CE Farewell Formal

There is a certain time in the evening just before the sun sets, when all colors seem to explode with vivid brilliance. Every color seems to pop before your eyes and it is by far my favorite time of day. Tonight after an eventful Friday formal, Beth and I took it upon ourselves to soak up the beach life for all its glory. After dinner, we walked to the beach for some quality ocean time. The sand felt cold between your toes, a jumper was comforting to snuggle for warmth, and my favorite...the colors were spectacular!

Fairy Meadow doesn’t boast the best sunsets for the ocean’s sake because it sits on the east coast, but when the sun falls behind the mountains colors drastically change for the blue sea set out in front of us. It is a experience that puts me at great peace with the day and anything happening. Hearing the roar of the waves with the dazzling colors dancing across the sky, magical.

Roomies :) 

Today was the first day that it hit me that my time in Australia is quickly coming to a close. Last night, we had our farewell formal for Campus East when everyone cleaned up one last time for a good time together before exams begin. We went to “The Fraternity” Recreation Center (jokes!) for a lovely three course meal, Campus East awards, a night of dancing, and far too many pictures. Everyone looked stunning! In true Campus East order, the Illawara After Dark Party Bus came to take us to the frat (pledge ride, what?). We spent several hours running around, then made a quick stop at campus to change out of our formal attire into play clothes for a rise and rally type of occasion.

The girls that continued out to our marathon Wolly World night did so in a fantastic style; dancing until the lights came on! We made it home (half ay by foot) and were in bed by three with memories to keep us giggling until we met up for lunch discussion today. “God sent me an angel from the heavens above” –Carly aka lyrics queen.

So this morning after a solid six hours of sleep, I pulled myself out of bed to start a productive day. I threw on my shoes and went for my standard run to the lighthouse. Along the way that sense of urgency hit with the amount of time I have left. That’s when the scenery went from being cool and traditional to sentimental and jaw-dropping. I took everything in like it was my first time visiting Wollongong and starting thinking of everything I need to do before leaving…in 19 days! Where has the time gone? 

Ay Jay Bay!

In typical abroad fashion, my life continues to have endless pinch me moments. This weekend, Baillie took us to Jervis Bay for a weekend of sailing and one last time with all the Nowra boys.

We piled into the cars and after about two hours of constant sing-along to Australian radio stations and waiting in traffic, we made it! We ran to the local “Bi-Lo” to stock up on necessary food for the weekend and got overpriced Mexican to satisfy our terrible hunger that had been building since leaving campus. Qdoba/Chipotle need to venture into new horizons and come to Australia ASAP! Missing my chips and queso addiction. We had a cute family dinner then played Egyptian ratskrew* until Transformers got the best of our group and we were left in a trance watching the Autobots takeover. And Beth finally discovered what “I can transform you like Optimus Prime” meant. Which carried over into her repeatedly breaking out into song throughout the duration of our trip. We went to bed early; Anna and Jackie took a queen, Beth and I got a queen, and the boys each had a twin. P.S. Jackie is Anna’s pledge sister from Willmington! She is going to uni in Syndey and lives with a host family. Way different experience than what we're getting, but I love it! Kinda envious of the family time she has. BUT anyways…Just like last weekend’s 4^th grade sleepover in Nowra, we were up late discussing girls only topics and giggling to no end. Sorry boys…we may have been a bit loud.

Baillie, Dad, and Kieran

The next day we woke up and headed for the boat where Baillie’s dad and our skipper, Kieran, were waiting. Our house was on the second row of Jervis, so it was a short walk to get to the beach and we were aboard sailing in no time! The bay is absolutely stunning, pictures and words can’t begin to describe its beauty. The water is a brilliant green-blue and crystal clear allowing you to see the reef below. While we sailed out to the headlands, the winds were so light that the ocean looked more like an early morning lake than a waving sea. I had the greatest urge to dangle my toes over the edge to disturb its chilling peace, but I assumed as soon as I did that a shark from JAWS would fly out of the water and attack me. (Thanks for the facebook message about the shark attack in SW Australia that morning mom) Before I left for the weekend, my mom also kept me well informed of the fact that Jervis is known for whales and its ocean wildlife. And it did not disappoint. While I never saw a whale out there nor shark, a pod of dolphins followed alongside us for a little segment. There is something you don’t see in Indiana!

Our dingy rowing skills...

