Part 2: In Which Kings Cross has Nothing to Do with Trains

So, the first leg of break was spent in Sydney, and after walking around a bit, I decided that it was the illegitimate child of London and San Francisco with reminders of Brisbane and, according to Rachel, bits of Chicago (where I have  never, so I can't confirm). Some hills, some older architecture and all that jazz.

Giant Coke sign. Probably the most identifiable landmark in Kings Cross

We arrived in the city a little late in the evening and settled in at our hostel before doing a little night-life exploring. Oh goodness. I'm going to assume everyone who is reading this understands what the Row is at USC (or at any college in general). I didn't believe it existed in the real world. I didn't WANT to believe it existed. But alas, it does in the form of Kings Cross, also known as the train station with Platform 9 ¾ in London Sydney's red light district. Skin-tight skirts and dresses, too tall heels and wedges (seen both on feet and in hands), douchey-looking guys, lone pukers, and all other things associated with the Row. Only instead of houses, there were clubs. It was definitely an interesting atmosphere with fantastic people watching. I'm more of a bar person myself, so I can confidently say that I prefer my hipster-y, bar-filled West End area of Brisbane better than this form of nightlife and going out. But Sydney is a far bigger city, and  a bigger clubbing scene was expected. Plus, I heard a few locals talk about other areas in surrounding suburbs that are a little more low-key. I'll have to make my way over yonder at some point. Anyway, I don't want discourage anyone from going there. If you want to party hard, it's definitely the place to be. Just avoid the prostitutes and strip clubs. Or don't if that's your thing.

For the record, I do really like Sydney a lot. I just wasn't expecting what I saw. Lesson learned.

Easter Break, Part 1: In Which There is an Overview

Hello, errrrrbody!

Sorry I've been MIA for the past couple of weeks. I am two weeks into class (booo) after a fantastic Easter/mid-semester break and haven't been able to write everything out to relay to all of you. For break, I had originally planned to go somewhere outside of the country (perhaps New Zealand, Fiji, or even Thailand), but in the end, ended up traveling just south to Sydney and Melbourne instead. 

born ready

 I've got a lot to go through, so there will be multiple posts about what sort of shenanigans I got into. But if you haven't got the time to read through everything, here's the quick run-through of what adventures were had:

Sydney

Easter mass at St. Mary's cathedral

Royal Botanic gardens + government house

Sydney Opera House + Sydney Harbour Bridge + Mrs. Macquerie's Chair

Pitt St Mall

Darling Harbour (Sydney Aquarium + Hoopla Festival)

Powerhouse Museum (Engineering Awards + lace construction exhibit + the Wiggles exhibit + HARRY POTTER: THE EXHIBITION excited? me? no…)

Bondi Beach

Sydney Tower

Blue Mountains (temperate rain forest + old coal mines + Three Sisters + aboriginal art)

Olympic Park

Paddy's Markets + Chinatown/Chinese Garden of Friendship

National Maritime Museum

Melbourne

Great Ocean Road (cold temperate rain forest + a million beach pictures + 12 Apostles + London Bridge)

Old Melbourne Gaol

Alley full of graffiti + St. Paul's Cathedral + Federation Square

Yarra River

Rod Laver Arean + Melbourne Cricket Grounds + National Sports Museum

Melbourne Comedy Festival

Queen Victoria Market

Botanic Gardens

Chinatown

And of course food, drink, and merriment.

The following entries will individually cover each day of my trip (or not, I may get impatient and lump a bunch of stuff together). Some will be long, some will be short. Most Some will be boring, some will be eye-roll-inducing. All in good fun. Read all, read none. Do whatever you want. Just know that I had a fantastic time with everything.

Onward!

Small Updates before a Big Adventure

I thought I'd let errrrbody know what's been going on (not much) since my last little post. I won't update again for at least another week because..

I'm headed to Sydney and Melbourne for break! Woooooo!

Butterbeer! Yes!

But more on that in a bit.

