Chocolate and Coffee=Bliss

Today I went to the Coffee and Chocolate Festival on Darby Street. It was pretty sweeeeet. Basically like a street market. Not as big as some of the markets I've been to stateside but it was still really fun to go. I miss doing things like that.

As usual, there were lots of jewelry booths, and food. But there was also a lot of t-shirts and clothing booths. Darby street is kind of an artsy area. There's a lot of designer boutiques that are pretty pricey, and the restaurants are known for being expensive too. It's a super cool area, but if you really want to have a good time you have to have a bit of money. Kara and I just walked around, and we got dark chocolate-covered strawberries-on-a-stick. Kind of like the state fair! I was really excited about that. Kara took a picture, but I didn't have my camera with me so I'll have to steal it from her when she puts it up. There were a lot of dogs there. I've noticed that people in Australia don't really have a lot of big dogs. I saw a few labs, which I freaked out about, but mostly it was those little poofy yappy things. Oh well. I get to go home to a dog-filled house. Pretty sweet.

Anyways, after the festival we went to Hamilton and went walking around there for awhile. We stopped at Cibo (chee-boh) and had lunch. It was so delicious. Risotto balls with cheese and a tomato chutney-like sauce. Then I had fish and chips for the main course. Yummy. Oh, and they also RARELY do free refills here. Another thing I miss about the states haha.

Anywho, the rest of my day and week will be devoted to hammering out some serious schoolwork and studying before Lindsey arrives on the 4th! Hooray! I can't wait.

Cheers!

Jibberjabbering.

Random thoughts about Australia:

I never really thought of Australia as being a potentially cold place. But it does get cold here! Sometimes at night it dips into the 40s! I told my Australian classmates in art that I was not expecting that. They thought it was pretty funny. But I also told them about how people in MN do the 'polar plunge' and jump through holes in the ice on lakes in the winter. Needless to say they were appalled. :)

Things I don't like about Australia:
-Their internet. I hate how it's in GB and you have to pay for it. It's not like at home where you pay so much a month and you get unlimited in that time. Here you pay for like 2 GB and when it runs out, you have to pay to get more. Whaaa...?
-The fact that it gets cold. It's Australia. There's a hole in the ozone over the continent. Not supposed to be cold!
-How much people smoke here. It's really shocking. They have a lot of hard-hitting commercials out now to entice people not to smoke. Like the kind that show people with throat and lung cancer. Crazy stuff.


Things I love about Australia:
-The accent. Let's face it, it's awesome.
-Tim Tams. They're amazing. I will go through withdrawal.
-Everyone's usually really nice.
-Harry's. Where we go at night for meat pies. Amaaaaazing. We love Dave- he runs the place.
-The beaches. Beautiful beautiful beautiful.
-How easy it is to surf here. You don't look out of place, even if you are terrible at it.
-The trees. They have these crazy awesome trees.
-Kangaroos, Wallabies, and Koalas. Yesssssss.
-The crazy variation of environment. They have desert, rainforest, beaches, everything.
-The Great Barrier Reef. Whaaaaat?!


So, obviously. The pros wayyy outweigh the cons. :)

Anyways, on to more random jabberings.

The crosswalks here beep quietly until the light turns and you're able to cross, at which point they beep really loudly. It's in order to get your attention, which is nice, but most of the time it just freaks me out. Especially when I'm crossing at this one intersection near the train station, where the 'beep' noise is broken, and it's just one loud 'boooooop'. Odd.

There's a harbor a short ways away from my place. The coal freighters that sit out in the ocean for 2 weeks waiting for their turn go in there, and when they're right in front of my place they sound their horns. Their FOGHORNS. Seriously. I think I'm desensitized to it now but when I first got here I was being woken up by it constantly. There was one just the other day that sounded theirs for a solid 2 minutes. I was like really? We know you're here. But then they fill up and ship on out.

Newcastle used to be a really industrial area, and you can still see that when you look at the harbor. It's got a lot of machinery.

I finally saw a pod of wild dolphins here about 3 weeks ago. Amazing. I was so happy to see them for myself, especially after everyone else had seen them. They were chuffing and playing, and that made my day.


Things I miss about home:
-The people- family, friends, you know. :)
-Chipotle, Panera, Noodles, Applebees, and all that good food. :)
-The internet
-Driving
-The fact that it's summer there and winter here. Ha.
-That I don't have to use an adapter to plug something in there.

Needless to say I'm getting really excited to come home, but I know I'm going to miss Australia a lot too. But I'll be pretty busy once I get home because I leave a day later to go to Washington for my cousin's wedding! Crazy busy!

Anyways, enough of my ramblings. Catcha lataaa!

