no worries..

...I can still write about the rest of our week...more than 9 days after I started. ha!

so I think day 3 (Sunday) was next...we went to Maggie Island! Mark and Julie took us over on the boat, and our first stop was Florence Bay where we went snorkeling! Of course stinger suits for a must because jellies were still in season (only for a week or two longer, but we didn't want to take any chances, since I'm pretty positive I promised Momma and Hawke's family I would send everyone home safely). We saw a GIANT stingray chilling at the bottom in the sand! I thought its tail was just a stick or something, but then it moved and I saw its body as well. It's pretty silly to talk when you are under water and you have a snorkel in your mouth, you sound pretty ridiculous. After snorkeling we had coffee on the boat then headed to Horseshoe Bay to ski and tube! tons and tons of fun, lots of beautiful shells and sand dollars to pick up!, and lots of water up the nose. Hawke tried water skiing for the first time and he was pretty good at it! I'm too scared to try it there because of the sharks, crocs, and jellies that are probably hanging around there for me. We all tube a lot, and tried (unsuccessfully) to stay in...I'm really terrible at getting back on the tube, and we had lots of silly pictures taken of us when I fell out while going, Hawke fell out just while we were sitting..probably because he was laughing at me while I was trying to get back in...and Maya laying all the way off of her tube to help me get back in mine, and then she fell out.

After that we probably had lunch on the beach I forget...oh yea, because we bought a whole chicken on the way to put the boat in the water...so we had chicken avocado tomato sandwiches on rolls. That kind of sandwich is actually a huge part of my diet here, because that's all the have.. well not all they have, but whatev.

Then we caught a bus...I think its name was Friendly Fred...and got dropped off by the start of thehike to the forts. (Maggie Island used to be used for military something). Apparently this hike is where people see WILD KOALAS sometimes!! When they see one, they know that make some sort of arrow on the ground pointing to the tree that they found it in, which is pretty neat if you ask me. Anyways, we saw TWO on the way up!! It was absolutely amazing! I never thought I would see that in my life! At the top of that hill/mountain/whatever the Aussies would call it were the forts and it was such an amazing view! You could see all around Maggie!

Then we took the boat to Nelly Bay to steal the nice hotel's showers again, then headed to Picnic Bay which is where we were going to eat dinner...it was a lovely dinner at an Italian restaurant, some wine, lots of delicious food, and then a stuck boat...apparently Mark had anchored the boat WAY too far in to the shore and he hadn't checked the time that it would be low tide...apparently low tide comes in around dinner time, maybe like 8ish. That means we were stuck at Picnic Bay if we wanted to wait to get the boat out, or take a taxi to the ferry and take that home...so that's what we did. It was a little funny actually, but Mark was frustrated at himself, but things happen. Anyways, my dad and Mark went back at like 5:30am the next morning to bring the boat home before it was low tide again.


Day 4: Monday...we hung around Townsville...practiced driving more...Daddy did anyways. We went to the Reed HQ which is the Aquarium in Townsville, which is apparently the largest coral reef aquarium in the world!...even though it's kind of a small aquarium, they give really great talks and information about everything! very very interesting! Then we had a drive down the strand just so they could see it and a stop at the Bottle-O to pick up some supplies, then it was BBQ time! Mark's parents were over and everyone was home and there was tons and tons of food, and Maya, Hawke and Daddy had their first official Australian BBQ!

Then I'm not really positive about the split up of the next days I don't think, but here I go..

Day 5: left Townsville! Heading up to Mission Beach for the night...on the way we stopped at Cardwell, where they have the best meat pies in Australia apparently...Maya and I got a chicken, cheese and asparagus one to share, and my dad and Hawke both got beef and kidney pies, yuck! haha. We took a little look around, but there isn't much there to see, there was a nice beach though, and Hawke and I climbed a GREAT tree. We got to Mission Beach sometime that evening, and found Bingil Beach which is where the rain forest meets the beach, it was absolutely beautiful! I found out about that beach thanks to a nice person who suggested it to my blog :) Daddy picked up a million cuttlefish bones, we got some more shells, and watched the sunset. Then we ate at Coconutz again..Hawke and I took a walk on the beach that night and it was perfect weather and temperature (which you don't get all the time in Australia) and it was an early night for all of us.

I should probably start now..

(11:30am, Monday)
I'm in the computer lab waiting for my lecture to start again, so I'll write some about this week...there won't be any pictures yet since I'm here and not the house, but I'll put those up later.

So first of all, Maya Gene, Daddy, and Hawke: thank you thank you for making my week so wonderful! I think I'll be able to last the last two months because you guys came here. I had such an amazing time and it's going to be with us forever! I love you all.

ok here we go: first of all, their flights made them end up getting here 5 hours later than we expected, I probably was going crazy, but they got here safely, and Julie took my to the airport, and they had already gotten their luggage and everything by the time we got there, so while Julie and I were looking at the flight board someone called my name and I turned around and it was them! I wasn't ready to be in shock yet I don't think because I didn't think they would be there yet, but they were, and I was, and it was beautiful.

