One week left.....

Final Blog

Well I must apologize for the lack of blogging....and I am sad to say, this will most likely be my last blog entry. As of today I have 2 days left in Lismore at the SCU campus, then 2 nights in Brisbane at a friend’s house, then I am off to Fiji from the 5th until the 8th when I will be returning home to Chicago... scary!
I can’t believe my four months in Australia is nearly over, it seems like I am just getting settled into my routine and life here and now I have to return home...
Looking at my last blog I guess I have about a month to catch you all up on... I’ll try not to bore you with the details...
After returning from Fraser I settled back into Lismore and had to do some actual school work, that was torture, after not doing work for so long seems as if my body forgot how to write papers, BUT now all my assignments are finished!
My parents were here for two weeks, it was an incredible two weeks. We spend the first 5 days that they were here between Sydney, for 2 nights, then Cairns for 2 nights. We were able to see the beautiful Sydney bridge as well as the Opera house, we snorkelled the Great Barrier Reef, AND went scuba diving, all three of us, I was told not to share stories about my parents, but let’s just say it was one of the funniest things I have seen in a long time. Once we returned to Lismore, I had to get off to do some more work and my parents took a day to recover from scuba diving as well as a busy first week in Australia... Later in the week we visited my favourite beach in Australia, Shelly Beach, it was a beautiful winter day in Australia spent sun tanning on what had seemed to be our own private beach, we had lunch and a cute cafe and enjoyed the cloudless skies! On Friday we spend our day in Byron Bay, and again had a beautiful winter day spent sunbathing! We only took a break from the sun to go catch some kebabs for lunch, which mom and dad both loved! We also indulged in some gelato!
Saturday was my 21st birthday, so we spent the morning making pancakes and eggs, well more or less dad made pancakes and eggs for my roomies and me. It was a beautiful morning. Laid by the pool for a bit in the afternoon, then went and had my first ‘legal’ drink at a bar called Mary’s downtown Lismore. My parents and I went to a restaurant called Tommy’s for dinner, then headed back to my apartment where my roommates had already started the party...needless to say, it was one heck of a 21st birthday spent in Australia!
Sunday morning we somehow managed to navigate our way up to Brisbane to go visit some family friends, who have probably the most beautiful house I have ever seen. It was absolutely wonderful, fitted with two horses and two cows, among many other animals. We had a wonderful dinner with them on Sunday night then went into the city of Brisbane on Monday before I had to catch a bus back down to Lismore later in the afternoon... we were able to go to Mt. Coo-tha and a few other attractions in Brisbane, it was a really fun two days!
Now I am settled back into Lismore and just relaxing, it is the beginning of the winter here in Lismore, some days are rainy then others I am laying by the pool! Just relaxing and enjoying my final few days with many of my friends here at SCU....
Reality finally is setting in that I only a few days left... I have began packing, not really understanding how I was able to fit my whole life into two suit cases for four months... especially now that I’m trying to do it again... not that easy!
Well... I think that is the bases of my life in Australia... now I’m off to finish packing and spending time with my roomies here before I leave Thursday night...
More stories to come, but next time they will be in person... thanks to all of you who have followed my blog, I look forward to seeing you all in about a week.
Love,
Jori

