What to do?

"Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today."

Me and Ryan have been watching a lot of Doctor Who lately and Martha said this in one of the episodes. It seems particularly relevant to a year abroad as pretty much if I don't do everything now, I don't know when or if I will be able to. Who knows when I will be back in Australia? It's getting closer and closer to home time so I'm starting to feel like I should be putting extra effort into living in Australia. It's difficult to know what to do though.

Last night we went to fireworks at South Bank to celebrate Buddah's birthday. They were actually pretty amazing. There was only 1 boat in the river setting fireworks off but they went on for so long and there were even fireworks which bounced off the water. Something which surely should not be possible! Apart from the lack of a burning bridge and fireworks coming off the top of buildings I would see that the fireworks were just as good as Riverfire, if not better. But this may just have been because it was so much quieter and I could actually see everything that was going on. I absolutely love fireworks. I am very excited for bonfire night when I come home -it did feel a little odd not to be cold as I watched the sky explode. Edinburgh is definitely going to make up for that though...

It's started getting chillie in the nights here...but really it should not be at all. It is making me scared for winter at home or ULTIMATE WINTER as me and Ryan have come to call it. I'm feeling a bit nervous. I am looking forward to winter clothing though. I went shopping yesterday and tried on the nicest red duffle coat. Obviously it wouldn't be suitable for winter at home but it started to make me a little excited about jumpers and coats and wooly tights! Which is strange as everyone at home is looking forward to summer but I think summer at home is going to be more like winter for me....

Love
C xx

Exams :(

I am feeling so bored of revision already and I still have 9 more days to go until it's all over! I had my first exam yesterday. It was 3 hours long with 8 essay questions on Microbes and Human Health. I think it went okay as half of the questions were exactly the same as the ones in past papers. 3 hours is a long time for an exam though -especially on a saturday! My other exams are this tuesday and the tuesday after and are only 1h30. But they are at 5.45pm -what a weird time. It seems so strange that firstly I had an exam on a Saturday and now I have evening exams to do. Very odd. We also get 10mins perusal time here which is different from at home.

So lately I havn't really been doing anything fun. I even forgot to go to the RSPCA on friday. I felt so awful but I was only really thinking about revision. I seem to have no idea what day it is now either -an exam on a Saturday has confused me! On wednesday it was Louisa's birthday though so we had drinks at home and then went to South Bank for some night swimming. It was really fun -not sure why we don't do that all the time really. I hid Guy's clothes in the bushes and he started to think that he hadn't actually brought any -rather amusing. We made her a chocolate cola cake which was yummy -didn't really taste like coke but was extremely moist.

Other than that I went to a few halloween parties last weekend. It was fun to dress up. Although the Australian's don't seem to really go for it as much. Me and Guy were getting the bus to a party and he had fake blood dripping from his head and I had a bloody bolt in my chest and the bus driver didn't want Guy to get on because he was bleeding and she thought he was going to be trouble! She didn't even know it was halloween. She let us on when she saw that mine was obviously fake though. We got to the party though and noone else was dressed up scarily. They were all dressed up randomly like people from Jersey Shore, "Canada", christmas etc... It was mostly American's there and really contrasted a party we'd been to a couple of nights before where it was mostly English people and everyone was dressed up scary. That was a fun night although it got shut down by the place. We ended up going back to some of the other girls house and jumping in the pool. But then had a long, cold walk home.

Ooh and I went to the zoo again but this time with my Biol2001 class. It was pretty good as we had talks from some of the keepers which they brought the animals along too. There was a koala, baby Tasmanian devils, a macaw (which was flying right over my head between the keepers -I felt like he was going to crash into me so kept on having to duck!), 2 baby Tasmanian devils and a baby alligator which I held! I've got some pics but havn't uploaded any later so will update these last 2 blogs with those at some point. I also stroked an echidna and saw a baby wombat! I fed the kangaroos and the elephants again as well. I really love this zoo!

Anyway, I suppose I really should do some revison. I have absolutely nothing exciting planned until after exams so it's going to be a boring 10 days! When I'm done will hopefully be going to Noosa for a few days and working a bit to try and make some money for travels before leaving on the 26th! Only 19 days to go before Cairns!!