First adventure: Daddy figuring out how to drive on the other side of the road...and go around roundabouts, since there are a million in Townsville....also the drivers seat is on the other side, and the gear changing thing, and the window wipers and the blinkers. everything I guess. This meant that he would lots of times make the window wipers go rather than the blinker, it was pretty funny. I'm sure driving all backwards like is hard to get used to, but he got it mostly. Oh also, we said things for the roundabout like "all the way around and then to the right" and "straight means you go straight through the roundabout, but you still have to go around it"...I guess that kind of thing could get confusing definitely.

uggg. break time. I have to go back to class now, and then watch a movie for the class I didn't go to the viewing for last week then I'll walk home and eat some lunch...if I have any...and then I'll get back to this. I love you all!

haha so actually it took longer to get back to this than expected, now its 8:15 pm, but at least it's still on my Monday.

hm..let's see, back to the first day...oh, tacos and quesadillas for dinner(which remember, the pronouce the L's in that word at my house here), then bed time for everyone I guess

---I'm not going to write all of the days on one blog because that would be too long, so I'll break it up into a few different ones---

oh, and also the pictures I'll be putting up will mostly be one's that my dad, Maya, and Hawke took because I can't find my camera cord right now.


told you they were cool

Day 2:
Billabong Sanctuary! There were SO many neat animals that we got to pet and hold and feed and not feed and not get near (you know, those crazy crocs)...here's a list of the animals we saw there...except I can't remember every single one of them, but anyways: koalas!, kangaroos (that were just chillin or walking all around the place), a crazy cassawary, kookaburras, saltwater and freshwater crocs, Australian ducks who liked to fight, the "most poisonous snakes in Australia" (which probably means the world as well), a wombatt's butt (it was sleeping and that's all we could see), a wedge tailed eagle named ZENA who was HUGE!, emus who make a ridiculously crazy noise, and a white masked owl. It was a perfect day of course.

I really love kookaburras

Daddy and a koala!!




that's what a cassowary is, they are crazy looking, and
crazy killing when they have babies around


Then we went to see Mark (my host dad) play guitar at the "Stardust Drive-In!"...it was really neat, there was a market going on, but I kind of wish the drive-in was playing a movie because I've never been to one before...especially one called the Stardust Drive-In.

Oh! We also went to town that night. haha. it was fun. Deanna and Dana came with all of us and it was quite the eventful night, everybody had fun.

so. this is perfect. just so everyone knows. I need everyone in my life soon too, but this is such a nice taste of it for now. I'll write about everything when I don't have to pay for the internet.

but just so you know, we saw TWO koalas in the wild!

lovelovelovelove

fidgety.

So I'm sitting here in the computer lab, where I've been for hours, writing a paper analyzing gender roles in Snow White and Beauty and the Beast, which is actually an interesting topic, except there is one problem. I can NOT concentrate right now, you know why? oh yea, because my dad, Maya, and Hawke are ON THE WAY HERE RIGHT NOW. I think they should be on their flight to Australia out of LA already, that means they are so close to being here (well minus all the freaking hours it takes to get her). I'm going to write more of this paper, catch the bus, go back to the house, cook dinner because of course it would be my night, put in some laundry, finish this paper, go on a cleaning spree, try to sleep (which my not work because I'm so excited!), wake up, come to Uni to turn in my paper, catch a ride to the airport with Kat, get directions from her from the airport to Annandale, then SEE THOSE THREE WONDERFUL PEOPLE! oh my goodness, my mind is really all over the place! I just can't wait!! I can't believe that in the next 18 hours I'll get to see them! I'll get real hugs and kisses from people that I love and it will be wonderful!!!

Also.

I miss my mom.

pictures!

Here's some pictures that I promised a long time ago from my visit to the Sunny Coast and Brisbane to see KRISTEN!!

Her room is full of questions. Also, she is beautiful.

That was a long walk back to her apartment while carrying a heavy backpack home from the grocery store.

I know, we miss you too. tons.

Thanks Maya Gene...he really likes Australia.

That's me tip toeing across the rocks in front of the beautiful ocean at the Sunny Coast....you can swim anywhere here! No stinger nets! except we didn't swim, we just collected beautiful magical things.



The could probably kill everyone ever...really, look at those eyes, but they don't.. they just hang out and eat grass on Kristen's campus

They aren't so vicious looking in the day.

This is my favorite painting I think I've ever seen...it's by Charles Blackman, and apparently he has an entire collection of "Alice paintings".

This was a dandelion fountain! I think they should be everywhere. They are so beautiful.

Easter Weekend

So I'm not really sure why I haven't updated much on this for, well a pretty really long time, sorry about that. Actually maybe it's because the internet at my house is sucking for sure. I'm not sure why, usually it's really fast and good, but maybe I've just been taking advantage of that and then all of the sudden...boom it sucks.

Oh my! It must be POURING outside! I love it when it does that. I tried looking out of my window, but it is pitch black right now. Oh, now it's almost finished, it will be back soon though. It's silly, because the sound that I always hear sounds like my ceiling fan just turned itself onto a higher level, but then I realize that it's the rain. I love the rain when it's so loud.

Anyways, let me tell you about my Easter weekend. JCU had Friday and Monday off, just like everyone else, so we went to Mission Beach with Deanna's host family. Well, really we just caught a ride with them there and back. I forgot how it feels to travel in close proximity with a million brothers and sisters until this weekend. In the car there were the parents in the front seats, Deanna me and Calen in the middle seat, and then Zachary and Jaden in the back seat, and there was a lot of tattle telling, name calling and bugging going on.

Anyways, Mission Beach is 2 ½ hours north of Townsville. We got there and were dropped off at our hostel so we checked in and began to look around. We really wanted to do something adventurous when we were there, but sometimes it is hard to plan things before you get there. After we got settled in the hostel we talked to the lady at the front desk (who reminded me of my 7^th grade Science teacher Mrs. Upton, except not as crazy) and decided to sign up for a SCUBA DIVING course!!! After that we went to eat lunch at a little place down the road, then we went to the beach. Of course, we could only go swimming in the stinger nets, but really didn’t really get in that far. Deanna is really scared of jellies because apparently they aren’t as avid jelly sweepers as the people in Townsville, and it doesn’t go so deep anyways, so we just stayed around the edge collecting coral. Oh! On the way to the stinger nets, we observed and took pictures of Bubble Crabs!! They are tiny crabs, well they can get bigger but we just saw tiny ones, and when they dig their holes they make these round balls of sand and throw them out of their hole. They were EVERYWHERE!