Fraser Island

What an incredible week! Such a fun study week (even though there was no studying involved what so ever...which is probably why it was so remarkable! A group of 32 of us left SCU early Monday morning to go to Fraser Island, it took 3 bus trips, a ferry ride, and a train-ish mobile to get us to our resort, but we finally got there after about 8 or so hours of travelling. The island was much different than I had anticipated, but still marvellous. On Monday night we all had a big dinner then just relaxed out by the Dingo Bar.
Tuesday we woke up early to get off on our bus by 8:00 to go explore the island. We had a hilarious tour guide named Karl. He totally made the trip all worthwhile. The bus rides were interesting to say the least, the entire island is sand, there are very minimal roads, and the only roads are actually those directly located by the 2 resorts. All other ‘roads’ are sand, and it is basically like you are riding a roller coaster. So Tuesday we made a few stops on the island, the first of those was Basin Lake, it was a hidden lake down at the bottom of a huge sand dune. The second spot we stopped was Lake Birabeen, which was gorgeous! It is a fresh water lake which allowed for crystal clear water! After we had lunch we headed back to our resort, which was the Kingfisher Bay Resort, in case any of you are wondering, it was really nice, even in the backpacker portion! We all hung around the pool at the resort for the remainder of the night, after eating an aussie version of a taco dinner, I’ll tell you they have a lot to learn!
Wednesday was a big day! We hit a ton of different spots on the island and I even went on a spur of the moment airplane ride over the island! We started our day at the Hammerstone Sandblow, which was really pretty and different than most of the island, which is completely covered by trees. After we all took a few pictures there we left and went for a nice drive along the beach, which is also their local ‘highway’, which is where I, along with a few others, got conned into going on a plane ride, the pictures made it all worth it though, I was able to capture most of the island from above, pretty sweet! Once we landed we stopped at the Maheno Shipwreck, took a few pictures by that then we were off to the Champagne pools, on our way we were able to see Indian Head rock. The Champagne Pools were absolutely gorgeous, I took way too many pictures there but they were all worth it, I had never seen anything like these pools before! Once we had gone for a swim and took plenty of pictures we headed back towards the bus for our delicious chicken wrap lunches, probably my favourite meal over the week, or at least the best balanced! After lunch we headed towards our final stop for the say, Eli Creek, which was absolutely freezing! We followed Karl up the creek on a path way, then we floated down it using our hands to push us down faster, it was a great triceps workout! After our ‘workout’ we laid out on the sand to catch some much needed rays before devouring some delicious cookies and coffee! We then headed back towards the resort to chill at the Dingo Bar for the night.
Thursday was the last day of our tour with Karl, and by far the prettiest day yet. The skies were blue and the sun was shining, we hit up Lake Mackenzie, which is absolutely gorgeous! I wish the pictures did it justice, we spent about 3 hours lying on the beach and some of us even swam across the lake! Between the white sand and the crystal clear water I’d have to say that this was my favourite spot over the whole trip! Once Karl got all of us to finally leave the beautiful beach we were off to Central Station to learn some history about the island, then we went for a subtropical rainforest walk, which was actually really sweet, again I wish that the pictures would do justice to all the amazing plants we saw, and creatures might I add. After our nice walk we were headed back to the bus where we had to say our goodbyes to the amazing Karl and head back to the resort.
Friday, was our day of leisure. After we ate breakfast we were off to the pool to sit and relax for about 6 hours while working on our tans! It was so wonderful to lay back and relax in a comfortable lounge chair! We were on our own for lunch so most of us went down to the Sand Bar and indulged in large portions of nachos, and burgers. After lunch we went back out towards the pool for a few more hours, afterwards we headed down to the dock to watch a beautiful sunset. It was the perfect last day of vacation!
Saturday we started on our long adventure back to Lismore. After 3 bus rides, a ferry, and about 8 hours later we were back at our apartments wondering how the week went so quickly... the saying that time fly’s when you’re having fun is a proven point, not only from my Fraser Island trip but from my whole stay in Australia.
As for updates from SCU, nothing new has really happened since my return, I’ve been working/procrastinating on a paper which is due tomorrow, I just finished up editing it. Now I will sit with my cup of tea and start reading a new book, and await the beginning of the week, to see where my adventures will take me!
How could I forget, one small thing did happen this week, I’ve changed my flights home, I now have a stopover in Fiji from June 5-8! I am so excited for this trip. I will be going with a group of great girls I have met here on our way home, as one last celebration of our times here in Australia! Basically it is our way of postponing our goodbyes, why not postpone them in Fiji! I will be returning to Chicago early in the morning on June 9th now instead of the 6th, but enough talk about coming home, I’ve got 7 weeks of life in Australia left, plenty of time for more adventures! AND two of those weeks will be with my parents! I can’t wait for them to get here!!!!!!
Off to another week, hopefully time slows down a little bit, I feel like someone has put my life on fast forward.

March is already over?

