The Final Countdown

The final two weeks in OZ went by at light-speed, filled with studying, crying, laughing, saying goodbyes, and livin it up, so I never really had time to sit down and update y’all on my life abroad. As I sit on my final flight from LAXàPDX, I figured I would reflect on the last crazy two weeks.

Sunday: The gang took Catherine’s brother Dalton out in the city (he just turned 18, he can legally drink, he had fun, bada bing.)

Tuesday: I went shopping in the city one last time and got some gooooodies ($5 shirts at Cotton On for their major sale! #winning) and had lunch with my roomies at a random pub to escape the rain. Renewed my phone minutes one last time, and coincidentally right afterwards broke my phone due to the rain. Finished the night by watching my favorite movie Into the Wild streamed on my computer, truly living up the motto of the movie and “sharing happiness” with some wonderful abroad friends.

Wednesday:

Grabbed one last cider at CBH with a good friend and said our goodbyes. Headed to Catherine’s place after to hang out with the gang. We had silly fun and played “Who Am I?”  where we each had a post it sticker of a person on our foreheads and had to ask each other questions to guess who we were. Yes, we are seven years old. I was Santa Clause, and others included Lady Gaga, Snooki, and Mickey Mouse…good times. Ended the night by going to Pancakes on the Rocks and splitting several orders of nachos. Odd that the entire continent of Australia does not seem to have any idea what Mexican food is other than this one restaurant which has the WORLD’S BEST nachos (I swear-like I don’t even normally like nachos, and I could eat a whole plate of these myself). It actually makes me miss Tex-Mex and queso and margs and all those other really healthy things…

friends!

who am I?

nachos and pancakes? what could be better at 2 am?

Thursday:

Checked one of the last thing’s off my Sydney Bucket List and rode the monorail around the city for the day. A $10 day pass was well worth it. We hopped on and off, exploring everything from Paddy’s Markets (the much cheaper and more trashy-souvenir like version of Paddington Markets) to Darling Harbor. We ended at Darling Harbor, sharing wedges and beers, celebrating the sunshine that finally ended the rainy spell and ‘cheers’ing to abroad.

beautiful Darling Harbor

Friday:

Cooked a delicious quesadilla dinner with my roomies to celebrate Jaclyn’s last night. Went out with a crew to a 90’s inspired club for a Teen Spirit night. Perhaps one of the most fun nights we have had out abroad. Drank Backstreet Buckets and sang along to Blink 182. Ended with another night of nachos at Pancakes on the Rocks (had to go one last time!).

babes born in the 90s!

last time with the roomies!

Saturday:

Goodbye Jaclyn :( Then there were three… Moved Jaclyn’s bed into my room and pushed both our beds together to create Megabed (a king sized bed, essentially. One of the best ideas I have ever had, if I do say so myself). I studied most of the day and then got ready for our IES Farewell Dinner downtown. Alexa and Catherine surprised me by showing up in my apartment in their costumes for the evening (keep in mind, this was not a costume party; in fact, most people wore formal attire). They bought every possible trashy Australian souvenir item at Paddy’s Markets and decked themselves out in Aussie t-shirts, outback hats, socks, stickers, fanny packs, koala backpacks, you name it. Definitely lightened the mood since everyone was getting pretty sad saying their goodbyes. We took a cab to the Establishment Hotel and enjoyed good company, catching up, and canapes (servers coming around with appetizers on plates all night). Thais had us each break into groups and select a leader. Each group had to think about how they had changed emotionally, physically, financially, etc. and the group leader gave the summary to the rest of the groups. Although we were slightly annoyed at the activity at the time, it was actually pretty helpful and weird to sit down and think about. All of us have grown immensely and formed such strong friendships. We then had a photo contest where we all viewed the pictures people submitted and voted on our favorites. Some people have travelled to some incredible places! We then got to open the letter we wrote to ourselves day 1 during orientation. That was so strange… Some people had really emotional letters and bawled when reading them. Which is actually pretty incredible to have had such a profound experience. I didn’t take my letter too seriously on day 1 because I was a bit distracted with not having a clue where I was or what I was doing, but my letter still had the basics of things I wanted to accomplish things in Sydney: be open to new experiences, be patient and calm when things don’t go my way, take risks, see everything and travel everywhere, make true friends, and thank my parents back home for allowing me to go off by myself and do this. I would say I can definitely check all of those off. Thais and Beata were the most amazing abroad leaders ever and I am so thankful for their guidance and support throughout this journey. Many tears were shed, hugs were given, and then we headed back home and hung out in Randwick and Lil Darlin and ColdRock Ice Creamery: a good ol’ fashioned night out with my besties.

