Road trip to Coffs Harbor

Hi all!
This weekend Kim, Amy, and I went up to Coffs Harbor which is one of our good friend's, Steven, hometown. It was around a 4 and a half hour drive. We arrived at his house which was adorable and only a 5 minute walk to the beach! Steven took us to a good pizza place for dinner and drove us around the town. We met up with one of Steven's good friends from high school, Matt. We decided to go bowling which I haven't done in ages, but it was heaps of fun. All of us walked down to the little playground by his house which was also right by the beach so I just had to go out and feel the water. It wasn't too bad. It smelt very oceany compared to some of the other beaches we have been to. It was off to bed for an early morning!

Kim had been ranting about this Big Banana since we got to Australia. She saw a clip from the Disney Channel of the little clips called "Pass the Plate". They did one on bananas and showed the Big Banana in it! Of course, Kim HAD to see it before we left. It was perfect that Steven just so happened to be from the same town as the banana. Upon arrive there were screams and squeals of excitement. Not going to lie, it was pretty cool. The Big Banana is one of the "big" things that Australia had to offer. After admiring the banana, and walking through it, us girls got a chocolate covered frozen banana! So good! It was a neat place. They had a bunch of different things to do like ice skating and a plantation tour since there was a banana plantation right behind the Big Banana! That ended the trip to The Big Banana!

Sadly, I felt sick right after that, so I had to rest at home. The rest of them hung out and went to the driving range and hit some golf balls! Thankfully, I was feeling better by dinner time. Steven's mom took us to one of the popular pubs for dinner. This place has the biggest meal of chicken schnitzel I have ever seen. Steven got it, and ate it all! We were all thoroughly impressed. Just our luck, that night at the pub, there was an Abba cover band playing. Let me tell you, one of the most funny things ever, but it was fun! We did some dancing with Steven's mom then it was off to the humble abode.

It was an early morning for Kim and Amy. They went to try and see the whales, but didn't succeed. Sadly, I still wasn't feeling 100% so I stayed in bed. It was then off to Newcastle again!

Pizza Place!

Bowling!

Oh Yes..The Big Banana!

The banana plants!

Steven's huge chicken schnitty!

Fabba...the cover band!

At the pub!

A weekend on the farm!

A group of the girls and I drove up to Laura's farm for a night this weekend. It was so pretty! There were tons of hills with cows and horses everywhere. There were even heaps of wild kangaroos everywhere! The drive was interesting. Usually in the US, there is a highway that will take you where you need to go with no stops really in smaller towns. On our drive, there wasn't really a highway. There were a few parts that the speed limit was higher, but then as soon as we hit a town it slowed down. I think we drove through at least 4 smaller towns on our way to Laura's. Wallabadah is the area that Laura's house is located, but the closest larger town is Tamworth. As we got closer to Laura's, you saw heaps of crops and huge open fields. Her house is so cute. I felt like I was in a country movie driving up the road to her house. It was all dirt and had a little fence out front of the entry. We passed the hay barn on the way up the her house which had a cute white fence with grass all around and a tennis court. Coco, her chocolate lab, was there to greet us, so fun to have a dog around to play with. Made me miss my Peanut!

We got our boots on and headed out in the ute to see the land. Fun fact: they call rain boots or work boots, gum boots. Laura drove us all over her family's land. The house and land were her grandparents, but her parents took it over. There were gates that kept the cattle in a certain paddock so one of us had to be the gate girl every time. Laura showed us her two cows that she raised from a baby calf, Speckles and Button. Apparently, they didn't like me much because they kept running away from me. :( We drove around some more of her land. It was absolutely gorgeous. We got some great photos! Laura's mom made her favorite meal for dinner, pesto and pasta. It was so amazing to finally have a home-cooked meal!

We were then off to our friend Angela's birthday party. She only lives about 25 minutes away. It was already dark and I was sitting shotgun in the car. Laura looked at me and said "Kylie, you are on kangaroo watch!" I was in shock! I have never heard of that in my life! It was pretty funny. But kangaroos are like rats or deer kind of a pest in the country. They eat the crops and jump out in front of cars. They apparently make huge dents in the cars. It was a moment I will not forget. The party was fun. It was outside with a bonfire and music. Everyone had a blast.

The next morning we had pancakes and bacon at Laura's. We went on a second adventure around the land. We got some hay and fed the cows! So cool! Her family was so nice. Her dad even made us a cappuccino for brekky! It was then back to TEDs. Such an awesome weekend! This coming weekend Kim, Amy, Grace, Steven and I will be heading to Coff's Harbor to visit Steven's house and family and to finally see the Big Banana! :D

Down the road from Laura's

Driving around the land!

Me with the cows!

Coco!

Riding in the back of the ute!

Angus- Emily- Me- Edgar

Us being cowgirls!

Me- Amy- Grace-Laura

Feeding the cows!

Amy and I being silly!

Gum boots!

Cows in the front yard!

Warmer weather is coming!

Kimmy, Grace, and I going for a night swim!