Well, by now it is pretty apparent that my goal to write weekly has failed... so here goes an update of three weeks.. Surfers Paradise was an incredible short weekend, we left Saturday morning early and came home Sunday night. It was two days jammed with shopping, beach, great food and a very entertaining night! The shopping in Surfers was incredible, lots of good deals! I just couldn't pass them up! Even though the weather wasn't the best while we were there we still managed to have an incredible time! Saturday night we went out to a few different places and had great times, all of us feeling very pretty in our new dresses that we had bought earlier that day! Sunday we woke up early and went to an all you could eat pancake breakfast, well worth it! Although, I still haven't ate pancakes, just because it is all you can eat doesn't mean you should keep eating until you are painfully full!

After returning from Surfers, I had to begin on my first assignment, since then I have been turned in one assignment and have spent way too much time on my Peace, War, and International Politics assignment. The topic... American national politics in relation to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, how they expect us to write about that in only 1,500 words still baffles me. During the weeks I have taken plenty of breaks to go to a few beaches which are about 30 minutes, one called Flat Rock beach, is probably my favourite (notice the aussie spelling, gah!) beach that I have found so far, it is so gorgeous, and the shore line is filled with plenty of flat rocks to skip across the water!
...
I just turned in my politics assignment, and feeling pretty good about it! We are on our first study break now and I don’t have class again until April 12th, sweet break huh?! I’m leaving on Monday morning with a group to go to Fraser Island for the week; I’ll be back on Saturday night. I’m really looking forward to this vacation, it looks like they have some really cool places planned for us to go to, mainly beaches! I’ll continue to work on my tan!

As for this past weekend, Stefka and I went to Spot X with the Mojo Surf Company and we learned how to surf! It was probably the best weekend I’ve had since I’ve been here. We left late Friday night and were taken on a huge luxury bus down near the Coffs Harbor area, we got our accommodations and didn’t get to bed until 3:00 a.m. We were woken up at 8:00 the next morning for our first surf lesson, we got a quick overview about the tide and rip’s before we went down to the beach where we practiced standing up on the surfboard while we were still on the shore, then they let us all go out to do our own thing! Surprisingly I was able to stand up! It was such a fun weekend! After our first lesson we walked back up to the camp area and had some lunch. After lunch we went down to the beach and get a little nap in before our second surf lesson. At 4:00 we met again at the teaching area where they again handed out our wet suits and our boards and this time we went straight into the water, the waves were great and we were all having a great time catching some good waves, the time went by so fast! When we were done we headed back up to eat some much needed dinner, we had some sort of steak and some pumpkin and cauliflower soup, so delicious!(but I guess after 6 hours out in the sun anything would have tasted good!)
Sunday we woke up at 6:00 a.m and were in the water by 7:00, it was awesome, we were able to surf while the sun was coming up! Such an amazing time, I think that this was my favourite out of the three lessons, I was able to get up on a ton of waves and ride a few of them all the way into the shore! After our final lesson Stefka and I took another much needed nap on the beach, but it didn’t last long because the Australian sun is so strong. I could feel it going right through my SPF 85...thanks mom! Once we decided we had had enough of that, we went back up to camp and got all of our stuff packed up, had a quick lunch and before were headed back to school. Why is it that the weekends go by so quickly? Especially when you are doing something that is so much fun!

Now I feel like I am just rambling about random things, I am really excited about this coming week at Fraser Island, hopefully I’ll be able to work on my tan all week!
Miss and love you all!

How has it already been a month?

On Saturday (today is Wednesday for all of you who still don't understand the time difference!) I will have already been here a month. Honestly I can't believe it. Time has literally flown by. It seems just yesterday that I was going through customs and was nervous as to what was going to happen to me in the next four months. That is enough of me reminiscing, I can do that on my own time, I will attempt to update you all on my life!

So since I've last updated, I had a six day weekend, which was obviously amazing, I went to Byron Bay on Friday and was able to work on my tan and relax, unfortunately since Friday it has been raining, which has put a damper on my goal of getting unbelievably tan. Because I have two classes which are fortnightly (which means they meet every other week) I only had classes on Wednesday this week, I had three hours of English and three hours of Indigenous Ways of Cultural Expression. Most of the six hours went by quickly and I felt like I was able to learn and expand my knowledge...ha.. that is even too much for me lie about! I do enjoy my courses though, I can't lie about that!

This weekend I have a trip planned with a few friends to go visit Surfers Paradise, should be a great weekend, I have heard nothing but great things about Surfers, so I hope our travels live up to my expectations.