Lots of love

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This and that

So I haven't blogged for a while but I'm also not really sure what I've been doing. One thing that I am very excited about is that I'm going to start volunteering at the RSPCA. I'm going for training on saturday and then will start going every friday. I have to do a couple of hours of admin work, but then I got to do dog walking and animal enrichment activities. I really miss Lexie and Moss so it will be good to work with the dogs :D

Other than that I have been mostly working these last few weeks. My job is getting pretty tedious but at least I should be doing some fun things with the money over summer. I will hopefully be going whale watching in Surfer's Paradise this weekend. And then on monday I'll be going on my field trip to Fraser Island with my Australia's Terrestrial Environment course. It's crazy that it's midsemester already though! I don't feel like I've been here all that long, but at the same time when I think about arriving here that seems like a world away.

Ryan has moved into his own place and got a job where I'm working now. He's going training for it today so should be starting pretty soon. We've been vaguely starting to make travel plans. So far we are thinking that we will go straight to Ayre's rock when exams are over, then possibly visit Alice Springs as well. Then we're going to fly up to either Darwin or Cairns where Ryan will buy a campervan and then we're going to travel all the way down the East Coast. We've heard it may not be worth going to Darwin and I can't seem to find any flights to there from Ayre's rock either so it's looking like we might be starting in Cairns. Which is meant to be amazing for backpackers and it's right by the Great Barrier Reef -so I think I'm going to get my scuba diving certificate there. You can do courses where you live in on the boats which sounds like so much fun! I've always wanted to go on a boat holiday :).

Anyways, things that I have actually been doing...

At the beginning of September the Brisbane festival started. This is not at all like the Edinburgh festival. Everything is expensive so I haven't actually been to any of the events. The opening was pretty amazing though. It's called Riverfire and it starts with a fighter jet zooming between along the river with a glowing ball of fire shooting out the back of it. It was really cool -looked a bit like the sun. Then the river lit up with fire along it (this wasn't actually on the water, there were platforms along the river) and the fireworks started it. But they didn't just come off the river, they were coming off the tops of all the skyscrapers on the other side of the river (we were at South Bank). Then the bridge lit up with a waterfall of sparks. It was all really pretty. It finished with the jet coming back through. I am a big fan of fireworks so this was pretty amazing, especially with the jet. And it was free :).

So the next week I had my fieldtrip to Lamington Park. This involved a 12km trek in the rain. It wasn't a great day. It was pretty much the same as Brisbane Forest Park, except we got to see some heathland as well. There's supposed to be really good views from there but it was so misty that you couldn't actually see anything at all.

Me at Lamington with a big uprooted tree.

The next day I was going on a trip with QUEST to Springbrook -which is pretty much right by Lamington so I was feeling pretty concerned. This actually turned out to be really good though. The sun was out and everyone was much happier. We went to 'best of all lookout' where you can see all the way to Byron Bay. Then we headed to the 'Forest of dreams' where we saw glow worms and fed parrots.

Feeding a parrot!!

We then went to a waterfall where some crazy people went swimming. I was considering it until I heard the horrible screaming noises everyone was making when they got in.

Me from behind the waterfall -slightly damp!

After spending some time there we headed over to this place called Natural Bridge. It's hard to explain but is basically water going through a hole into a cave and somehow this is a bridge... It was pretty too and we even saw some glow worms in there natural habitat. After that we headed home.

Me and Louisa them met up with Guy and Ryan for dinner at a Turkish restaurant. I discovered that I do not like Turkish food. For some reason I thought it would taste like Moroccan food so was massively disappointed. There was a belly dancer though, although she did not roll her belly which we found odd.

Last week we went to QUEST's film night where we saw a pretty odd Australian film called Priscilla Queen of the Desert. It was about transvestites travelling to Alice Springs to put on some shows. Was surprisingly good. We then headed to RE which is a pretty cool bar in Toowong with live music. Was pretty dead by 11.30pm though -people seem to head out and go home earlier in Australia.

This weekend me and Ryan went to Wet and Wild -a water park at the Gold Coast. I bought my first rash vest for it! It's very nice -blue, stripey roxy tee :). However ended up not wearing it as wasn't allowed it on some of the ride. Ryan, Guy and Rich had been the week before but I had been working. But Ryan loved it so made me go even though it was cloudy. It was fun though although they have a ridiculously scary water slide. You go up to the top where the slide is unlocked for you to get in. You get in and are standing up with your back against the vertical slide. You are locked in and then there is a countdown before the floor drops out from beneath you and you fall down at ridiculous speeds. It was so scary that I couldn't even scream! Horrible ride. After falling down you do a loop the loop which you can't even notice due to going so fast. At least it was over quickly. The other rides were much nicer. I especially enjoyed the Kamikaze which involves a 2 seater rubber ring, which you sit in facing each other. It's a bit like a half tube or something. You drop off one side and then go up the other and then again until you slow to a stop. I got straight back on this one it was so good. The rest of the slides were all pretty mellow. It seemed that most of the rides there were either too scary or not scary enough.