First and foremost, HP Alliance Trivia Night was a success! Questions were answered, butterbeer was served, and silliness was aplenty. Every team had to make up a name. I can't remember all of them, but two of the better teams who kept going into the "sudden death" round were Albus Brian Wulfric Percival Dumbledore (aka Dumbledore's full name) and Lightning Strikes (all members had a lightning bolt on their foreheads). We were the Marauders because we're that awesome, duh. Winners of each round got a free jug of beer. 'Twas very, very fun, and everyone else in the RedRoom Traddies was aware of our extent of HP knowledge and nerdiness by the end of the night. Fun Fact/one of the answers to a question: the actor who plays Oliver Wood is named Sean Biggerstaff. I have the maturity of a 12 year old boy, and you won't be forgetting that fact anytime soon if you do, too.

Anywho, the Saturday following that was my chemistry midterm (boooo) but hours prior was my first social sport/intramural soccer game (yay!). We're a team of individuals who have never played together before but still won 4-0. Awesome. And I scored! Bonus! So that was fun. But it did make me miss club at school. Let's face it: most Aussies, Scottish-born Aussies, Canadians, and Frenchmen do not know "Bojangles" or "Smang It." But that's besides the point.

That night was also the birthday of two friends from Rutgers who threw an "American-style" party complete with red cups (ordered off Amazon), jungle juice (which ended up being a goon-y sangria type of thing, still good though), beer pong (which was too expensive, so water pong was the alternative), and flip cup. Nothing makes you have a proud-mama moment more than seeing a table of non-Americans playing beer pong next to a table of non-Americans playing flip cup after teaching them. I would call that a cultural success.

And the rest of this week has been boring and filled with finishing up assignments. Blah.

BUT it is now mid-semester/Easter break!

Me on break obviously

I'd call it spring break, but it's technically fall here. I'm heading down to Sydney for a few days and then to Melbourne (pronounced "mel-bin") for the remainder. Super excited. Expect many pictures. And keeping with the HP theme, I'm going to the "Harry Potter: The Exhibition" in Sydney. It was in the States for a bit but in Chicago, Boston, Seattle, and New York. No love for California. But we're getting a theme park eventually, so meh.  What I won't be doing in Sydney is the Harbour Bridge Climb, and before you press that caps lock button and start yelling at me, I will be doing it the next time around, as I have already booked another trip down to Sydney in May for Labour Day weekend. Now, for a few end-of-the-blog-post notes:

Heart-breaking fact of the day: There is no 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney :( I google-mapped it in hopes of finding nemo it. Alas, there is only 42 Wallaby Circuit and two different 42 Wallaby Close's, none of which are close to Sydney. Booooo.

Fun fact of the day that almost puts my broken heart back together: I have mentioned this to a few people the first time I read it, but I shall share it again. The "P. Sherman" part of "P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney" was a joke among Pixar or whoever was working on the movie (I can't remember the details): it's "fisherman" with a Filipino accent. Teehee.

Assignment (yes, I'm giving you one): Say "good eye might" fast. Good. Now, you speak Australian, too. (Thanks to Sam for that one)

Okay, enough pre-trip shenanigans. I should probably finish packing. For a lot of you, enjoy/don't die within your last few weeks of classes. I have faith in you guys!

Happy Zombie Jesus Easter weekend! Get chocolate wasted!

This Isn't a Vacation and I Didn't Get the Memo

Note: Some of these pictures belong to Sam because I either forgot my camera or was too lazy to fish it out of my bag or I just liked hers better. So, I'm giving credit where credit is due.

Apologies for the absence! Nothing too exciting has happened as of late, so I didn't feel like there was anything worth writing about.

PLUS, assignments and tests are starting to pop, which I had conveniently forgotten about. I tend to forget about the "study" part in "study abroad." I'm here for school, who knew?

The week after Moreton Island, I finally went to the Max Brenner Chocolate Bar. Holy hell, that place is fantastic. So many sweets, so little money to spend. Pricey but expected. There were individual truffles and pieces of fudges to buy as well as many different desserts including chocolate pizzas, sundaes, and waffles with ice cream. I ended up getting the signature souffle and a cappuccino frappe. The souffle ended up being more of a cake than an actual light souffle (think denser than American cake but lighter than flourless cake and with a molten chocolate center), but both were delicious. The cups (which you can buy) are really cute, too. They're all have names that represent their design. There was the Kangaroo, which was a coffee cup with a small "pouch" on the side for a piece of chocolate you could melt, and there was the Alice (my frappe was in this one), with a hold on top for a straw and the words "DRINK ME" running down on the side. Cute stuff, and definitely going to have to come back for more.