I do have exciting news! I went for a run this afternoon, up and down the hills that surround SCU, and while I was running down one of the hills I saw a while kangaroo! I was a little concerned that it was going to chase me, but luckily enough it didn't! It was really sweet to see it just roaming around the hills!

So for now I think that is all I can update you on, hopefully I will have great news to share with you all after my weekend away!

I'll leave you all with a riddle which I heard in my Indigenous Ways of Cultural Expression course, see how quickly you figure it out! I'll post the answer to the question on my next post, or if you are really stuck, email me! I am actually really interested to see how quickly and who gets it first, because almost half of our class is so narrow minded that we didn't get it right away, I have to admit that it took me a bit to figure this one out to, I'm actually kind of upset at myself for this!

So here it is,

A man and his son were driving down the road, they got in a car crash. The man died at the scene of the accident and the son was rushed to the nearest hospital in critical condition. When the son arrived at the hospital he was rushed into surgery. The surgeon came into the operating room took one look at the boy and said "I can't operate on him, that is my son."

Who is the surgeon?

Hope everyone is doing well! Miss you all!!

Back To Class...

I suppose my 2 and a half week vacation had to come to an end at some point... it went by so quickly I couldn't believe myself when I woke up this morning and realized I actually had to go to class! So, I quickly came to the realization that Australian units are much different than courses at home... Today I had Cultural and Spiritual Well Being. This unit seems to be really chill and relaxed. The reason I say it will be so different than at home is because for this class I have two assignments for the entire 13 weeks of classes. Both are weighted at 50% of my grade for the course, so there is a little pressure to do good on those two assignments... okay a lot of pressure! The first assignment is a 15 minute presentation, the topic "The Truth about Me", the second assignment, a 7ish page paper reflecting on the course. Neither sound too difficult at the moment, hopefully when it comes time to do the actual assignment I feel the same way! So today's unit went well, tomorrow should be interesting, my unit tomorrow is entitled Peach, War and International Politics, I suppose I should start reading a newspaper... oh well, hopefully it is as relaxed as today! Besides classes starting nothing too much else is new here in Lismore. I've found a good running path, although I'd advise everyone to stay away from running in the middle of the day, it just isn't a good idea! This past weekend we went to wild life sanctuary, it was pretty interesting, minus the 60+ bug bites I have on my legs, if you haven't seen the pictures I posted on facebook, look at those, they are pretty gross!! Wednesday I have two more classes, an English unit and another cultural one. Then Thursday, nothing! Friday, Byron Bay, it should be a great beach day! As for now I'm not overwhelmed by courses like I tend to get at Hope, hopefully it will stay that way for the remainder of the weeks!

Getting Comfortable

Things are starting to get a little bit more comfortable here, I've got my class schedule, which doesn't start until next week, but I can't lie, it is an amazing schedule, for many reasons, the first being that I don't have classes on Thursday or Friday!! Traveling on weekends, that will have to be a must! The second reason, I have one class on Monday in the afternoon, which only meets every other week, YES!! Then Tuesday one class in the a.m, Wednesday I have two classes, but one is also only every other week, looks like free time will be in large amounts! More time for adventure! Also, all of my classes look super interesting. Cultural and Spiritual Wellbeing, which is supposed to allow you to grab a greater grasp on your life, great! Indigenous Ways of Cultural Expression, learning about the Aussie way of life as well as the aboriginal people! Poli Sci course, something about peace and war. Then finally Intro to Written Text. All should be wonderful! But I guess the true test will be next week when I start them! Also, today I booked my first trip! This is a trip all around Byron Bay, which isn't too far from my school, but this trip includes two day of learning how to surf, that ought to be interesting. The next day is snorkling, the fourth day includes horseback riding on the beach, then the final day is the Blues festival here, I know Jack Johnson is going to be here, and many more! I'm very excited for that trip, I'll have to wait until April to go on it though! Needless to say things in Australia are going well and I'm starting to get acclimated to the time difference and the Aussie way of life, time will only help! Oh yes, and in case anyone was wondering (more or less I just want to share this with everyone) if you are a BBQ chip lover like myself, good luck in Australia, they have chicken flavored chips as well as BBQ ribs, I have yet to find normal flavored chips. Grocery shopping has been interesting thus far, at least they have Greek yogurt and honey! More fun news, I've joined a beach volleyball team, as well as signed up to play in a soccer tournament tomorrow... all should be fun, and funny for others to watch! Last thing for now, on Thursday I get to go to with the Angels Beach Dune Care group and help clean up the dune, should be a fun day! Until next time... try and stay warm at home, while I'll try not to sweat every minute... do you all hate me yet?