We also collected tons of cuttle fish bones. Then we laid out on the beach for a while and took a little sleep (that’s how Australian’s say took a nap), and when I woke up there were parachuters flying down from the sky at us! It was so wonderful! There were 6 parachutes and I caught the last one just as their parachute was opening. It loved watching them flying down until I thought they were going to land straight on me, but then they turned at the last second and landed about 100 feet from us. It made me want to go parachuting SO badly! I think I will someday. Hm..that night we ate at a restaurant calling Coconutz and I ordered the “Mexican nachos and a Corona” special, and the nachos were soooo amazing. I miss Mexican food so badly, I even told this German girl in our hostel about El Carreton. Oh also that night we met a man named Hiked who works at our hostel and talked tohim for a long time.

Day 2: SCUBA DIVING DAY!!! We finally got up and hour after we said we would, but we still had time to get some brecky and catch our van on time. After everyone from Mission Beach was on the boat, we have to go over to Dunk Island and pick up the rest of the people then after that it was about another hour to get to Nelly’s Reef, which is on the Outer Great Barrier Reef. The water was ridiculously choppy on the way there, and a couple people got sea sick, but I just went to sleep for a little while. After we got there, “Little” Andy who was the dive instructor on the boat gave us a crash course about having to equalized the pressure on your way down and back up when you are in the water with all of your scuba gear on….all you do it hold your nose and pop your ears every meter on your way down. I actually figured out how to pop my ears just with my breathing instead of having to do the nose things. Sorry I’m getting ahead of myself…after that we had to get into our scuba gear…we wore wetsuits, really heavy weights around our stomachs that would help us go down to the bottom of the reef, and the whole backpack-air tank thing. It was SO heavy by the way. We also had on our flippers and masks, and learned out to breathe through our regulators and check our gauges and stuff. The most important thing to remember while you are scuba diving is to not forget to breath! So we have to actually stand up with all of our gear on and walk to the back of the boat, and I’m pretty sure that this was the hardest part about scuba diving for me, haha I almost fell over the whole way there.

Then we jumped off, and hung out around a rope for a while, while we just put our heads under water to become more comfortable with breathing…you know, the whole breathing while you are UNDER WATER thing is quite a crazy sensation. Then we swam away from the boat with Andy and he took us down two at a time (there were three of us at that time) to get used to the pressure, it didn’t bother me at all and I was fine the whole time, Deanna had some trouble for a little while and had to go back up a couple of times, and then the other girl just freaked out and didn’t even really try so we went back to the boat. When Deanna was comfortable enough, we started our first dive, and on this one we held our instructors hands the whole time…on this dive we saw a two meter shark (which kind of freaked me out) and so many beautiful fish and coral. I’ve never seen schools of really big fish together, but we saw a ton of those, I don’t really know much about fish, but I’m pretty sure some of the schools of fish were giant Angel Fish…we got to touch a sea anemone which just kind of stuck to our fingers when we touched it, I think it was actually stinging us but we couldn’t feel it, and then the instructor showed us the bottom of the anemone but fluttering his hand sort of under it, and the under part felt like velvet or something. I had no conception of time when we were under the water, but apparently on the first dive we were under for about 45 minutes! Then we went back up and had some lunch and it was time for the second dive! This time we saw a sting ray, another shark (but smaller, about the same size as the sharks in the touch tank at the Science Center), and a GIANT sea cucumber!! It was probably about 2 ½ or 3 feet and about 6 inches wide. Andy swam to the bottom and brought it up for us to touch, at first we just felt the top of it which was pretty odd, then he flipped his hand over and it had suction cupped itself to his hand! Then we all held it and we accidentally played a little bit of catch with it, but we didn’t harm it at all…it was sooooo crazy. It looked and felt completely fake. On this dive we got to swim by ourselves mostly, I didn’t really hold his hand at all and we were under water for an hour! I did get scared once when we were swimming into murky-ish water a little away from the reef and I just pictured a giant shark coming towards us like in the movies, but don’t worry that didn’t happen.

It’s so hard to explain how you feel when you are scuba diving…I was told that it would be just like I was in a giant fish tank, and that was totally true! Also, I felt like I could have been in space…it was so amazing. Everyone should try it, I want to do it forever.

(check out those sweet marks on our faces from the masks, oh yea!)

Oh dear, on thing bad that did happen was that as soon as we were finished with our second dive, and had clambered our way somehow back onto the boat with all of our million pounds of gear on, a little girl and her dad swam back to the boat and told the people in charge that they had gotten stung by a jelly....thank goodness it wasn't deadly or anything, it was called a Blue Bottom Jelly or something like that.

I'm off to Mission Beach for the weekend! It's Easter weekend, and that's weird. Deanna and I are catching a ride up up there with her host family then staying in a hostel. I'll get back to you soon.

Less than a week until my dad, Maya, and Hawke come to see me!!

ooh dear hahaha

haha I just remembered something funny from last night. I went out with Deanna and her host family for her birthday, and at the restaurant we went to there was a big tv with the travel channel or something like that on it. Well Jaden (the oldest boy from Deanna's host family, I think he's like 13) was pointing to the tv when beautiful views came on saying things like "oh, I own that beach" blah blah blah, and one time there was a guy jogging down a beach in a Speedo, and Jaden said "look! there's dad in his dick tuggs!!" (and imagine this being said in an thirteen year old boy Australian accent) hahaha yea, he said dick tuggs, I think everyone should start calling them that.


Also, it's Deanna's birthday right now so we are going celebrating! Just to the Tavern tonight becaues it's close-ish, but then I think on Thursday we'll go to town. I promise I'm going to add more on this blog soon! I've just been busy with school and stuff, I actually have some work to do which is way weird.

Also, I miss everyone with my whole heart.

I miss my Welchs

I just got to talk to all of the Welch's, minus Dwayne, and I just miss them so much. Addie Jo is checking my blog so I wanted to put this up for her. I love you Addie! Tell everyone in your family how much I love them and miss them too!