Last weekend was St. Patrick's Day (I'm sure most of you knew that even if you don't remember the night), and the city was fairly festive. The Wheel of Brisbane and the Cultural Centre were illuminated in green lights, and there were various performances and events throughout the city in the week leading up to it. I ended up at an Irish pub called Irish Murphy's for the night and lost myself in a sea of green, beer, and people. 'Twas a grand ol' time.

Other than that, the past week has been pretty low key. Brisbane is on the receiving end of far more rain than is the norm (according to locals with whom I've talked), and it's putting a damper on my otherwise good mood and view of the city. Nothing is less motivating than hills and rain especially when you have to go to class.

Thankfully, this past Friday showed up in all it's sunny glory. One CityCat stop away is the QUT Botanical Gardens, and Sam and I ventured over there to check it out. Lots of ducks, lizards, and foliage (duh) awaited us. It was actually a pretty big area. There were open grass parts where people were playing some pick-up soccer, pathways winding around a few ponds, and a path closer the river that eventually went through a very jungle-y looking area. There was also this one structure/sculpture, and there are very few times when I don't have the urge to climb something like a 6 year old. This was not one of those times.

What's my age again?

Immediately following this, we went to the Pancake Manor, a 24-hour eatery not unlike the Pantry in downtown. The differences are 1) it's in a church or what once was church, I'm not entirely sure 2) it is fully licensed with a small bar in the middle of the room. Despite watery syrup (that was called "special syrup" on the menu, the pancakes were delicious and definitely better than expected. Not gonna lie, my heart broke a little when I saw a girl leave a good 75% of her nachos (yes, nachos) left on the table when she got up to pay. Was I tempted to take them? Oh, yes. But I'll save that bit of crazy for another day.

Yesterday (Saturday) did not follow any of the original plans that were made for it, but it ended up just fine anyway. A small group of us had planned to go a few hours north to the Sunshine Coast, chill on the beach, maybe go to a national park, and possibly check out an aquarium/marine-life zoo type thing. Due to the recent rains, however, there has been flooding in the area, causing delays for the trains and adding upwards of an hour to our already guess-timated 3 hour travel time one way.

So, we opted to head to the Gold Coast but a bit farther south than Surfer's Paradise. We went to the Burleigh Heads National Park and then to the Burleigh Beach (which was much less touristy than our last Gold Coast endeavor). The park had a few different paths, one that was the "ocean side" walk and two that were through the rainforest part. We did all of them considering they were fairly short (a few kilometers for each). The views from all of them were really cool (though the ocean walk view doesn't even hold a candle to Honeymoon Bay), and there were plenty of lizards, different species of butterflies, and the occasional wild turkey. And then, it was just nice to relax on the beach and laze about for a few hours.

I didn't focus my camera properly, but you should take notice of the berries and the thorns next to them. We're in the wild. THE WILD THORNBERRYS. You love me, don't even try to kid yourself.

After going home, I decided it was time for some Aussie cooking. I cooked kangaroo steaks. And you know what? It was really good. Consider me a fan. If I'm not mistaken, it's one of the healthiest red meats with a very high iron and very low fat content. I can't quite describe it, but I can say that there was a sort of pork-y, sausage-y taste to it. Sam said it reminded her of bacon-wrapped steak or something along those lines. Definitely something I'll be eating again.

And that's all for now! Mid-semester/Easter Break is just under 2 weeks away, and I'll be running around farther south in Oz in Sydney and Melbourne during my time off. Until then, I guess I'll just have to act like a student for a change. I have a midterm this week. On a Saturday. Complete and utter nonsense. That is the expected low point of the week. The expected highlight is Trivia Night with the Harry Potter Alliance at Traddies the RedRoom complete with Butterbeer. There should be some sort of post on that eventually.

Happy Sunday! Koala cuddles for all!