So that's about all I've been up to -it seems that I may have done more than I thought.

Love you and miss you xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Byron Bay

So last weekend I went to Byron Bay with QUEST (exchange students society). So far it's my fave place in Australia -had such a good weekend there! Unfortunately my camera was being ridiculous so I don't actually have any pics though.

The journey there was pretty weird. Our driver seemed to have no idea what he was doing. First he forgot his log book -whatever that is -so we had to wait around for like an hour before we could even leave and then he got us lost and going round in circles! On the way we stopped off at Mount Warning, for a trek in the jungle. But we didn't have time to go all the way up so it did seem a little pointless. Saw a HUGE snake though, literally a few metres long. It was a tree python hanging down in one of the trees right by the path. A couple of people tried to touch it and it got a wee bit annoyed and they screamed. We also stopped off at Nimbin which is a hippy drugs town. I didn't like it there though, it was just a bit wierd and old looking.

So we finally arrived at our hostel after getting lost a couple more times. We were in an 8 bed room with a few people we knew and their friends. It was such a nice hostel -really clean and modern and big, there's even a hot tub. I think it was called Nomads -in case anyone finds themselves in Byron Bay. We then had a BBQ on the hostel terrace and I've realised that I may actually like steak! So we went out that night, started at a bar that the hostel had given us wristbands bands for but left pretty quickly and ended up in a place called Cheeky Monkeys. I was a big fan of cheeky monkeys. The dance floor was actually tables during the evening, then at
night everyone just climbs up on them to dance! And they were playing some incredibly cheesie music -I think 5ive was the highlight!

The next day was spent chilling on the beach and eating the best burrito you could imagine - Best burritos in Swindon has nothing on it! Also spent some time in the hostel hot tub and then headed back to the beach to watch the sunset by a hippy drum circle! That night everyone was heading out for a meal at the other hostel where the rest of our group was staying. It was in an actually brewery where they only sell their own beer. Took so long for some of our table to get served though, it was pretty ridiculous! Met some very nice people that night, then heading on out from the meal to Cheeky monkeys once again. That night there was a male stripping competition, it was pretty weird, especially when a drunk girl jumped up on the stage and pulled her dress off. Good night though, had some yummy alcohol slushies. At the end of the night me and Louisa embarked on the longest search for pizza. I thought it would be a good idea to ask someone so asked a guy on a bench where I could get pizza. He didn't know. Then as we were going past him he asked Louisa if she knew where he could get pizza. Very funny! He was very nice though and then insisted on proving that he was from Chile by showing us his id before he wandered off beachwards. We eventually found pizza and it was delicious!

Next day we decided we'd better go to the lighthouse at Cape Byron. It's the most Easterly point of mainland Australia. Had to go up so, so many steps to get there though. That wasn't lovely. The view was though. We even think we saw some whale splashes!!

Up by the lighthouse.

I really, really loved it there and the 2 days we spent there was not enough at all. It's so chilled there and so much prettier than the Gold Coast or Brisbane! I will definately be going back. Hopefully this month, while it's still whale season, as I want to go on a kayak tour to see whales and BABY DOLPHINS!

This week hasn't been so fun as I worked most of this weekend and have had an exam today so had to revise for that. Saturday night was riverfire though. It was really cool. It's a big firework display on the river. It started off with fighter jets with huge flame tails flying along the river. They were amazing! The ball of fire looked like the sun was out at night! The fireworks were really good, they had them coming off the river and all the skyscrapers as well! The bridge was made into a sort of waterfall of sparks as well and there was fire on the river. It was all so pretty! It marks the begining of the Brisbane festival. Most things that are on seem pretty expensive though, but at least riverfire was free :).

This week I've got a fieldtrip to Lamington National Park and then a QUEST trip to the Gold Coast Hinterland -so I should have more to tell you about soon.

Lots of love

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