Casey's Visit

Well I guess I'm due for another update yet again!

Casey came to visit me this past week, which was awesome! It was so nice to see someone from home. She flew in on Saturday and I had gotten on the 3AM train to go to Sydney to meet her. Her flight got in at 6-ish in the morning, and then we went and checked into our hostel. We met up with Maria and Lauren for breakfast before heading out to the market. We did the classic sightseeing- Circular Quay and the Opera House and all that. Then that night, we went to see Iron Man 2 at the world's biggest Imax! It was sweeeeet! Then Casey went to bed, and I went to the hostel bar with Maria and Lauren for a little while.

Casey and I at the Opera House

The next day, Casey and I set out for the Taronga Zoo. We had to catch the ferry over to the zoo, and it was really cool! They have some awesome animals. The zoo is kind of confusing though. It's set on a big hill, so you're walking up and down everything. It's a little weird. But really cool. After that, we headed back to Circular Quay to get lunch, and then went to Manly Beach. I love Manly Beach- one of my favorite places. After that, we headed back to our hostel and passed out pretty much. It'd been a busy day.

Our All-Day Passes that got us EVERYWHERE.

Us in front of the Taronga Zoo! :)

Me at Manly Beach
Baskin Robbins!!

The next day we woke up bright and early and caught the train back to Newcastle, seeing as I had class that day. Goodness. After class, we just hung out for awhile and did nothing really. The next day we went shopping and to the beach, which was super nice. Then that night we went to trivia. Trivia is a big deal among us here at Brown Street. It's really hard, and we usually don't do well, but it's still really fun. Wednesday we took it fairly easy, and the same with Thursday. Thursday I managed to lose Casey on campus though. With a fair amount of freaking out and running around searching (actually 5 hours' worth) I had my friend call campus security and they found her. Finally. It was scary. A whole big ordeal.

Friday night we went over to our friends' house for a party, and had a good night on the town. Saturday we went out for a short while, and then got a couple hours of sleep before she had to leave on the train to catch her flight home. Good to see her, sad to see her go.

Other than that, I've been hanging out around Newcastle, trying to get things done and preparing for Lindsey's arrival in a few weeks. I think we'll be going to Cairns to go diving, so that'll be really fun!!! :)

That's about all I have for now, but stay tuned!

I fail, time and time again.

Hello hello!

As usual, I'm far overdue for an update! Today has been a really good day so far because I've gotten to talk to two friends from home, as well as my parents! :) Plus plus!

Well, last weekend I took the train to Sydney for the day with 3 of my friends, and we went to Manly and Bondi Beach. It was awesome! We got the really early train, like 5AM, so we got to Sydney at 8 right when everything was opening. We got pancakes at this amazing place called Pancakes on the Rocks. Super good. I hadn't had pancakes in awhile so I was really happy about that.

Then we caught the ferry to Manly, and made our way to Manly Beach. (It's world famous it is.) There we rented surfboards and ended up surfing for 3 hours. All for about $12. It was amazing. The waves were perfect height for me- being a beginner. I did fall a lot though. (The song 'Wipeout' plays here).

After Manly, we got some food and made our way to Bondi Beach. Bondi is also world famous, and was beautiful. It was getting later in the day by this time though so we didn't spend very long there. Just hung out. Then we made our way back to Sydney to catch the train home. Needless to say I was exhausted. The next day my arms were really sore from paddling my surfboard. Ouch. Worth it, though.

Not much else has been going on. I've been trying to focus a lot more on my studies and get stuff done, because Casey is coming to visit me on Saturday! I'm taking the early morning train down to Sydney to meet up with her and hang out there for the weekend, and then we're coming back to Newcastle for the week. It's going to be so much fun!!! :) I can't wait.

Then I also have plans in the works to go to Cairns and then when Lindsey gets here in June, to go to Port Lincoln and go cage diving! Fun stuff!

Few random facts about life with the Aussies:
-They have crosswalks, and if you're standing waiting to cross, they WILL stop for you. If there is no crosswalk and you decide to cross the road, it seems like they'll just speed up towards you just to freak you out. Creepy.
-Tim Tam slams are amazing. You take a Tim Tam cookie, bite the ends off, use it as a straw to drink hot chocolate, and then eat the cookie- which is now all melted on the inside from the hot chocolate. Truly delicious.
-The sand at the beach squeaks when you stomp on it.
-It seems that mullets and rattails are making a comeback as hairstyles here- and I am NOT okay with this.
-The mosquitos on campus are virtually nonexistent now- PLUS!

I seem to have run out of things to say, so off with me! :)

My friend Jake and I at the horse races with our 'chips' They put sweet chili sauce on them here and it's AMAZING.
Newest addition to our family- Lucky!