EDIT: Totally forgot to mention that I watched The Hunger Games this week in what was supposedly Brisbane's largest theatre/screen (which was no bigger than half the size of the average theater at home if that). The movie was entertaining but a tad underwhelming for my taste. I love Jennifer Lawrence though, and the girl who played Rue was adorable.

The Pigtail Chronicles: Moreton Island

This is my srs bsnss face

My hair was in pigtails this weekend which only means one thing:
Serious business.

After a relatively uneventful week of class, volleyball, soccer, sushi, and a handful of trips to the bar, it was time for an adventure.

Woke up Saturday morning to catch a bus at 6am to the Brisbane Transit Centre where we ("we" meaning myself, Sam, and Rachel, another girl from SC if I haven't mentioned her already) were to be picked up by some unknown vehicle only to be whisked away to a ferry on the coast taking us to our ultimate destination of Moreton Island. On your left is an aerial view. Combined with Fraser Island (which I will hopefully go to as well at some point), it is the largest sand structure in the world.

Back to that "unknown vehicle," it ended up being a four-wheel drive, safari-looking thing. And I mean an actual 4WD; not some two-wheel drive that can switch to four-wheel. Trust me, you really need these vehicles on the island.

We drove to the coast (about 30 min away) and onto the MICAT. I think the boat ride was about 1.5 hours once we got moving.

MICAT

Don't get stuck! You'll get laughed at.

And then we disembarked, and holy hell, this place is amazing. It is probably one of the most naturally beautiful places I have ever seen. I've never seen water so clear and blue (which makes sense considering Santa Monica is our closest beach).

If you read the caption of the picture on the right and remember my little tid-bit about not using a 2WD that converts to a 4WD, here's why:

<-- This idiot got stuck. And of course we had barely driven 5 minutes from the boat before running into him. Typically dressed in a pink polo and jeans, he informed our tour guides that he didn't even know how he put it in 4WD, if he did at all. The guide in the other car had to pull this one out of the rut he stuck himself into.

I swear it's like Jurassic Park

After that minor mishap, we experienced actual four-wheel driving. And on an island like this, driving on sand with green surrounding us, I can pretty accurately describe the drive as a cross between Jurassic Park (the movie, not the ride) and Indiana Jones (the ride, not the movie). I had fun driving around, but those who are so prone to car-sickness (I won't name names but a certain flower in Spain comes to mind...) would not find it so enjoyable. Once you hit the beach where the sand is more packed together, it's smooth sailing.

Game faces

Trekking

Woooo

Our first activity of the day was sandboarding. Crazy fun. We reached the part of the island dubbed "The Desert" (such creativity) with stretches and stretches of sand. Our boards were literally 2x4 (or perhaps 1x5?) pieces of wood. We had to climb up the a steep hill, wax them, and slide down. It's such a thrill. The climb back up once you're down, however, is not. And after applying sunscreen, you're basically covered in the stuff. Still, it was incredibly fun, and I highly recommend it to everyone. Apparently, the oldest person to have done it was 79, so don't use your age as an excuse. I have a video of myself somewhere, but it's on another camera. And you can't really see the depth of the hill; I kinda just get smaller and smaller. Regardless, keep an eye out on facebook for it eventually!

Then, we went to our campsite which was pretty close to the Blue Lagoon where we went for a dip and washed off all the sand. After a semi-quick lunch, we headed over to the lighthouse for a bit of a climb.

The view was incredible. I wish pictures were enough to convey it, but it's absolutely breathtaking. If you told me this is what paradise looks like, I would believe you. And we could see sea turtles and dolphins from where we were standing! Bonus! Definitely check out the pictures on facebook because there's no way I can put everything on here.

"wrecks"

After getting scolded by our tour guide for supposedly taking too long (jokes. he was really chill), we went back to the ferry to drop off the day-trippers. But the designated ferry area is conveniently by the "ship wrecks" (I use quotes because it just looked so not real) where we snorkeled. COOLEST. THING. EVER. Definitely the highlight. I wish I had an underwater camera or something, though I'm sure it wouldn't do it justice. The water's so clear that you can see fish when it's only up to your ankles. But once you get out towards the wreck, there are just so many. Schools of little fish just swim around you (I felt like I was parting the Red Sea), bigger fish lurk under you, various striped black & yellow and black & white fish weave in and out of the wrecks, and a lone Dory (a la Finding Nemo) flitted about by itself. Crazy experience and it gets me super amped to go the Great Barrier Reef. This, I'm sure, was nothing compared to the Reef, and this was already amazing.