I guess I'm back from disappearing, but now I have to go to school, geez that's lame.

Daddy, I had a dream that you may have been eaten by a crocodile, so when you come here you better not to anything scary like that. I think I also had a dream about finding an echidna, so that was neat! Let's do that!

Also sometime after class I'll add stuff about this weekend at the Sunny Coast and Brisbane with Kristen!

sometimes you just have to..

I'm disappearing for a couple of days. You don't have to worry about me. I'll be with Kristen. I'll be with her in less than 4 hours or something like that. It's good I'm seeing her. It's been a rough however many days for both of us, and being with a familiar person will be nice. Oh, it'll be SO nice. I'll get a hug, and I'll give her a hug and that's what we need. Yes! I'll be back Monday. Maybe I'll stay away from the computer longer than that though. Oh I don't know. (except for that paper that I have to write by Monday which WILL get done, no worries!) I love you all. thanks. I mean it.


oh yea, and also, I think Sam plays the drums on every single piece of furniture in his room. all of the time. I don't think he sleeps. he just hits things..it's not so annoying though

one more thing

if my fan isn't on in my room, it will most likely feel like a sauna in here...and that's not so comfortable....except I just sneezed and got goosebumps on my legs like always like if it was cold in here. weird.

haha oh, I think I just sneezed because I did turn on the fan and it made the dust balls in my room go crazy...they were having a party probably...I'm glad the cleaners are cleaning tomorrow, they clean up stairs this week (which is where I am!) and they haven't cleaned my room yet...because it's been to messy, ha that's funny. anyways, it's cleaner-ish now



also, look what one of Deanna's host brothers did the other morning...well I think it was actually one of the older brothers helping him with it.

They were supposed to be hanging clothes out on the clothes line...

so...I suppose I've been a little nostalgic today. First it started out talking to Hawke on skype/phone before I even got out of bed. That always makes my day better. Then I open up my door and I have a package! It was from my parents with some books a need for Children's Lit, a shirt that keeps me warm when the ac is on too high or if I get a little sad, a bar of homemade soap to give Q, and a letter. In the envelope there was a little note from my dad, an article that reminded my parents of me when I was little - something to the extent of completely taking over their bed during the night - and a letter from my mom. It all made me very, very happy and feel missed and loved, but with the knowledge that I am still doing something great that I will never forget and won't regret. On the front of the card from my mom there is a quote:

"I would often have been lonely...
if it had not been for letters."
-Eleanor Roosevelt

That is exactly how I feel, but I know that I have it a ton easier than that Eleanor did when she felt lonely....I have the Internet to keep in touch as well as letters.

I really enjoy, actually love, getting letters though. They are so much more concrete.

Also, I already have inherited one of my mom's hobbies...collecting cards to send to people. I have so many at home that I bought because I knew it fit one certain person so well, but then I probably never sent it. When I get home, I'm going to try to write those letters, because even if they are to people who are closer than half a world away they are still so appreciated.

One thing that I'm going to start doing like my mom though is writing my letter on another sheet of paper and putting it in the card...just in case the person I send it to wants to recycle it to another person. That means that so many people could see these great cards! That's what my mom and her friends do, and I really like the idea.

Also, I put up all of my pictures today on the corkboard that's in my room! It made my room so much happier, and now it's more "my room" than just the room that I'm staying in. I really love walking by it and smiling every time.

instead of reading

-that's the pig, on the left is the couple who owned the house where we were, the lady on the left is leaving for Cuba on Wednesday..it was her party-

...I'd rather tell you about the Cuba party! Last night Deanna and I went to a going away party for an older lady who has been visiting her son and daughter-in-law from Cuba. Deanna's host mom is from Spain and the lady that is leaving is one of her mom's best friends. Let me just tell you, Cuba parties are better than other parties. They cooked a pig since 9am on a rotisserie (I guess that's what it's called?), and when we got there the owner of the house was working diligently to get ALL of the meat off of the pig. All of the old ladies kept sneaking over and taking pieces of meat though. We walked in and immediately were swarmed with kisses and hugs and "bonita! bonita!". They welcomed us into their family right away. We then were offered and given fritters...which I guess I'll describe like cheese sticks you get as an appetizer, but they had pork and delicious cheese sauce in them. One old lady pretty much forced Deanna and me to eat about a million of those.

Deanna's host mom and dad

Then we sat in the corner with Puddy and her husband (Deanna's host parents) and just watched everything that was going on. Spanish people are so animated and lovely. One of the men asked us if all Americans were as pretty as us. He wasn't flirting or anything, he was just being nice. Then it was dinner time and we ate SO much. There was tons of pork of course, a cooked salad that Deanna asked what was in it and tthey said "probably a little bit of everything!" (it was like mushrooms, zucchini, carrots, cheese, peppers (or capsicum here), and i forget what else. There was also black beans and rice!!!! My favorite meal EVER! I was SO happy! There was some kind of vegetable that no one that I asked knew the name of that was white and sticky kind of and very slimy to eat, but it was still pretty tasty...I'll try to find out the name of it so I can let you know.


THEN it was salsa time! Everyone had been drinking and celebrating by then, so sometime turned up the music really loud, and automatically all of the chairs were cleared from the room (we got lucky because we were sitting on the couch) and everyone jumped up and started salsa dancing! We watched for a little while, then they noticed that the two Americans were still sitting down, so they pulled us up and we danced with them! It was really SO much fun! Oh...funny story...we stood out so much, first of all we were the only two Americans there, and second of all, we were wearing pretty much the same exact thing! We both had on jean shorts, a brown belt, a white shirt, and flipflops, haha it was pretty ridiculous. Anways, back to salsa! They taught us so many moves and we enjoyed it so much. I really liked watching them dance as well though. They were just so beautiful and even sexy when they were salsa dancing. I'm sure that most of them had known this dance since they were kids.

notice the American's matching outfits..boring huh?