For lunch, we stopped at Murray’s beach, a cute little secluded spot. After sipping on a few ciders, the girls were more than willing to test out the cool cave ashore and see what great top of the line “bathroom” facilities could be found. But to get ashore took a bit of work…we all safely boarded the dingy and attempted to row ashore. This came with many laughs by the boys aboard that held the rope attached and pictures/videos to document our dysfunctional selves. I’m sorry uncle Jerry don’t be ashamed of me, I wasn’t rowing! After exploring and making our way back to the boat, we were greeted with Baillie doing a cannonball right next to the dingy leaving us soaked. As upset as I was about that, it got us jumping off into the water which was so great! My fear of the open ocean was faced! YEWWW! After a quick power nap at the front, we were back to shore for dinner and a night of celebration. To wind down before dinner, we watched Justin Beiber’s documentary Never Say Never. And I know what you’re thinking, stupid screaming girl movie to the max. But it actually was really interesting and to my disbelief I have an enormous respect for that little guy now. And I even went on a Beiber YouTube kick…Sorry? Unfortunately, my night came to a stop after an unfavorable accident left me with a chip in my front tooth. If you know me, you know my teeth are my babies. I’m that person that wears their retainers every night, flosses on the regular, and brushes between meals. This was traumatic to say the least. But after a few sunsets and many tears, I think I’ve come to peace with my new hillbilly status. (It’s not quite that severe)

Hyams Beach, Jervis Bay

The next day we woke up and had an adorable true Australian breakfast complete with fried eggs and bacon on the barbie! We packed up and headed to Hyams beach to witness the whitest sand in the world then off to the next town for a quick lunch before home sweet Wolly World! Our weekend left all of us asking if we this is truly real life with priceless memories that will continue to replay in my head for a lifetime. We are so blessed.

As for my last week of classes…I would say it was a pretty smooth week. I wrote an essay, took a final, and created a reflective journal about my experiences in class. The sunshine kept me occupied the majority of days with my big school crunch in the evenings. I could get used to this…thank goodness it’s finally warm!

Tomorrow Campus East has its final formal where we dress up much like harbor cruise and have a fancy three course meal and dance the night away. And to Beth and my amusement…it is being hosted at “The Frat” recreation club. Don’t worry pictures will follow shortly! As for my tooth, I have a dentist appointment the morning after I land in Indy…I’ll definitely be in a vegetative state at that point after hopping airports for three days and slowly catching my 16 hour jetlag. BUT my teeth will be A+ again just in time for Thanksgiving. Which I can’t wait for this year! I’m not a huge turkey day fan, but this year seeing my family together will be the BEST THING EVER! And since I’ll have way too much free time on my hands, I’m going to attempt to make some Australian dishes to take aka Caramel Slice and Pavlova here we come! 

Nowra Rollin'

“In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later.”

From jet-setting to Uluru and New Zealand, my wild adventures have slowed to “one tank” weekend getaways. And the ‘cash’ spoken about above, is depleted. With this new pace of traveling comes the reality that I will be leaving unbelievably soon. Flipping through my planner today made my heart skip a beat with just five weeks remaining of my stay in Australia.

Canberra Floriade Festival

These past few weeks, I’ve traveled to the thrilling cities of Canberra and Nowra. From the disappointing attitudes gathered around campus, Canberra seemed like a letdown waiting to happen. But with much convincing and several puppy eyes later (by Beth)…I was on a bus with her to see the nation’s capital for a day of fun filled activities! We boarded at 7 am for a three-hour ride south. Along the way we stopped for morning tea at an adorable little town called Goldburn. With this stop, came a spectacular view of one of Australia’s “big things.” These strange abnormally huge objects are one of Australia’s must-sees. There are 147 of these scattered around Australia, one found in Goldburn, where they are known for their quality Merino wool. For this they have a gigantic male sheep watching over them. It’s a hilarious sight to see and like the little tourists we are…many pictures were taken.

Next stop Canberra! When we finally arrived to the city, we spent a couple hours at the annual Floriade flower festival. Coincidentally, this was the same weekend as the Covered Bridge (my favorite fall family activity). I was bummed I was missing it this year, but Floriade was a slice of what the doctor ordered. It was about a tenth of the size, but the spectacle of flowers was astounding. After about an hour, Beth and I had ventured around the entire festival and were ready for the next stop. After touring the nearby Canberra Museum to eat time, we were off to the Australian National Museum.

We were determined to make the most of our time, so our logical first instinct was to sprint to the kids zone for the best part of our day. We made spaceships then watched them fly around a 3D theater. We felt like children and it was fantastic. Parental guidance probably should have accompanied us through the rest of the museum when our temperament had the best of us looking at the random artifacts placed throughout. After a few exhibits, I came to the conclusion that because Australia is such a young country, they don’t have much to talk about in terms of history. Therefore, walking around the room, your mind would fill with questions about the importance of these things you were starring blankly upon. What are you!? Once again Beth and I became bored after about an hour, this time we compensated with a casual stroll through the massive museum gift shop and a much needed diet coke on the patio. After, we went to a lookout for another drawn out trip stop to see the city below. The most frustrating part of our day was driving past parliament and NOT STOPPING! It is absolutely absurd that we didn’t stop. That would be like going to Washington D.C. and not stopping by the White House. UGGHHH! I’m calm.