Making my home at SCU

Well friends, I've officially moved into my new home here at Southern Cross University! The first day was rough, I live in a 6 person apartment, I arrived and I was the only one here, no one came until today. I've started to make my room mine, but it is hard with brick walls! I'm very thankful for my pictures which I brought! With a few pictures and meeting new people, it is beginning to feel a bit more like home, once classes start and a routine begins I feel it will be much simpler. So far I have gone shopping twice, my favorite purchase...... $3.30 for a hair dryer.. second hand shops!! Besides that it has been a lot of walking around introducing myself to new people. Tomorrow we have another free day, then on Sunday we are going to Byron Bay, which is supposed to be incredible.. I'm very excited for that! Then on Monday the work begins, well sort of, we begin our orientation, where I will figure out what classes/when and get acquainted more with the city of Lismore. So far, it has been a good time! Be on the watch for pictures, I am attempting to post some on facebook, but due to terrible internet it seems to be taking forever! Love and miss you all!!

SNORKLING ON THE GREAT BARRIER REEF!!

There has been no lack of sun here in Cairns, and I'm soaking it all up! Over the past few days I have roamed around the streets of Cairns getting acquated with the area, helped plant trees for an endangered bird species and most importantly, or at least the most fun was snorkling on the Great Barrier Reef, what an amazing experience!! I have plenty of photos to share with all of you thus far in my trip, hopefully I will post them soon!! The weather was perfect for our 2 hour boat ride to the reef and as well as our 2 hour boat ride back, needless to say, I'm getting darker by the minute, or redder! Australian sun is WAY stronger than any sun I have ever been in before, SPF 55 applied about 4 times through out the day... still got a little red, you just sweat it all off immediately! Tomorrow begins my trip to SCU! I am so excited, as much as I have loved being in Cairns and meeting tons of new people, living out of a suitcase is just not for me! I leave tomorrow around 10 a.m for Brisbane, then I'll have another 2 hour bus ride to SCU, where I will finally get to unpack! Then head off to Target to stock up on all the supplies I couldn't fit in my two suit cases! I'll leave you with this thought... if you can do something, go for it... in the end you will regret the opportunities you don't take advantage of more than the money you spent on those experiences, when in Australia, do what you want! Don't hold back (and that doesn't only apply for Australia!)

Safe Arrival

G'day Mates,

It was a long 3 flights but I'm here safely, sweating in the 90 degree weather...I know none of you have any sympathy for me, which is fine!!! Just wanted to drop a post to let you all know I'm here!!

P.S Today I went to the Rainforestation, I held a 6 ft snake (photo proof will be coming shortly), had my picture taken with a koala and fed a kangaroo!!!

Back to the warm weather.. oh who am I kidding I'm sitting outside sweating as we speak.. time for more adventures!

Less Than Two Days.....

Well, in less than two days I will be in Australia. After over a year of planning it is hard to believe that the day I leave is already here. I leave Thursday from O'Hare and fly into L.A, then again I leave L.A for Brisbane, Australia!!! It will be a long flight, but then I will get on a plane to leave for Cairns, where I will spend my first week in Australia, getting aquatinted with new friends and my new home for the next four months. Then on the 11th I will again get on a plane and head to my true home for the next four months, the campus of Southern Cross University(SCU). At this point I will get my address, which I will then give to all of you. To my knowledge I will not be able to have an internet connection until I get to SCU, the only connection which I will have to home will be a short phone call I am given to home as soon as I land in Brisbane. So, the next time I will post, I WILL BE IN AUSTRALIA!!! I wish I could explain how happy/excited/nervous I am, but I don't think it is possible. This will be a tough adventure for me, I have yet to be away from my family and friends for this long, often I heavily rely on them to support me and help me through tough times, now I am on my own. I look forward to this adventure and know that despite the miles between us I will always have my family and friends close at heart.