Spring Break: See ya, Sydney!

Life is such a whirlwind here! I left off with Brisbane and Fraser, so let's start there. It was my very first weekend trip (other than a day trip to Hunter Valley), and I was VERY pleased with how little time you actually need at the airport! While I'm slightly sketched out by the fact that no one even checked my ID, security took 2 minutes, and then I was on the plane!

We had an amazing day in Brisbane. We had very little expectations, since we were only flying there as it was our cheapest option for the Fraser Island tour. We got there at 7am, so we were exhausted, but we made the best of it. We walked around for hours just checking out restaurants and cute little boutiques, and went to THE BEST art gallery I have ever been to, the Gallery of Modern Art. We went to a nice birthday dinner for one of my friends, which was a great way to end our one day tour-de-Brisbane.

The next morning we got picked up for Fraser Island. It was certainly an experience! We traveled in a rugged 4WD Jeep the whole time, just running all around the island to see fresh water lakes, sand dunes, shipwrecks, and all of the Fraser hotspots. It was by no means a relaxing vacation, but it was such a cool trip.

After Brisbane and Fraser, I spent one weekend in Sydney, and then went on another trip! This past weekend my friend Bryn (a fellow Mountain Hawk!) and I flew to the Gold Coast to see Byron Bay and Surfers Paradise. It rained 3/4 days, but we still had such a great time. Byron Bay is officially my new favorite beach, well, next to Coogee. It's a great little hippie beach town with so many amazing stores. Surfers Paradise was a lot more touristy - think Miami - with tall hotel buildings, a lot of shopping, and what looked like a good beach. It was a great weekend getaway, and we felt as if we spent the perfect amount of time in each place.

The past two weeks I've had a lot of assignments due i.e. papers, take home exams, tests, etc. But now, all that hard work has paid off because I am OFF TO THAILAND TOMORROW! Wish me luck :)

Preparing for Brisbane and Fraser Island

This weekend I'm finally taking my first big trip since I landed in Sydney. I'm heading to Brisbane and Fraser Island with one of my best friends from home, Jenny, who's on the study abroad program with Boston University. We fly in on Friday morning, spend the day in Brisbane, and get picked up for a Four Wheel Drive tour of Fraser Island that'll last two days. It's going to be incredible!

Everything has been going really well here. It's so crazy to think that we've been here for a month and a half - where has the time gone?! Last I wrote, I was about to celebrate my 21st birthday. My birthday was on a Monday, when I had a full day of classes, so we went to Hunter Valley to go wine tasting the next day. What a GREAT trip. We went to five different wineries, tasted some amazing wine, and had a really nice day out of Coogee.

Another big change since I last wrote is...I am officially interning at Rolling Stone Australia! It is actually a dream come true. I started last week, and I couldn't be happier. So far, I've been doing research, transcribing interviews, and writing reviews myself that might get published in the magazine. Is this Almost Famous?

I'm a little worried about taking care of my schedule while I'm here for next semester. It's great that the time was moved at 7am, because that means it'll be 10pm for me! I like to organize a lot for registration so being here is a little stressful for me, but I've already heard from all 3 of my advisors and they're all being so helpful. It definitely eases the pressure!

I'm off to bed before a full day of class and a jam packed weekend - I'll be sure it update with some pictures of the tour!