My views of Canberra should be pretty well portrayed in my experience mentioned above. It’s Canberra, nothing more nothing less. It was exactly what I expected. I’m happy I went to see the city and check it off the list. But if I didn’t see it, I wouldn’t have missed anything.

The originals

This weekend the three musketeers traveled with Baillie to Nowra to see the unfortunate town with an even worse reputation than Canberra. I know, hard to believe. Imagine everyone’s surprise when we came back and said that we had the time of our lives!

We spent Saturday afternoon with Baillie’s family having way too much sugar with a hint of coffee/tea. They love their afternoon tea time! His sister was the greatest hostess in the world and provided us with our first taste of true Australian cooking. This came in the form of caramel slice and wow (to use Beth’s word), they were phenomenal! I’m kind of salivating thinking about how amazing they were. Anyways! The reason we traveled down was to celebrate one of our first Australian friends acceptance and ship date into the military. We had a great time catching up and once night fell the true colors of Nowra were out to shine. We spent the next few hours getting carried away with people watching and tearing up the dance floor with our moves until closing time. My latest night out in Australia and it’s in NOWRA. The Australians reading this right now are probably dying of laughter, because this is an outrageous fact. It’s great. Once we arrived safely home by Baillie’s sister, even though any one of us could have driven, it turned into a girls night to the max. Do you remember those sleepovers you had as a kid, when you would stay up late, see who would fall asleep first, giggling and telling each other to hush all night? Yeah it was exactly like that. We were tucked away in our beds by 1:30, but in conversation until almost 5. And that was when it hit me, we only have a month left. This three member family we have formed has been through so much in our 6-months together. We’ve cried together, traveled thousands of miles together, and had the time of our lives. These girls know more about me than even some of my closest friends at home. Spending every waking moment in contact with each other, I don’t know what I would have done without them this semester. And to think our time is drawing to a close. L

I am so thankful for the friendships I have made, and the experiences I have gained while here. The time I have had here has pushed me to a whole new place than when I first arrived in Australia. Room 88 is the best. Rory has movie nights at least once a week, and tea is always a great procrastination for all of us to play. I go to Carly for fashion advice, Emily for a bucket list accomplishment partner, and Jackson for a cute little smile (which is always on his face). I love my roommates! As well as all of Campus East. They have really welcomed me into the community and only having 32 days left is beginning to stress me out. I have gone through the stage of studying abroad where I want to go home, and now I’m shocked that the end that I have been thinking about for ages is finally almost here! I have done so much and experienced heaps, but I’m in disbelief. Until full reality sets in, I will soak up the sun as much as possible and live up my time in Australia treating everyday as if it were my last.

I have just two more weeks of school until finals session. In that time I have one story, a test, 2k word paper, and then I’m done! Yay!

Side note: I have been planning a band night for equity scholarships at UOW though my PR Strategy class. That night was last Friday and I’m so excited to say that we raised over $600!

I hope everyone is keeping tabs on the World Cup, it is so fun to watch when you've been there! :) See you soon America! 

Sweet As, New Zealand

On September 24^th our group of 12 began the spring break of a lifetime exploring all the adventures that New Zealand’s south island had to offer. From the nearly 30 hours of driving, no formal showers, countless spaceship/sheep jokes, early morning drives, and disturbed sleep patterns came the best vacation of my life. I’ve traveled to many places and seen a lot of beautiful things, but New Zealand is unmatched to anything.

After landing in Christchurch and sleeping in the airport under the florescent lights and cold wind tunnel until morning, our spaceships were finally at our fingertips! Daniel, Sonya, and John took a bus to grab our homes for the next ten days.  Seeing a bright red row of spaceships equipped with names to fit (Jay, Qui-Gon Jinn, Ophirous) amped my smile to another dimension. They were obnoxious, loud, and so perfect.

Our adventure started with simply finding a grocery store to stock up before hitting the road. Our spaceship, Jay-Ez, was put to the test to wind around the earthquake devastated Christchurch. After several U-turns we finally found one and needless to say our GPS privileges and leading abilities were revoked. Regardless, we made it and after a quick lunch break we were on the road to Nelson to find our home for the next three nights.