I miss Megabed...

Aussie hotties

Reading our letters!

Monday:

Happy 21^st Birthday Kelsey! Celebrated my roommate’s birthday all day. We sat outside on the grass by the beach, soaking up the last bits of sunshine, had a fun photoshoot during the gorgeous sunset, and watched the finale of the Australian Voice on TV. I made dinner (chicken, quinoa, and zucchini-I know, impressive) before we headed out to ScuBar. The line was over an hour long so I got frustrated and left, but no worries, Kelsey still ended up having a fabulous night! Enjoyed the friendliest cab driver ever back home and hit the sack early.

me and the birthday girl!

my faves

beautiful sunset with beautiful people

Tuesday:

Yummy dinner with Alexa’s mommy at an Italian restaurant in Surry Hills!

Thursday:

Took my last final exam. Booooo. My exam was in a tent on the middle of the Randwick Racecourse field. It was a mix between a circus and a weird sci-fi alien movie. You had to take a 20 minute bus ride to get to the racecourse, then walk through two underground tunnels before walking out into this stupid chaotic scene. It was distracting, to say the least. I thankfully think I did pretty well on my exam and am now officially on summer vacation! I have had to learn how to adjust to a completely different school system and a much harder school than the one I am used to, but hopefully my grades will transfer better than I think they will! I know I tried my hardest, and I got so much out of this experience that I almost don’t even think it matters. As long as I passed, there is really nothing more I can ask for. In the grand scheme of things, grades will never mean as much as the life experiences I gained abroad. Just in that statement itself I can tell I have grown tremendously as a person. It takes a lot to be able to accept failure and to move on and learn and try again next time. Thanks Australia.

Friday:

Packed all day long. EW. I underestimated how much CRAP I have accumulated. Took much longer than anticipated, but ended up with exactly two 50 pound bags, a carry on, and a backpack. My room looked so sad and boring and I couldn’t be in it for another second, so I celebrated my last night by going to Churasco, a Brazilian BBQ restaurant, with Catherine and Alexa. One last night with the three sissterrrsss. $44 up front for as much food as you can eat (that’s what I talking about!). The waiters would walk around with huge skewers of meat and slice it off onto your plate. They also gave you rice, beans, potatoes, salad, pasta, honestly everything you could ever think of. We had a sentimental conversation, discussing the ways we have changed abroad and cherishing the friendships we have formed. Our bellies full, we headed back to Catherine’s to pop a bottle of champagne and watch the slideshow Catherine created to celebrate our abroad experiences. It was about 20 minutes worth of pure joy and smiles and I am so thankful she made it so we can never forget this (not that we ever would!). We headed to CBH one last night to the goodbye party I organized for myself. Got a few last dances in and said my goodbyes.

goodbye!! :(

Saturday:

I was so anxious about travelling that I couldn’t sleep, so I just decided it was going to be the day I watched the sunrise. It was spectacular on Coogee Beach and was the perfect way to say goodbye to Australia. I finished up my packing and was lucky enough to have a crew come over to help me into a cab and send me off to my 14 hour flight to LA. My wonderful friend went with me to the airport to help me with my stupid amount of luggage, and the lady thought we might want to hang out for a while so she gave me the express pass to get through security and customs without having to wait in line (thank you!!). I will miss y’all terribly, but am so beyond thankful for your friendship and the memories we have created! Until me meet again…

wow... I'm going to miss Coogee oh so much.

Bula!

Bula! That means 'Hello!' in Fijian. I just got back from a 5 day vacation to Fiji with my roommates. We stayed at the Naviti Resort with an all inclusive package (meals and drinks included). We woke up at 7:30 am Monday morning to catch the 8:45 bus to the airport. It was pretty exciting that I got to bring a real bag this time instead of just a backpack-and what a treat to stay at a hotel instead of a hostel! We got to the airport around 10:00 am and the hilarious mishaps started...