Then it was dessert time, and Deanna and I weren't even allowed to pick what we wanted and serve ourselves. A few of the old ladies gave us our plates with everything that was on the table in it! We had homemade flan, some sort of coffee something cake (I didn't like that one so much), and a pineapple something that was definitely my favorite! (it reminded me of banana pudding, except with pineapple instead) We couldn't finish all of it because we were already so full from dinner.


This was during some of the goodbyes that we couldn't actually understand...the guy on the left kept blurting out while his mom (right beside him) was trying to make a goodbye speech and she kept swapping at him and telling him to shut up.

We danced some more and there was speeches that we couldn't really understand, and there were shots taken (I think only by the son who's mom was leaving...he was the funniest guy ever), and more dancing, and hugs and laughter and tears. It was a really really neat thing that we were able to experience. ok, now it's way too late for me to be up. I'll put up pictures from the party tomorrow!

bread bugs

Tonight is Thursday night, and typically this is my night to cook. I was kind of excited. I was going to cook manicotti tonight, I love manicotti! The thing is, in the recipe you need bread crumbs for the filling along with the cheese and stuff...Julie was sure we had copious amounts of bread crumbs at the house so we didn't get any at the store. It turns out that she was right! tons and tons of bread crumbs, they were even in the container labeled "bread crumbs". So I find them, and open the container, and it's probably 3 parts bread crumbs, one part beetles. gross. No manicotti tonight, and I can't come up with something to cook on the top of my head for a family of however many people live here or would be here because I just don't like that kind of pressure, and anyways I don't like cooking meat and that's probably what I would have had to do, so it's "fend for your self night" instead of "manicotti night". yea.


also, please be aware of my title for this blog, I thought it was witty.

100% precipitation probably

The weather here has been crazy! Yesterday it was cooler (even though cool still means hot enough to make you sweat through your shirt), and after I got out of my night class and walked home with Q I actually was chilly! I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, and my legs had goosebumps on them! That hasn't happened to me since I've been here! (other than from AC) Anyways, today it was still cooler and I just had a 10am class so I ended up getting home around noon and as soon as I came inside there was a noise like the house was falling down, so I turned around...because of course it didn't fall on me...and it was the rain that was that loud! It only went on for like 4 minutes that time though. Since then, it's probably done it like 5 more times, the wind always starts blowing super hard and then all the sudden the rain comes, and usually disappears in 2 minutes or so. It's weird.

I hope everyone had a great St. Patty's Day! Even if you don't wear green here for that day, you don't get pinched. Julie, my host mom, thought I was crazy when I asked her about that tradition.

My room is clean!! Well mostly, I have to do laundry next. yuck. I guess I'll do that tomorrow because I don't have class. I'd rather do something more fun though, oh well.

whoa

Now it's been a month since I've been in Townsville...that's crazy! It doesn't feel like I've been gone that long, well, sometimes it does.

I'm off to campus..not for school because I don't have school on Fridays, but to unwrapped my sculpture project so it can start drying because I decided it's finished, and then to meet Deanna at Bludgers...live music in the beer garden on campus or something like that. Have a good weekend everyone!

I haven't hugged anyone since a month ago when I said goodbye to Kristen, so exactly a month. That's so odd, I'm not sure I've ever gone this long in my life without a hug. I miss it, and I miss you all, but I'm still pretty ok.

bird call

I forgot to tell you, there is this house that seems to be full of guys on my street, they are always working on their cars and stuff outside...well yesterday I was walking home from school, and I passed their house and as soon as I was on the other side of it I heard this whistle. I thought it was one of them whistling at me but I didn't turn around because that's ridiculous. You know what though? It kept getting closer and closer and I was like jeez these guys are so trashy but I was really close to me house and then all the sudden a bird flew past me and it was the one whistling. I guess it was out to pick up some girl birds.

The Secret Garden

I just started reading it for my Children's Lit class! I know that I used to really love the movie, but I can't believe I've never read the book!

I'm going to be going back and forth from writing this and cleaning my room. Because I've been pushing off cleaning my room for forever, and I said that I would do it Tuesday, so I guess I really should... thank goodness I don't have as much stuff to make my room messy as I do home.

Yesterday I went to Riverway Pool. It's that nice free public pool that I've been talking about. No one could go with me, but that was ok with me, I'm getting better at doing things by myself since I've gotten here. I guess that's kind of a big part of the whole being more independent thing. The only way I knew how to get to the pool was to take the bus to the Willows then walk across the street to the pool, but you can't see the pool at all from the Willows, so I asked someone and they showed me the way. Then I ended up crossing the street at the same time another girl did, and she noticed that we were walking the same direction so she offered to share her umbrella with me! It was so nice! I wasn't even walking right beside her or anything, but she just offered it right up, saying something like "it's way to hot to be walking in the direct sun, come over here." She was completely right, it was way too be hot to be walking, but I had the pool in my mind so it was ok. It made my day that she would just offer. We didn't even tell each other our names, but she's going to school for art in Brisbane next year. When I got to the pool I just ended up sitting in the shallow part and read my book that we had to have finished for my Children's Lit class today (The Seven Little Australians). It kind of reminds me of Little Women, except the dad is mean and the stepmom is only 20, but the kids and time period and stuff remind me of it a bit.

Tomorrow I have art! We are doing sculpture, and I think mine will turn out pretty well, if the heat hasn't dried it out too badly yet....we started them last week and we double bagged them and sprayed them with tons of water before we left, but the classroom doesn't really have walls, so I'll be surprised if they aren't super dry.

I met someone else who lives in Annandale right up the street from me!


Oh gosh, I thought I just erased all of this blog by hitting some bad key to hit when my fingers were flying furiously to tell you guys about my life here. phew good thing I didn't or I'm pretty sure you guys wouldn't have a blog from me today, I would have been quite annoyed.