From our very first day traveling, the common question “Where are we?” was a huge topic of discussion. While we may have driven for close to 7 hours, the views provided endless entertainment and awe inspiring conversations. One characteristic associated with NZ is the insane amount of sheep with a statistic of 9 to 1. Woah! I can definitely vouch for this…they are everywhere! Surprisingly though we never got to touch one. Our plan was to pull off to a shoulder and hop a fence, but that never happened. I’m blaming the lead spaceship for  not stopping…cough*Daniel*cough. J Regardless, they looked adorable and shup (our made-up singular form of sheep) humor was rolling the entire time. On our drive to Nelson, we stopped a few times to stretch our legs and take a few photos. Jay’s favorite spot was finding a seal on the beach! Anna nearly fainted when she saw it, and Robby instantly proclaimed it was a puppy, as he calls any animal…Pre-med major? Robby’s attempt to touch him was unsuccessful several times. Who knew seal’s were that quick? As night came, we finally rolled into Nelson. We stopped in a Countdown (supermarket) parking lot and set up shop for our first cooked dinner time. Anna and I made warm pasta which was great for the cold NZ temperature. Our next task was to find a place to sleep, this was our greatest downfall of the trip. We drove around aimlessly for about an hour before folding to a local park. From countlessly watching the spaceship video, Anna and I worked our spaceship like it was our job and had our bed ready in no time! By the end of our trip we didn’t even have to open doors to the cold morning air, we could fold everything and be ready in under 30. Trust me that’s impressive J

Abel Tasman National Park

The next day we drove to Abel Tasman National Park, about 2 hours from Nelson and explored for the day. The park is absolutely breath-taking. The blue Caribbean waters mixed with snow capped mountains in the background created the best views. After a few hours of hiking, we sat on the beach and enjoyed PB&Js while a few of the boys went onward exploring. We found several waterfalls, caves and artsy photo spots along our hike. Once we were out of energy, we ventured back to our space station to find our “accommodation” for the night. We settled on a beautiful campground between Nelson and Abel Tasman that was right on the water. We had our first “shower” and ran around the playground until sun down. That night, we had a fire on the beach, got to know each other a little better, and did some intense stargazing. I saw the entire Milky Way!

Tuesday began our Rugby Cup extravaganza. We started our day slowly with a pit stop at McDonalds to recharge cameras and get a quick internet fix. Then we drove in to town, bought all the essentials for epic American outfits and settled into a spot for tailgating. Ironically the most stereotypical tractor was parking in the lot where we were creating the best AMURKA! pictures to date…and probably made our country look extremely classy. “I apologize for my present and future behavior.” The game was epic to say the least.

Moses began the game with an amazing quote that stuck around the rest of the week. “My name is not Timothy, my name is Moses and I part the blue sea, and beat Italy on weekends.”

To hear my national anthem sent chills down my spine, and the environment was much what I imagine an Olympic event to be. Unfortunately, USA is still in the building stages of a solid rugby team, but we still managed to have a good run. Italy 27, USA 10. That night we drove to a spot the police mentioned to camp, only to be woken by a park security guard in the middle of night, forcing us to move back to our original park location. And after all of this, our 4am start was extremely unpleasant.

Wednesday was one of our longest days in terms of driving. We drove all the way from Nelson to Fox Glacier before noon then to Queenstown. Along the way, Anna took over driving and we ruled the road with our slap happy conversations and rock out DJ moves. Epic quotes of the day: “I feel like this is our runway, oh wait our Launchpad…spaceship lingo at all times” –Anna. “Careful pressing the buttons, we might blast off!”

The drive was really pretty and went from snow capped mountains to scenes from Jurassic Park, it was sick! Once we reached Fox Glacier central, we were given guidance about the glacier and gear. We felt like little kids being dressed for a blizzard, IT WAS AWESOME and we were finally warm for once! This was also the start to an epic game of life, started by Baden, our fun-loving Kiwi. If you haven’t heard of the game, every time someone says the word M.I.N.E. they have to do 10 pushups, where ever they are. So basically from this point on if I talk about anything we did, pushups were involved by multiple people, multiple times, and in the most obscure places possible. I’m sure people either found us completely hilarious or just annoying.

Fox Glacier 

Fox Glacier was everything I had imagined it to be. The enormity of ice was incredible. Once we reached a certain part, we stopped to put our cramp-ons on our boots and used walking sticks. This made it 10x less scary to walk on the ice, knowing that you had metal cleats digging into the ice. We were guided around the glacier and taken to a cravass to explore. So cool! Once I was in the crevasse, I looked up and kind of got intimidated at the size of ice surrounding me, but definitely worth it! We got to fill our water bottles with glacier water and walked through an ice tunnel. Fun fact: If you only drank glacier water, your body would shut down after a few days due to the lack of minerals in the water. Interesting! I always thought pure water was better for you, strange! Once we got back, it was to the spaceships we went for a long drive to Queenstown. That night was a great night of bonding for Jay-Money. We went back and forth telling some pretty intense stories about ourselves making me love everyone in our car even more. I love deep conversations!