Monday: Day 1

The lady told us we needed to present paper proof of our visas in order to travel to another country (even though our visas are electronically attached to our passports). She refused to give us our boarding passes without giving her a piece of paper with my visa information on it, and of course it was in my desk drawer back on Beach Street... Jaclyn and I freaked out a little bit (okay a LOT)-me the most, worried my dreams of going to Fiji were over. Yes, I was being a bit dramatic, but whatever. They let us go to a computer that we payed a stupid amount to use and had to search our emails to find our visa info. There was only one computer and Jaclyn was going through her three different email accounts near tears, so I figured I'd get a head start on finding mine to save time. I called a friend back in Coogee to hack into my mom's email account (since she was flying home from Hawaii at the time)-great timing mom. After guessing several different passwords, we were in and thankfully found my visa info! He forwarded it to my email account and I printed it out after Jaclyn finally found hers (email account number 3, of course). We got back in line and essentially threw our papers at the lady, furious and stressed and laughing. We knew it was going to be quite the trip from that point on. We went through customs and saw a few friends heading back home to the states... now that was weird. I reminisced about when I first arrived to Sydney and went through customs and all that... how far I have come. We boarded our plane around 1:00 pm-I got stuck with a middle seat in between a gross old man and Kristin, got served a disgusting meal, and had already seen all the movie options. Plus, the plane was about 100 degrees and had children running around like crazy. 4 hours later... we arrived in Fiji! We went through about five different customs lines, which was ridiculous, and it was pitch black by the time we exited the airport. I thought it had been a long day... but then learned we still had a 2 hour bus ride to our resort. Passed out in the bumpy van and finally made it to our resort at 10:00 pm (8 pm Sydney time-a solid 12 hour travel day). We went to check in, and the lady informed us that we only had one room booked, and it was for Mr. and Miss Jennings and their child Piper... First of all, who is Mr. Jennings? Second of all, who is Piper? And where were Jaclyn and Michelle in this?! Piper, we learned, was a random 2 year old who had checked in a few hours before us with his family and was accidentally put in our room on the computer. Kristin and Kelsey's room even had a crib in their room all set up for him. We laughed for a long time about that one. They eventually got it all figured out, and we got two rooms next door to each other. Jaclyn is a wonderful human being and let me have the double bed and she took the twin bed. Wow, it felt great to have a normal sized bed again. The key machine was broken, so we didn't get keys until the next night, but we didn't really mind. We got a late dinner at the restaurant, realized we couldn't understand their language one bit, stuffed our faces since we hadn't eaten all day, watched some of 13 Going on 30 on tv, and then passed out pretty early. 

Tuesday: Day 2

I forgot my roommates are morning people... So with the two hour time difference... That was fun. I was woken up at 8 on the dot everyday (6 am Sydney time-come on you guys! I need my beauty sleep!). We woke up though to the most gorgeous view ever! It was 85 and sunny and you could walk out our room to hammocks overlooking the ocean and the Fijian islands. It was heaven compared to the pouring down rain and freezing cold weather we had been enduring in Sydney. We had a delicious breakfast buffet and then hit up the pool. It looked like it was out of a magazine-it was like we were living a dream. The pool had a swim up bar and bumping music all day long. Kelsey and I got a coconut cut down from a tree and tried some coconut water. Realizing it was disgusting, we emptied them out and poured in real drinks. Ahh, much better. I got back to reading my book by my favorite author Wally Lamb and made a HUGE dent in it-on page 600 now of 720! The staff were possibly the most friendly people I have EVER met in my life, and they always involved us in fun activities. We played pool volleyball with the other guests for a while, learned the "Fiji rules" - 'I will not cry, I will not complain, etc.' - and made new friends, until Kristin lost her class ring. It flung off her hand during the game, and the ENTIRE pool stopped what they were doing to start a search party. One staff member even put on his scuba gear and jumped in. Thankfully he found it. The embarrassing Americans strike again... It was hilarious. We pulled ourselves out of the game after that. We started people watching and trying to learn about all of our new 'friends.' I'm pretty sure we honestly knew every single family at that resort by the day we left. If we were gone for any part of the day, we were greeted with "Where have you been all day?!" by the staff. After lunch, we played a solid two hour game of sand volleyball with more friends and had a blast. It became a running joke throughout the week that whenever we met someone we liked, actually mostly just observed not met, we would call them to be on our 'team.' I got the honeymoon couple from Seattle that I was obsessed with, the athletic Australian couple, the activity directors Boss and Harry, and a few others. Jaclyn called Marcel, the German man who clearly was more interested in her than his wife, Kristin had Piper had his brother Asher, and Kelsey called a precious elderly man who played volleyball with us. I know, we sound unbelievably creepy, considering most of these people don't even know our names and yet we talk about them like we've known them for years... But it provided quite an entertaining trip. We showered and headed to a buffet dinner (seriously all those buffets... not so good for the bod. Going to need to hit the gym ASAP). We made friends with an Australian boy our age, Alex, who was sick of hanging out with his family on their vacation. We played cards with him for a while (I taught my roommates how to play Hearts!). We then watched a Fijian dance show afterwards, and they started out a dance party. I was pulled up into the conga line and enjoyed dancing with the Fijians for a bit. We even got a hilarious picture of the four of us being held up by the spear men from the show. That was followed by a night of dancing on the dance floor. We were pretty much the only four people dancing, but we had a great night regardless. We were dancing like such moms and loving it. Tons of classics, such as Jitterbug, Hey Ya, Dancing Queen, etc. We laid in the hammocks for a bit chatting about life and then hit the hay.

