn't going away. You gotta love the exotic bugs!

Tomorrow I leave for Newcastle for a few days. We are staying with a girl I met in Sydney when I was there for the mardi gras parade, so it should be nice. I am not exactly sure what we will do yet, but there is plenty, so we'll find something fun.

It is late and I am tried. Long day. We went to the movies tonight and saw the Interpreter since it just came out, so that was nice.

Still loving australia!

a few more pictures

2005-04-10T19:23:00.000+10:00

I want to buy one of these hats! My roommate did, so I was trying on hers.

here is our group with gus the bus

and here are the girls with our awesome guide nathan

here's another picture of us on our way to the reef

cairns pictures

2005-04-07T18:18:00.000+10:00

ok, so I am working on getting some pictures up, but it is a slow process since I have so many pictures and it takes forever to get them on-line and my computer doesn't work.

here's a start!

out and about in Cairns we saw this nice van

then we tried on some nice aussie hats (i know i look pregnant. awesome!)

we are standing and smiling. IN CAIRNS!

here we are on a boat to the reef. i don't have my snorkeling picture on my roommate's computer, so i will post it later

we tried on some hot hats and glasses. ow OWW!

this is me at cape tribulation

and this is a stellar tree we saw on one of the rainforest walks

this is meghan and me with gus the bus

here we go!

we had to pass a ring through matchsticks to every single person on the bus!

we stopped for a nice lunch

and here is milla milla falls!

here we all are doing the funky hair flip from the commercial

police!

2005-04-07T10:34:00.000+10:00

I know I promised to post pictures, but no matter how hard I try, I can't get my internet to work on my computer. I want to use my roommate's computer to put the pictures up, but she has not been around. I will once I can!

Last night was one of the frisbee girls' birthday, so we went to her house and then out dancing! As we were leaving to walk home we saw a police car/truck (the one with the enclosed back... I can't remember what they are called, but look at the bottom of http://www.policensw.com/info/road/t1.html and click next three times). One of the girls I was with jokingly asked them for a ride home, and they actually said yes! We got in the back and they drove us right to our door! We took pictures, so I will post those as well! Talk about exciting!

best week of my life!

2005-04-03T12:05:00.000+10:00

I just got back from my week long winter break in Cairns (pronounced "cans"). I can honestly say it was the most exciting week of my life!

The first day we made plans and reservations for the week and then walked around downtown Cairns, went to some cool shops (like a diggereedoo store), ate a nice lunch, took a walk along the "beach," and went swimming in the "lagoon." The beach is more of a marsh, and since you cannot go in due to crocodiles, they have a big pool with a fake beach and a big grassy area which they call the lagoon. Each night we got a free meal at the woolshed, which is a place where a lot of hostels give free meals. Quite the place to be.

On Wednesday we went on a boat (http://www.passions.com.au/) to the Great Barrier Reef! It was a fun ride over and then I went scuba diving and snorkeling! I got a bit claustrophobic at first, but then it was really fun and I ended up going down twice! I saw Nemo and got a picture with him, I touched a lot of fish and stuck my hand in a giant clam! It was a beautiful day (besides a little rain here and there) and I saw so much and got to touch fish! Ooh la la!

On Thursday, three of us went north to Cape Tribulation (http://www.tropicsexplorer.com.au/capetribulation.htm). We went on a croc cruise, but didn't see any, we ate a funky fruit called the rambutan (http://facethewall.com/fruit-rambutan.html), saw some beautiful lookouts, ate fish and chips, saw a huge spider and a blue, dead lobster on the beach, and went swimming in a river. Oh yes, we stopped at Port Douglas and I had the best ice cream I have ever had, but before that we had stopped at this fruit farm to have their home-made ice cream. There were some funky flavors!

Friday was by far the best day of all! We chose to take "Uncle Brian's" tour to the southern rainforest (http://www.unclebrian.com.au/). Most trips go north (like the one we did on thursday), but Uncle Brian's is different in every way and goes south. The whole atmosphere of the trip was so friendly and fun! We all sang along to songs and danced and swam a lot. We went for a rainforest walk, then swam in the river where it started to rain. It rained pretty much every time we went swimming. Then we went to Josephine Falls and went down a natural rock water slide. It was really fun and so beautiful!

Next we ate a super good lunch and went to Millaa Millaa Falls! It is the most photographed waterfall in all of Australia, and they did a hair commercial there with a girl flipping her hair, so we all posed and took our pictures like that. The guide told us to only swim on one side, and after we were al out of the water he told us it was because there was a very territorial mother eel on the other side who had bit a girl with a warning bite, but since the girl stood there and screamed, the eel went to town on her leg and sent her to the hospital! I swam under the falls and took pictures with an underwater camera!