The next morning we drove to Milford Sound, one of our most “challenging” drives according to the Dept. of Conservation. Ironically I took on the road as my first left-side drive ever. It wasn’t bad at all. We wound through mountains and a cool tunnel, but nothing worth writing home about (but I guess I am now, so..). The drive was spectacular avalanche zones, and the fiords had beautiful waterfalls. The fiord was unique because it had two ecosystems within it; the bottom consisted of salt water which allowed dolphins and turtles to live amongst it then the top was freshwater. It was a beautiful tour complete with complimentary coffee/tea. Don’t worry we were wired by the end of the trip making Te Anau glowworm caves a blast and a half.

At the caves we acted about the same age as our shoe sizes. Sorry Mom I promise we were polite! Since our group was so large we got our own tour through the caves with the best guide ever! God bless his soul for putting up with us. Or shall I say for dealing with Zack’s poor digestive system that nearly killed us all in the middle of the cave. Even after all of that, our guide said we were the “best group ever.” After a little walk through the cave, we sat down in a boat that took us even deeper into the cave to reveal the most spectacular natural phenomenon. After a few minutes in shear darkness, making me inch a little closer to John on my right, the glowworms lit up the cave like the night sky. It was something from Disney! Our guide even gave us a little behind the scenes action by lighting up the cave so we could see the actual glow worm! Anna was in heaven and she also had to do pushups in the cave…J After the caves, we drove to Queenstown to our home park and finally were privileged to sleep in for the first time in days! 

Friday, a few of the boys went bungy jumping at Nevis while we went to McDonalds to shower and recharge. Yes…I said shower at Macca’s. We finally had warm water, and the hand dryer made our hair look like a million bucks J While we started our day chilled, the most unfortunate thing happened as we drove into Queenstown, Jay’s driving shaft broke! Luckily we were in one of the largest cities in New Zealand and a space station was nearby to solve all of our problems, but we still had to deal with the hassle of waiting for a tow truck and roadside assistance to handle the situation. Kay became our new home and not only did she come with a full tank of gas, but she had fancy patterned bedding! Oh spaceship humor. That night we ate our one and only meal out at Fergburger, the most happening place in QT, and chilled at the Ministry of Sports to watch a game of the cup.

The next day we split into groups again with most going to mountain bike, while about four of us hiked a nearby mountain trail. Thinking about the bike rides I had under my belt and how every downhill ride made me think about my teeth dying…I decided to go for a hike. And while the bikers had a blast, the views from our hike were beautiful. Once we all got back together, we drove halfway between Queenstown and Christchurch to make the next day’s return easier.

Lake Tekapo

For our last night we had an epic campsite. We were in the middle of nowhere with a campfire and stream to our backs. The stars were brighter than ever and everyone was glowing at the amazing adventures the week had brought us. We got to bed at a decent time and drove to Lake Tekapo the next day.

Although I was upset that we didn’t get to go to the blue pools, Lake Tekapo was something to be seen. I never knew water could be such a beautiful vibrant color. We spent a little time taking in the scenery and going through a cute little church on the rocks, then made our final trip to Christchurch to return our spaceships!

Once we returned our spaceships, we were left to wander the Christchurch airport aimlessly all day and night until our 6am flight the following morning. Some would call our behavior loitering, but what else were we going to do? We all took our first full body shower since leaving Wollongong and life was the best. I think I could tell you every detail about the airport now. Resume building J

The great thing about our group to NZ was the diversity we had with 11 Americans from eight different states (Indiana, North Carolina, California, Alabama, Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, Alaska) and one Kiwi from the North Island. It made for an interesting conversation when someone would ask where we were from and how we knew each other.

Overall the trip was unbelievable. We planned extremely well and stayed to a very conservative budget; spending $35 on food the entire week and well under $1000 for the whole trip! That’s impressive for the amount that we saw and the adventure we went on. I expected tempers to collide and have some conflict in the huge group we had, but everyone was amazing and just pulled closer together. It was the best trip I could have asked for leaving me wanting more. New Zealand cannot be described in words, its beauty and atmosphere is unmatched to anything I have ever experienced. This is one place that I believe should be on everyone’s bucket list, even above Australia.

Our family for the week!