view from our room

hammock and island

the pool

drinking out of the coconut!

being held up by the spear men

the four of us on our first night!

dancing like moms

Wednesday: Day 3

Similar day-breakfast, laying out by the pool, volleyball. We learned that every day is the 'finals' in the volleyball game. We thought it was a pretty big deal the day before, getting to participate in the final round. Another running joke became referring to everything as the finals. "What a final guys... what a final." Also sort of fitting, since this was our last final hurrah before we head back to final exams and then home. We also went kayaking that day for a bit which was fun. The front part of the beach is really shallow and when the tide goes out you can walk all the way out to an island, so we were called back in after a bit so we didn't get our kayaks stuck when the tide went out. We walked out to the island after and explored for a bit. We saw a wedding happen on the island, which was beautiful. We went on a free sunset cruise late that afternoon, made more friends, saw a gorgeous view of our resort and the sunset, and learned a little bit about Fijian culture. For example, 900,000 people live on the 360 islands, tourism is their biggest industry, and coconuts are their main export. We had dinner at the Chinese restaurant that night, hit up the dessert bar at the buffet afterwards, and then went to bed early.

walking to the island

the four of us on the island

fancy drinks

sunset cruise

the gorgeous sunset

Thursday: Day 4

Josh, one of our staff member friends, asked us to join him that morning to go see his village and see the Fijian way of life. Apparently, it is quite an honor to be invited to someone's village, so we were really excited about it. We were told to dress very modestly and covered up and meet him at the bus stop outside our resort at 9:30 am. I was sweating like a pig in the humidity and my floor length skirt, and the bus was quite late-they have 'Fiji time' similar to Australian time-aka, not on time, ever. We eventually met Josh and got on the 'bus.' A strange old man, George, also accompanied us to go fishing in Josh's village. We got on the bus, and Josh pointed at me to pay for everyone, so I gave the bus driver $10 and we all got on. It was not like a Sydney bus. It was a local Fijian bus. It was PACKED with Fijians going to work. They were all speaking Fijian and all seemed to know each other-it was such a cool experience. I had no idea what was going on, but we went with the flow and found a seat. I hadn't really realized Fiji was a third world country when I booked my trip, but as soon as we left our resort, you could definitely tell. We got to Josh's village, Vatukarasa, after about a half hour. We had to donate money to the village before we could enter. He first took us to the Kindergarten. The kids thought we were celebrities. One put down chairs for us up in the front of the classroom and we got to sit and be their audience while they sang to us. They were absolutely adorable and such happy, loving children. After their performance, we got to play with them for a little bit. They were all hugging us and jumping all over us. I could have stayed there all day. I almost got teary eyed leaving-it was such a beautiful experience. We walked around his village for a bit after, seeing how they cook their food, wash their clothes, etc. They all live in tiny shacks, kill pigs and cows for food, and fish in the ocean just a short walk outside their doorsteps. They all welcomed us with "Bula! Bula!" and were more than happy to show us around. They are a very Christian community and aren't allowed to do anything but rest on Sundays. Also, an interesting fact: they used to be a cannibal community back in the day... I loved seeing the village and am so glad we went. I know I went to Fiji for the sun and the beach, but I love doing different things like that too. Josh went fishing with the old man, and basically told us to find a ride back to the resort. Pretty hilarious. Some of his village friends gave us a ride in their van-which I realize sounds SO sketchy, but I promise it wasn't. It was such a safe and friendly village that we didn't even care. I would not have felt comfortable doing that in any other country. They almost wouldn't even take our money when we offered it to them for the ride. We even got to jam out to local Fijian music on the radio in the car. We had lunch and laid out by the pool for a little but, and then it unfortunately started to rain. We did our souvenir shopping, showered and had an early dinner. We had our last dinner at the Talei Restaurant at the buffet where we saw all our friends (the Seattle couple, Marcel and his wife, Piper and family, etc.) and laughed about all the funny stories from the trip. We went to the lobby after dinner to watch an interesting frog race. 12 different frogs, representing 12 different countries, were auctioned off to the highest bidders. People bid up to $70 for a frog surprisingly. Then the frogs were lined up and hopped across the dance floor. Jamaica won, although I was rooting for U.S.A! A live band played music that night and everyone was up dancing. We had so much fun dancing to Celebrate, 500 miles, etc. and learning some Fijian dance moves. We stayed until the band stopped playing and then went to bed.