Anyways...oh yea! I am only 14 hours in front of you guys now, since you guys had Daylight Savings time change and we didn't. So remember that: fourteen hours ahead.


oh yea, for the crew: I made a milkshake today with the last of the icecream, and it just wasn't the same without you guys, and without the javachip....or vanilla with hot fudge on a spoon and peanuts (Kirstin!) haha


p.s. I really do miss everyone so much. I try not to think of it all the time because I can't be sad all of the time...but it's especially hard when I have my itunes on shuffle, and each song reminds me of someone else from home.

Queensland does not observe daylight savings time.

and dinner was delicious, it was worth waiting longer for it...oh by the way, I've eaten more steak in the past 3 weeks than I think I've ever eaten in my life.

I'm going to bed, it's midnight and that's too late for me, but good morning to everyone at home! I hope your day is beautiful!



xoxo

no buses run on Sunday.

So Deanna came over yesterday after the regular Saturday afternoon grocery shopping excursion of Julie, Matt, and myself. We had dinner with the fam and watched some ridiculous movie about an old Playboy Bunny who gets kicked out of the mansion because she turns 27 then she ends up becoming a house mom at some sorority house when "loser" girls..oh it may be called House Bunny. Well anyways, it teaches terrible morals for most of the movie, and it's just an absurd movie. Anyways, that was way off from what I was going to write. hm...

oh yea! so Deanna and I decided we were going to get cultured....haha there was a 2 hour break right here in my writing because of the need of a serious nap, ok here we go again....we decided we would go to this art show that was downtown (actually they call it the city, but I just can't stop saying downtown for some reason) at Dance North City that a girl in my art class told me about, there was supposed to be a live band and drinks and food and art, a good time I know! Except we got there two hours late because of the movie watching we did earlier, and it was kind of still going on we think, except it seemed more exclusive than we thought it would be. I guess you needed to know someone who was there probably, so we left. But whatever, we tried.

Next we decided to talk down to Flinder's Street, which is the street that is filled with too many night clubs and bars, but we passed all of these noisy places because we still wanted a pretty chill night and we ended up sitting at Molly Malone's Pub. It was really nice, we sat outside on the sidewalk where there were chairs and tables for a while, having a beer and listening to the live music that was playing inside. It was a great temperature and there was just a light breeze that felt wonderful! The band was playing songs like Breakfast and Tiffany's and I Would Walk 500 Miles and things like that, so that was a lot of fun singing to them...then we got kicked off of those tables because they were putting them up, so we moved to the Beer Garden, which is just another term for a courtyard I guess...it was a lot quieter there than inside of the pub so that's why we decided to move there.

We ended up catching the bus at 1:11am or something like that because we knew that when we got dropped off at stockland we still had to walk to Deanna's house, which is sort of far away. As soon as we got off the bus, we figured out we could have actually taken it to the uni but it was already gone by then, and we were ok with walking. From the time we left the city to the time we got to Deanna's house, I think we timed it to be about an hour and 15 minutes. Which if we would have taken a taxi, it would have been only about a 10 minute drive, but we have to save money! I guess I've realized since I've been here, how wonderful it is to have a car when you need it. Yea, definitely I've learned that...this morning when I woke up, I was ready to walk to uni then catch the bus home, except then we found out there there no buses on Sunday, how lame. I guess I got another good walk this morning though, but it was just so hot.

I have a feeling I'll meet more people this week. Well I really hope I do, but I guess I'll put my mind towards studying and stuff..I really have a bad attitude towards school, but I shouldn't I mean, I'm in Australia taking pretty neat classes, so I'm going to work on that.

There was supposed to be a cyclone around here...it actually got up to a category 3 cyclone (which is our hurricane), but it missed up and is still going south I think. I'm glad we didn't get it, but we did get some pretty heavy winds and rains especially on Friday and yesterday it rained for a while.

Gosh, I'm so hungry, I wonder whose night it is to cook. We usually eat at 7pm here pretty regularly on the dot, but not tonight I guess. I took the greatest nap this afternoon! It turned out to be a 2 1/2 hour one haha

After our classes tomorrow, Deanna and I are going to walk to her house and then walk to that great pool I was telling you about some other time. We've been trying to go forever, but it just hasn't worked, so hopefully tomorrow is the day!

Sometimes I get Australia time and North Carolina time mixed up... my computer is set for NC time so I can know what time it is to talk to people from home and stuff, so like right now it is 5:21am NC time and it is 7:20pm Australia time so it's dark out in both places right now and it can get confusing. Oh wait, does my computer automatically change for the time change at home? When someone wakes up at home I'll have to ask them what time it is. I don't know if we have a time change here, I'll have to ask about that too at dinner. Time changes confuse me, my dad said something about it having to due with saving money on energy I guess when they first started it, but it still confuses me.

I think Tuesday I'll have to go laundry. Now I have to go research about my ancestors for my class tomorrow...then I have to read Seven Little Australians for my children's lit class.

broccoli and cheese

I think I'll be making chicken pie for dinner tomorrow night, along with broccoli with cheese sauce. Thanks to Emily, because that's what she made for dinner the other night and it sounds delicious. Momma, can you email me the recipe for your cheese sauce?

I may have made a friend today! Her name is Toni, and she's in my art class. We have the practical for that class in an hour and a half so hopefully I'll talk to her in there more too. That would be nice. We are doing pottery today, and I have no clue what I'll be making, I guess I'll just have to wait and see when my creative urge is when I get there. Maybe a tree. I do enjoy trees.

Gosh, this class is on the complete other side of the campus. It's so hot today, just like all other days, but it's annoying so have to walk all the way there, then back home. JCU is very very spread out, it may be around the same amount of students (or maybe even less) than UNCG, but the campus is huge.