After that we went to Lake Eacham and swam for a while and had our afternoon tea. The water was relatively warm compared to all the rivers we swam in. After that we finally got into our dry clothes and went platypus-spotting! Out of the entire group, our group of three saw the first ones and got to do the nature call to get everyone over to our spot. We saw lots of turtles, a wild kangaroo, and a few platypus’s, but they were so far it was hard to see.

On the bus ride home it was dark outside, so we had the lights on (colored because they had pink cellophane on them) and we sang and danced along to songs. It was seriously the most fun I have ever had! I can’t explain what goes on in “gus the bus,” because you would think I am crazy, but it was so fun!

On Saturday we went to a Mexican restaurant and got microwaved, mediocre food. It just doesn’t compare to the Californian food, but at least I had some quality tortillas to remind me of home!

Now I am home and I have to get to work because school is starting up again tomorrow!

tortillas!

2005-03-27T02:26:00.000+10:00

I had the best surprise the other day when I came home and saw that I had received a package! I ripped it open and was very excited to see that I had received tortillas from my dad! Not just any tortillas, but my favorite kind! What a pleasant surprise!

Something that has been a nice treat in our house (besides the tim tam slams) is nutella quesadillas. It may sound weird to mix cheese and nutella, but it is really good! I still have yet to try vegemite, but it is definitely on my list of things to do. I am just skeptical of buying an entire jar of it...

On Monday I am leaving for Cairns for about a week, so I am planning to see the great barrier reef and the rainforest and anything else I can while there. I will try to keep you posted!

Here are more pictures from the day I went to Sydney...

this bird made me sad

all of us with tonka

we saw a sheep get sheared

we went out to dinner and had a crazy waiter

and then we got gelato

koalas!

2005-03-20T19:50:00.000+11:00

I had a wonderful weekend! On Thursday was St. Patrick's day so I went to the one and only Irish pub in Wollongong and had a green beer! On Saturday my roommates and I all went to Sydney for the day in celebration on one of the girls' birthday. We went to the koala park and got to pet one (not Vera!), but not hold him because it is illegal except in Queensland. I also pet many kangaroos and took plenty of pictures. Well, my roommates did. My camera is pretty dead. It doesn't turn on all the time and sometimes it freezes or won't turn off. Luckily all 6 of us have cameras, so we took tons of photos. I am on my roommate's computer right now, so I will post a few pics from her collection.

all of us outside the park

me with a cute kangaroo

me with a wombat

2005-03-13T12:00:00.000+11:00

Sorry I haven't updated in a while, but technology basically hates me right now. My internet doesn't work, but I am the only one in the house whose doesn't work, so I don't know what to do. Also, my camera is starting to die on me. I have some pictures, but I have no way of getting them online.

I went to the beach yesterday and went body surfing! I really love the beach, but I don't go as often as I would like because it is a 40 minute walk and I am pretty busy with school.

I can't write really because I am on my roommates computer and she needs it. Much love!

beach day

2005-03-07T21:01:00.000+11:00

The light house and some sail boats

Today was really a great day. It started off kind of rough with class from 8:30-10:30 and then again at 11:30--too early for a monday morning. After 12:30 I walked home and ate a nice peanut butter and jelly sandwich and some chips and salsa. It was a gorgeous day, so I decided to take full advantage of it. I got my swim suit on and walked to the beach. It is kind of a long walk, but it is nice having my iPod, and I kind of like walking. I got there and laid out and kind of dozed on and off. (don't worry mum, I put on lots of sun screen!) It was so relaxing being able to rest and think about nothing. After a while I left and walked along the beach to go to the store to buy some juice. I saw where people surf and boogie board and that's where I plan on going next time I take a stroll down to the beach.

After buying juice and some lotion I waited at the bus stop because I felt like trying out the bus system instead of walking another 30 minutes. Two guys talked to me randomly, and one kept singing the oc theme song. The aussies really do love it.

I am still tired, but I feel so happy. The sun really does have a high correlation to my mood! Now I have to do some reading and write a summary for tomorrow. Then I can sleep!

p.s. hello to kit if you are reading this!

aussie style

2005-03-01T20:43:00.000+11:00

I have decided to show you what I have been eating since I have moved into this lovely house on Gipps Street. We have a sandwich maker, so I eat a lot of grilled cheese. I have to say, the cheese here isn't all that great, but maybe it's because I got the "home brand." I thought the name would tell it all, but I guess it is misleading.