Back to camp we went. Dinner and a campfire. Aussies don't know what s'mores are, by the way. Blashpemy. There were no marshmallows (and no chocolate or graham crackers at that), so we weren't able to educate our trusty guide. However, he did say that he liked peanut butter and jam (jelly is non-existent here. I think it actually means "jello") so major points for him. Pretty sure he's the only non-American I know who likes it. Anyway, remember what I said about this being paradise? I totally take that back. Why? BECAUSE PARADISE DOESN'T HAVE BUGS. There aren't bugs in a scary way. It's in a "I literally have around 20 bug bites and I'm scratching as I type this" sort of way. I was attacked when the sun was going down. No bueno.

But enough of the only negative about this trip. Once the sun was actually down (which was around 7ish, 7:30ish mind you), we went for a little stroll down at the beach. The stars were amazing. I had never seen so many, not that I can remember anyway. But as the moon rose, a lot of them faded back into the night sky because it was crazy bright. Like so bright, it cast shadows behind us. It was insane and incredibly beautiful. And then we went back and found 2 green froggies chilling in the sink by the toilets.

Cool kids obviously

After a not-so-awesome sleep which included waking up in the middle of the night to the sound of some very intense rain, our plans to hike up Mt Tempest were thrown out due to the cloud cover. Mt Tempest is the highest point on the island and supposedly has an amazing view reaching to Brisbane, so I was a bit bummed. But more snorkeling awaited us at another ship wreck (that looked more legit) at Bulwer. More fishies were seen in even clearer (if that's possible) waters.

Then, we drove to North Point where we walked across some really soft sand and climbed over and through some rocks to reach Honeymoon Bay. I thought the area around the lighthouse was gorgeous. For me, it doesn't hold a candle to Honeymoon Bay. Just sand, rocks, and water, it's just ridiculously pretty. We splashed around in the water for a bit, left some Trojan pride in the sand, and then headed back to the car to catch the MICAT back to the mainland. Of course, after hanging around the bay, we were told that just around the bend was where the last guy was taken by a shark. Awesome. Good thing we only went into water that was about knee-level.

And then we headed home. Honestly, it was one of the most incredible trips I have ever been on. New experiences and incredible surroundings. I couldn't ask for much more.


Maybe less bug bites.

We did manage to get a picture with our guide, Jason. Super cool guy. Kinda off his rocker a bit but I mean that in the best way possible. And he said we were his favorite Yanks he's had on a trip. Definitely a compliment. Of course we had to get him to Fight On.

And that's about it for this weekend.

For all my uni friends, enjoy your spring break! I'll be tackling my third week of class in the meantime.

Cheers!

Random Post of the Day

I'm wearing a skirt. And it's pink.

Australia, what are you doing to me??

Two Weekends-Worth of Adventure with a Side Order of Education

I hope you're ready to procrastinate on whatever you're doing because we have a lot to cover in the past almost-week-and-a-half. Where to begin...

I believe we last left off with a bit of boredom, slang, and food, and now, I actually have proper things to share.

If you haven't been on facebook recently, let me direct your attention to this video. If you want to see me awkwardly attempt to wakeboard, watch the whole thing. If you want to laugh at the expense of my face, simply skip to the last five seconds and watch me fall ever-so-gracefully.

So, as I mentioned last time, I joined the UQ Waterskiing and Wakeboarding club. They have their own dock on campus by the river and meet up every Sunday. Super fun and met some great people. And I stood up! Bonus!

Photo and video credit to Sam. Glad I have some proof of my triumph :)




After wakeboarding, I played a pick-up game of soccer and was thoroughly SOAKED because it started raining really hard for about 30 seconds. Thank you, unpredictable Brisbane weather. During the game, I saw what can only be described as an Aussie bro-fest. I really wish I had my camera to take a picture. Imagine about 100 guys (literally) in bro attire (tanks, sunglasses, various neon-colored articles of clothing) running onto a field... with one rugby ball. It was funny and priceless, and no one I was playing soccer with understood why I found it so funny because I was the only one from a college in the US.