I've already had two classes this morning, then a 2 hour break, so I'm in the library now, I have to grab some lunch soon though....I was going to pack my lunch except I woke up to late, so all I have is an apple and that just won't cut it. ok, that's it, lunchtime!

turkeys - shout out to Mr. Espey

Well just to let you know, turkeys does not go by the regular English rule...it is not "turkies" it is "turkeys" just to clear that up.

Emily, please tell you dad just to come to my campus if he wants to catch a turkey for next Thanksgiving. I know they live at the farm, and that's where he was supposed to catch one, but it would be a lot more easier if he just caught one from here. There is quite a plethora of them, all you have to do is open your eyes and BOOM there's one right in front of you.

They are supposedly wild turkeys, except they are really not wild anymore. They like to eat out of the trashcans, I mean bins, on campus, so when you go to throw something away they flap their wings and scare you half to death. It's true. I think they are out to get someone actually. They seem to be trying to take over they school, I see them planning something together, I really do.

So I guess, Mr. Espey, don't catch one of these for Thanksgiving dinner. They probably have mites or something.


Tomorrow I will feel better. I will also go to my Children's Lit class, then (hopefully) finish reading The Coral Island, then go to my Children's Lit tutorial. Maybe I'll make my way to Stockland to get some medicine if I'm not all the way better and groceries for my Thursday night cooking. That is, if I know what I'm going to cook for Thursday night. Any ideas would be grand! I'm cooking manicotti, but that has to wait until next Thursday because Matt is cooking lasagna on Wednesday. I hope it's vege lasagna, with broccoli, I really do enjoy broccoli (the family that I live with calls it broccol-IE with a long I at the end...they also pronounce the "L's" in tortillas with a short "I" before that...it's interesting how different people pronounce things).

I guess some people want to know my school schedule:
-Monday: 10 am- North Queensland Society Indigenous Historical Voices lecture
11 am- The same class, but the tutorial
-Tuesday: 12 pm-Children's Literature lecture
2 pm- Children's Lit tutorial
-Wednesday: 9 am- Visual Arts
10 am- another Children's Lit lecture
1 pm-3 pm- art practical (pottery, painting, block printing, etc)
6 pm- The Land and its Legends in Australian Cinema tutorial
7 pm- Cinema class again, but watching the movie
-Thursday: 10 am- Cinema lecture
-Friday: NOTHING!

*lectures are the entire class together at once...two of mine are video lectures so my teacher is in Cairnes while I try to pay attention and learn
*tutorials are smaller groups of students from each class that we have to sign up for and I guess it's where we have group discussions and stuff...more personal
*all classes have three grades...two assignments (most of the time these are essays) and one final exam


Oh. I didn't clean today. but I did pay rent. and take a nap. and drink lots of fluids (that's to you Momma)

Also, I'm jealous of the snow you guys got!! I would actually only probably enjoy it for about 30 minutes if I was there, but now I can't even imagine it really! How funny it would be for me to wake up to snow in the morning tomorrow (that was kind of the types of sentences that The Coral Island is full of...not the snow or anything, just the structure). I think Townsville would go crazy if there was snow here! Oh yea, it hasn't rained in 4 days I believe, that has to be some kind of record.

I'm going go make some hot tea, read, and go to bed.

I think that having a fever in Australia is far worse than having one at home.

I may or may not be getting sick..

...let's just hope that it's the second part of that statement. It may be just because I was in the sun for most of the earlier part of the day. who knows. My day started out with my alarm waking me up at 8 am and Deanna texting pretty much at the exact same time. So I got up to see what time we were going to the river, but no one was up yet so I decided to go back to bed for 15 more minutes. The second time I got up was more successful because Julie and Mark (my host parents) were up and eating "brekky". Our plan for the morning was to go out to the river on the boat for jet skiing (not for me) and tubing (definitely for me), we get to the river and it's closed because there is a wake boarding competition. I was actually surprised that the river was opened anyways because it is still so flooded, but needless to say, we did not go out on the river. Julie walked Deanna, Matt (the other uni student who is staying at our house) and me around the area of the river we were already at and they had the nicest public FREE pool that I've ever seen! (So Deanna and I are planning to find out way there tomorrow on bikes), and then everyone decided we should go to the island because we already had to boat and everything. We did have to run back to the house though to get the stinger suits...noooo getting stung for me!

We finally made it to the boat access place to put the boat in the water and as soon as we were on the water we found out how choppy it was. soooooo choppy. apparently winds that are 15 to 20 knots are quite high. who knew? well, Mark and Sam (the son here) knew but Julie kept telling them it would be alright if we went. ha! well it was alright, just pretty rough.

When we go to Maggie Island (Magnetic Island) we went to Horseshoe Bay which is where they usually like to take the boat we had morning tea then Mark, Julie, and Sam all went water skiing and knee boarding (Matt tried that too), and Deanna and I hung out on the beach (in the shade) until it was our turn. Then we got to go tubing again! It's quite fun, and quite tiring. My muscles at the inside of my elbows always get sore because I hold on so tight. After all of those shenanigans, we had lunch at the fish and chips shop up the road, except they were out of fish..which was fine with me because I don't like fish. I had my usual chicken and avocado sandwich (it's really a good thing I started liking avocado right before I came to Australia).

Then the boating adventure started again...Julie told Mark to go the opposite way around the island because maybe it would be less choppy that way...it definitely was not. Deanna, Matt, and I were all sitting on the bench in the back of the boat, and we were every now and then getting sprayed by some water which was kind of silly, but then all of the sudden the waves became HUGE and every single bit of me was wet. Julie gave Deanna and me towels to put over our faces because the spray was so bad and it's salt water so it stings pretty well. It was really quite hilarious. Everyone was pretty soaked, but Deanna had it the worst and then I came in second. I'll put up pictures when I can get them from Deanna. Then I fell asleep on the way home from the boat dock and I'm pretty sure everyone else did, well maybe not.