the kindergarten

me and my children

walking through the village

Vatukarasa Village

our last night!

Friday: Day 5

We got up at 8, had breakfast, did some last minute souvenir shopping, and then checked out of our resort. Such a fabulous vacation! Even though there were some mishaps and the resort was definitely geared more towards families, the staff were so friendly and we had a great stay. We got in our airport transport, had another two hour ride to the airport, and then a two hour wait for our plane. The kids were out of control on the plane, the food and movies once again sucked, but at least I passed out for most of the trip. We got back to Sydney around 5 pm local time, grabbed our bags, and then got on the bus back to Coogee, getting home around 7. Another long, long day. Unpacked, showered, grabbed dinner, and complained about how cold it was. Take me back to the sun please! We made a rule that we weren't allowed to look at any pictures during the trip, so we all gathered around on the couch and looked through the pictures together on Kristin's computer. Definitely going to miss these girls! A truly wonderful vacation with great people!! Can't wait to sleep in tomorrow :) 

Take me to FIJI!

The roomies and I are gearing up for our exciting 'holiday' to Fiji!! A 5 day vacation (from our already
vacation-like lifestyle here in Sydney) to an all inclusive resort. It will be one last hurrah for the four of us filled with lounging on the beach, sunshine, and memories. Such a great reward for the hell I've endured these past few weeks with school!! Plus, we even get to bring an actual bag this time since it's an international flight. I'll be honest, traveling with just a tiny backpack on your back for a week is not really my thing... I'm made for the beach lifestyle, we all know that.

Thank you Barry (our amazing travel agent) for sending all our info! Can't wait!

I'll share a few uplifting moments that have happened before I head off on my trip...

-My dear friend Eric celebrated his 21st birthday last week. We went to dinner in the city-they made me try sushi (so I tried the veggie one of course-yes, I still refuse to eat seafood). And I hated it. So now that I have officially given it a try, no one can convince me that I may like it and should check it out. Nope. Been there done that. But I sincerely enjoyed my rice and soy sauce. And cupcakes and champagne. Then we headed to the Ivy, a swanky pool lounge bar, for the rest of the evening.

yay friends!

-I also got my hair dyed ombre style!! I have been wanting to do it for a while, so I figured this was finally the time! It was ridiculously overpriced, but it looks fabulous and I love it so whatever. Worth it. You can't really tell what it looks like through a picture, so instead I will show you of what I promise it does look like on my idol Rachel Bilson.

(mine is MUCH more subtle than hers, but same concept)

-Another fun event: my friend Alexa and I went to visit our friend Max at University of Sydney and watched him perform in a musical through his uni's drama society. USyd is gorgeous-looks just like Hogwarts. It's right in the middle of the city with tons of things to do around it, but hey, we have the beach over here at UNSW, so no complaints. His play was a bit difficult to understand due to the thick Australian accents, but still a fun evening nonetheless. Alexa and I also stumbled upon a graffiti tunnel on their campus, and we had a bit too much fun doing a photoshoot there.

-Remember how excited I've been that I learned how to cook? I was doing so good-pasta, grilled veggies, chicken, salads, etc. Then this happened...

I was unaware that if you have the heat turned up too high when cooking chicken, oil splatters. And burns you. So my leg got scorched and I was forced to strip down in the kitchen and grab an ice tray from the freezer. Thank god my roommates were there to capture this moment instead of help me... At least it provides many, many laughs! (and my leg is a-okay, no worries!)

-And as promised-pictures from Vivid Sydney from last week:

The Opera House and Harbor Bridge all lit up

View of the city from the harbor cruise

me inside the vivid teardrop

front of the Museum of Contemporary Art-changing light shows all night long