That's my knee high boot if you need a size comparison.

You want to know what's priceless but not funny?? If you've hung around me, you should know that I don't really have a problem with spiders or bugs that need to be squashed. Apparently, I do. Later that night, what I thought was a cockroach making its way across the room underneath my desk was actually this guy  (credit to Sam again for the picture) --->

Thankfully, our housemate, Casey, saved the day and trapped the thing in a shoebox and let it go outside. I wouldn't mind dealing with it with a specialist on a tour or something, but I would prefer to never have to deal with that inside our house ever again.

But enough with excitement and anxiety: classes started this week. I kinda forgot that I'm actually supposed to learn here. Classes will be classes, but the accents of my professors are keeping my attention for now. Unlike SC though, they don't cap the classes; if more people keep adding the class and capacity in a certain room is reached, the class is just switched to another room. Or another entire lecture is added. So a few of my lectures are quite big.

Monday night, we explored South Bank, which is walking distance from where we live. I'd describe it as a nicer Santa Monica, similar to the Promenade. There's even a street beach with sand and everything. Disappointingly, it just smells like a pool.

We went to Mexican restaurant called Cactus Republic. Not authentic by my standards but definitely better than the other 2 we've had. But apparently, there's a dessert standard in all the Mexican restaurants here. And this standard is called chocolate nachos. I would like to bring this idea back to the states, authentic or not.

YESSSSSS

After dinner, we went exploring around South Bank for a bit and came across a temple thing very close to the ferris wheel. Still haven't gone on it yet, though. We'll save it for another day.

Tuesday, I played beach volleyball after class. I haven't played volleyball since freshmen year of high school, so I was definitely a little out of it. But it was fun. Took the CityCat home and jumped into one of the pools at the Streets Beach to cool off. Best idea ever.

Wednesday, I got my nerd on and went to the HP Alliance movie night. We watched the first movie and basically quoted it the entire time. I have found my people, and it is fantastic.

Thursday was blah and just classes, but Friday after class, I went to Surfers Paradise the Gold Coast (about a 2 hour train ride south from where I am). From what I heard, it had the reputation of the Jersey Shore of this area, and that basically held up to be true. Very touristy, a bit trashy, and a far bigger club scene than bar scene. Friday night consisted of checking in to a hostel with awful mattresses (my huge butt just sank to the frame of the bunk bed), a fun house of epic proportions called Infinity (think mirrors, light shows, and darkness everywhere), and what appeared to be a 90s-early2000s cover band at a bar which actually ended up being very, very fun.

Saturday brought me quite the morning. It was raining SO freaking hard BUT I also had a surf lesson. My umbrella inverted only about 3248764132 times on the way to the lesson, but thankfully, the rain (and wind) let up about 20 minutes in. I successfully stood up on the board (for probably less than a second but who cares) and exhausted myself into a nap on the train ride back home.

Today/Sunday catered to the inner indie/hipster in me: we went to the Gallery of Modern Art at the Cultural Centre as well as the Lifestyle Markets in South Bank. GoMA was awesome. We went to two exhibits, and they were phenomenal (and free! yes!). The first one was Yayoi Kusama's "Look Now, See Forever," which included a LOT of polka dots and overall whimsical, fun vibe. The other was Pip & Pop's "We Miss You Magic Land!" which was aimed towards children and everyone's inner child. Apart from the room and lighting, the actual installments in "We Miss You Magic Land!" were entirely made of sugar which makes it that much more awesome. Check out all the pictures on facebook (though it won't do it justice).

The Lifestyle Markets in South Bank were basically pop-up stores/tents of basically clothing and jewelry (some of which I recognized from Forever 21...). A lot of the booths were sample sales with fold-up tents or pinned up blankets/curtains as changing rooms. The fashion was a mix of sorta cool to extremely bohemian to laughable. I'm never the trendiest nor do I really care what I look like, but I'll admit I'm a bit of an LA elitist with how hardcore I'm judging these people on their fashion choices.

Enough of the judgement, I have class in less than 8 hours, so I bid you all adieu. Happy Sunday, everyone (most of you anyway)!