I think there is a gecko living outside of my window, it's nice, I really enjoy their chirping. There's definitely a gecko living in the kitchen at my house here, and I've tried to catch it, but it just runs behind the cabinets. I think it knows how lucky we are to live somewhere with AC.

Oh yea...about the family I'm living with her:
-Mark and Julie are the parents..Mark does something with selling air conditioners (I'm quite lucky for that!) and Julie works with deaf children. She always comes home and tells me stories about her deaf babies.
-Tash is 17 and she just started uni this past week. She usually is at work or out with her friends but she really nice, and she gives me rides when she can!
-Sam is going to turn 16 this month and he's a junior in highschool and works at Blockbuster so we get lots of free movies to watch!
-Carly is 19, but I don't really know her because she lives in an apartment with her boyfriend.
-Matt isn't part of their family, but he's the other uni student living here. He's from somewhere near Cairnes and he's only 16 but he skipped some grades in high school or something like that.

Oh!! yesterday I had bad luck with the buses because they were being stupid, and bad luck with walking because I got gross new blisters, BUT I had great luck with seeing animals! I saw a kookaburra!, lorikeets (which are beautiful birds that are green, purple, yellow, red, and sometimes other colors), and THREE wallabies! (that was right before the bus driver shook his head at my when he drove right by me and the busstop--I wasn't very happy about that ugg). I saw all of them on my campus! It was pretty neat. Oh, and I saw my gecko friend in the kitchen.

Just in case you didn't realize it, there are NOT 29 days in this February that just past. I had a slight mix up with that last night when I was talking to Hawke, so I just wanted to make sure no one had the same problem :)

Also, did you know I've been gone an entire month? It's so weird to me, it doesn't feel really like I've been gone that long, but then I think back at all of the things I've already done..Melbourne, Darwin, Kakadu, Litchfield, and being in Townsville for two weeks already, it's really crazy. And I also think back to how much I've been missing people and I can really tell I've been gone for a long time too.

I really do miss all of you, but I'm sure all of you know it. I don't think about it all of the time, probably because I would go crazy if I did and also just because there is so many new things going on around me, but I do really really miss all of you.

I have to clean my room tomorrow, I won't let it get like it gets at home, I won't I won't. You know how my floor usually is at home? that's just kind of like what my bed is right now, except maybe a fourth of the stuff, but as some of you know that is still quite a lot. I've just been pushing it to one side of my bed so I can sleep on the other half.

oh dear, this post is getting quite lengthy, I suppose I'll leave it at that for now. lovelovelove!



oh!!! I found a sand dollar today!! it's just a baby one and I love it!

Seeing how all this works

So this is new. Writing for other people to read, but I need it. So you guys can know what I'm doing! and so when I'm old I can remember what I did. So it's not going to be daily updates, but maybe it will be most days. We'll just see how it goes.


Things I have learned today:

-I can make killer pizzas from scratch (thanks Momma!)
-my peanut butter pie with homemade cookie crumb crust is probably better than yours.
-I can frenchbraid? (and it says "frenchbraid" is spelled wrong, probably because I put the two words together, but it's funny because when I right click on it to get the right spelling it says "brainchildren" for one of the suggestions. ha)
-my bus will probably always be 11 minutes late when I'm going to school, but it will be on time for the ride home (which is at the 42 of every hour just in case you wanted to know)

(p.s. Thursday nights are my nights to cook at the house)
oh yea!! look at those!

I don't have classes on Friday. weird. I'm not really sure what to do with myself, maybe I should clean my room. I should probably go on a bike ride too and explore my "district" some more. I live in Annandale if you wanted to know. I may also see if Deanna wants to go to the strand...that's the beach in Townsville. We can swim in the stinger nets, because that's where we (probably) won't get stung by the box jellies or the Irukandji jellies (those are the tiny ones who may be able to sneak through the stinger nets yikes!)

We learned last weekend, though, that the jellies really don't wait to sting big animals like us so if you splash around before getting in the water they will probably swim away. Julie (my host mom) taught us this nice fact while we were at Maggie Island (Magnetic Island). It was beautiful there. Deanna and I found our way there finally after 3 buses and a ferry (for me) and a 30 minute walk that was the wrong way (which I'm sure seemed like a million hours because of the heat) a taxi ride, 2 buses and a ferry (for Deanna). We met Mark there too because we knew his dorm was going to be there. *side note: Deanna and Mark are both from UNCG and they are study at James Cook with me* My host parents met us in Horseshoe Bay, which is at the top of the island, and took us tubing on their boat! We got to wear some adorable stinger suits for that event that I'll try to put pictures up if I can figure it out. Then they took Deanna and me to the edge of the Great Barrier Reef and we got to go snorkeling! It was pretty weedy at the bottom because of all the rain (which is a TON!) but we still got to see some of the coral which was amazing! My favorite pieces of coral were a giant white circular one and a smaller one beside it that looked like a brain. I saw a puffer fish that just hung out on the giant white one! It was so exciting!!! It wasn't puffed though, which is good I suppose because it wasn't scared or mad. When we were snorkeling, we were a little nervous about the jellies so in addition to our stinger suits, we wore stinger socks and gloves as well. ha! I'm sure we looked ridiculous, but it was a success because no one got stung!

I should probably go to sleep soon...I bet I'll wake up around 5:30 or 6 am though, I've been doing that pretty much every day since I've been here...I think that AC turns off around 4 or so and then I just pretty much die from being baked in my room, but I have a ceiling fan! Which is VERY exciting! I'm pretty sure that every person in Australia who has a room has a ceiling fan. I love it! Sweet dreams to Kristen when she makes it home tonight, and I hope everyone at home has an amazing day!

oh yea!! my address here is:
17 Masuda Street
Annandale
Townsville, Australia 4814

pleeeeaaaaase send me mail!
and send me your address if you want mail :)