When I went to get groceries yesterday, there was a sale on Australia's best cookies, tim tams. If you bought 4 you got 20% off all of them, so how could I resist? Today I had my first "tim tam slam," which is where you bite off both ends and then sip milk through the cookie and eat it. Pretty tasty!

A few of the things I have been getting used to are:
-many exotic bugs all over the place
-very humid!
-no cheap tortillas or good mexican restaurants
-walking a LOT because public transportation here is confusing
-no drier, so I must do laundry on sunny days

2005-02-26T23:57:00.000+11:00

Yesterday I played frisbee for almost three hours and almost died because I am so out of shape and it is SUPER humid here, but I had the best time! I really miss frisbee and running hard. I sweat so much because I piled on the sunscreen before I went out. gross, but I didn't burn! (mum, you would be so proud of me! I have only gotten one tiny burn on my shoulder and no others since I have been in Australia! Talk about slip, slop, slap!)

This morning my roommates and I walked to the train station and left on the 8:44am train towards Sydney with a few other people. We got there and walked across the harbour bridge and went to eat at this nice italian place in "the rocks." After that we walked to the powerhouse museum and checked out the lord of the rings display. It was really awesome and we saw a bunch of costumes and movies about the making of the films. After that we walked to a park and sat for a while (we walked a lot, so it was nice to relax for a little while). Later we went to a food court and got the worst thai food I have ever had in my life. I felt sick to my stomach while eating it, but I finished most of it anyway because I was so hungry! After dinner we got on the train home and came back to wollongong. It was nice to get to the city and to walk around for a day.

Here are a few pictures!

here are the six girls living on gipps street

here is part of the group that went to sydney (i took the picture, and the two swedish girls went shopping and are not pictured)

this is me with the colombian girl (paula) and the two swedish girls (Maria and Johanna). they all told me to lie across, it wasn't my idea...

uow

2005-02-23T14:03:00.000+11:00

here I am in front of the uow campus entrance sign. the school is absolutely beautiful!

pictures at last!

2005-02-23T13:21:00.000+11:00

first of all, the classic opera house:

and the wonderful diggereedoo players!

and here are some pictures of my house:

Here's my bed

and my wonderful window view

and here's my dryer

2005-02-21T16:48:00.000+11:00

A few days ago there was an awesome thunder and lightning storm. It even hailed! It rained today off and on, but all my laundry is on the line right now, so hopefully it stays sunny until they dry.

My first class was pretty nice, and afterwords I went to the duck pond to eat some lunch. yeah, they're not whistling dixie. I got stalked by about 6 ducks or duck-like animals. One was the ugliest thing I've ever seen (literally an ugly duck), and it was huge. It stood right next to me and I got super nervous. I tried to scare it away, but he was set on invading my personal space. I'm guessing he was about 3 inches from me, no joke. I grabbed my napkin to try and shoo it away, but I felt something and looked down to find this green bug on the napkin. He won, I wasn't going to take it with him on there. It looked kind of like a praying mantis, and I was a little worried about the whole eating by the duck pond situation. I might have to find a new place for tomorrow.

Oh, speaking of animals, it is so cool to see parrots just chillin around town. I also saw some awesome lizards on campus. I love all the exotic wildlife! I need to take pictures of the campus!

wollongong

2005-02-18T11:34:00.000+11:00

I have now been in wollongong for about a week, and I finally found a place to live! I am living with 5 other girls, so this should be interesting. It is nice because two are from sweden, two from north carolina, and one is from colombia. I was sad that none are aussies, but at least I am not with all americans. The house is a big, blue, six bedroom place with a cute back yard. I am in the room with the view of the back with the trees and lawn, so I am excited.

It has been pretty hectic getting settled in, but I am definitely getting used to the city now. I can't even tell you how much I have been walking! I have walked more in the last week than ever before in my life. It is good exercise, but I am really sore, which is kind of pathetic. At least I am staying in shape. On my walk to school I am going to be going through the botanical garden, so you can't complain much with that. It is really beautiful with all the trees from different areas.

Right now I am going to go see an advisor, but hopefully I will get internet in my house soon so I can update more often!

canberra

2005-02-10T13:54:00.000+11:00

I have been in Australia for a week now, but I haven't had internet on a regular basis. I still don't, but hpefully once I get into Wollongong I can get settled and be able to go online more often! I am at an internet cafe right now and it's my last day in Canberra. I leave at 6pm and then I finally get to see the city I'll be living in!

Canberra was really fun and I saw the high court, an art museum, the war monument and many other great sites. It has also been fun going out at night and meeting Australians.

I can't write now, but more later!