4 Month Mark

I have been in Australia for 4 months as of yesterday.  The cars look like they are driving on the correct side of the road.  I don't feel self conscience about having an American accent.  I can barley notice the Aussie accent.  I eat at least one meat pie a week.  I drink a coffee a day.  And now I have to go back to America and get used to another way of life…again! I think the transition will be fairly easy, but it will be a change.  I am going to miss Australia's colored plastic money.  It looks like a monopoly bank every time someone opens a cash register; I love it.  When I am back in America I am going to be so confused with dollar bills and all green!!! Now that I solidly drove a manual car, in a busy city, on the wrong side of the road, Nart is going to seem so….American.  Driving him will be a piece of cake, once I remember that we drive on the right side of the road in America.  

Australia has been a lot of fun.  I am so glad that I did this and was lucky enough to have this opportunity.  I met so many great people in Tanunda and at St. Hallett.  And saying those goodbyes was the hardest thing of this trip.  At first I thought the hardest thing was saying bye to my family and friends before I even got here, but I was wrong.  The chances of me seeing all the people I have met here again are pretty small.  I will do my best to see them, but you never know.  Thankfully, that part is done.  I have said my goodbyes and I am so antsy to get to see everyone at home again! I don't think I realized how much I missed them until I realized how excited I was to see them.  

Rental Car

Yea, I rented a car. I have now one upped Will in the adult department. I even got a manual car to make things interesting, because driving on the left side of the road in a biggish city I am not familiar with is not challenging enough.  

I am an idiot and did not take a picture of the car, but it was a blue, 2 door Toyota Yaris.  I looked like a P.I.M.P. in it, and felt like a P.I.M.P. in it.  I got to shift all day long.  I was not perfect though.  I stalled a couple times and burned out the clutch a few times too…of course only when other people *cough* boys *cough* were in the car. I don't know why, but I get so nervous in a manual car when boys are there too. I feel that they know how to drive better than me so I freak out and do things like stall.  

My GPS slash phone in Australia

But, in the end I was able to return the car good as it came. No more or less dings in it than I started with.  

I shouldn't tell people this but I was also able to navigate my way from South Brisbane to the Airport by myself.  The challenging thing about this is that the car, as I mentioned earlier, was a manual and I was using my cell phone for it's GPS.  Shifting with one hand, holding the GPS in the other, steering with the other…wait.  I only have two hands.  It was talent.  

College Abroad…

It is the same as college at home.  People skip classes, go to classes, party on week days, hang out and do nothing, go out and do something…college.  Being with a bunch of college kids has made me miss college so much! On Tuesday we went to a place with half off waffles (I LOVE waffles).  On Wednesday we went to a place that had 25 cent chicken wings.  It is deals galore around college campuses! Also the Uni that Jason goes to has a bar on campus.  I wish we had that in college.  Lucky bastards.

We also went out on Wednesday night, like drinking out.  College students in all countries know how to party and basically all have the same drinking games.  Something new for me was to get to the bars we took public transit.  In SLO that never happened haha.  

Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise

SUNNY!! The weather has been shit for the past few days and luckily, the day we went to the beach is they day the sun decided to shine! I got a little color again to prepare for summer back in California.  

Brisbane

The "Fake Beach"

 Jason took Renee and I on a walking tour of Brisbane Tuesday.  He has been the BEST host, it is ridiculous.  He took time out of his day to show us the city.  We walked in South Bank, took a ferry, and walked around his uni, Queensland University of Technology.  The campus was awesome! Their library has an interactive touch screen thing in the middle.  There are computers for people to use everywhere in it too.  It made me want to study again.  Then we walked on Queens Street which is the main street of Brisbane.  He took us to this place that has amazing Kebabs.  Then we went to some museum.  Pretty typical museum, but definitely not a waste of time.  It was just an all around good solid day.  We joked about how this is practice for when his parents come to visit, so he benefited too.

Cool interactive screen

Brisbane