Since I got half of my summer chopped off by coming to Australia, I am excited to say that my Australian summer is starting to roll in. The whole Celsius instead of Fahrenheit is taking some getting used to, but when it's warm its warm and there is no need for a degrees. Just a bathing suit and the beach calling my name! haha TEDs has its own pool outside of it which is AWESOME!!! Friends and I always go out and lay out. Its so perfect. The past Friday night it was so hot that we went for a nice night swim, however the water wasn't as warm as we would have liked so we didn't stay in long. Saturday was a scorcher that's for sure. I got a tan just from about two hours of laying out. It was awesome. But I have been warned to always wear my sunscreen since the Ozone layer is either gone or very very thin so the UV rays are way stronger here than back home. An Aussie friend had told me that back home she goes outside to hang her laundry to dry and she will come back inside with a pink tint from the sun. How crazy is that?! Since it is getting warmer, the to do list is getting longer. I still have to learn how to surf! The girls and I have planned a trip up to the Gold Coast aka Surfers' Paradise for a few days. I think this would be the perfect time to do so. I will keep you all updated. In the mean time, I will be doing heaps of school work. I will officially be done with classes and assignments in two weeks! It's definitely a shocker! I will have three weeks off to travel around after that and then November 27th I will be on a flight back to the US of A. How fast time flies...?!

Performance Night!

At TEDs each year, there are heaps of events that occur between the four colleges. They have sports, art shows, debates, speeches, and performance. Each college has students sign up for these events in things that they are good at. I was only here for the art show, sports, and the performance night. The rest of the events were last semester. The other week was performance night. There were so many great talented performances done, including two of my good friends; Angela and Jimmy. Angela played the flute and Jimmy played the guitar. At the end, all of the awards were given out and TEDs won two of the big awards. It was a proud moment for us. It's so cool to see how other school do this kind of thing. Back home it would be more between the sororities and fraternities to do this type of competition. Anyways, here are photos of Angela and Jimmy performing.

Jimmy playing the guitar!

Angela playing the flute!

Visit to the Library plus some classes!

Hi!

The Auchmuty Library

Me reading our large history book!

So this past week was hectic with heaps of homework and assignments to be turned in. Kim and I are in the same history class, HIST 1052 aka Australia and the World. We had a paper due so we decided to head to the library. I'm not a huge fan of it. It kind of creeps me out for some reason. However, we needed to check out a few books for the essay. Before we could get serious, I had to document the trip.

Drinking my Long Black

Kim being silly!

The supplies

 

 

Since I haven't told you about classes yet... here it goes! I am in four classes: CMNS 3310- Communication, Creativity, and Cultural Production, CMNS 3510- Advanced Public Relations, HIST 1052- Australia and the World, and FMCS 3100, Digital Culture. Each class has a lecture period for an hour a week. They also have a tutorial section for either 1 hour or 2 hours depending on the class once a week.

 

On Mondays, I have my history class. The lecture is from 12-1pm and the tutorial is from 3-4pm. The teacher was not my favorite. I couldn't understand him at times with his accent and how fast he talked. The lecture was pretty much like class back home with him working off of a PowerPoint. The tutorials were a bit different. I've never had a tutorial type of class so it was interesting being in one. For history each student was required to start the class discussion a week of the semester based on questions he gave us. That wasn't always the most fun part. Our teacher was very picky on the information and since there were a decent amount of international students in the class, he picked on us every time there was something about our country. So needless to say Kim and I got picked on a lot to talk about the United States history, which I haven't taken in years!! He did make us feel like he wasn't the biggest fan of America so Kim and I tried to keep quiet during tutorial time. Eeek!

 

On Tuesdays, I have NO class! haha It is really nice not having class one day during the middle of the week. I would usually catch up on homework or Kim and I would roam around Newcastle so that we could get off campus.

 

On Wednesdays, I just have my Creativity lecture for one hour 12-1pm. The lecture set up is the same as history just a PowerPoint with highlighted points. Our teacher for this class is very monotone and hard to pay attention to. On the bright side, I met an older woman on the first day of class that helped me out a lot with things around campus and such. She also showed me where the best chi lattes are....and yes they are the best!

 

On Thursdays, I have my Advanced Public Relations lecture at 8am which is a pain. However, the school has a program that records the lectures with the PowerPoint that they put onto the Blackboard site. I usually watch that later on in the day before the tutorial. I have my creativity tutorial at 9am for two hours. This class is usually pretty interesting since we talk about things that I can relate to like blogging, TV shows, websites, and art. The tutorial teacher is a sweat heart too. She's very nice and has helped out a lot also. After that tutorial, I have a four hour break to get lunch, watch my PR lecture, and prepare for the next tutorial for the day. At 3pm, I have my advanced PR tutorial. I like this class and the people in it. They were all very welcoming of me being international and all. They loved to hear about the different TV shows and such like Keeping up the the Kardashians. The girls in the class are obsessed with it. The teacher for this class is a bit odd. He definitely knows his public relations, but is an interesting character to say the least, but still a good class.

 

On Fridays, I am free to do what I want. I have no class, but I usually do my digital culture class which is online. Every week, we were responsible to read through the lecture and the readings assigned then post about them online. This class was fun to participate in. It was all about Facebook, blogging, Youtube, and a bunch more online things that people use everyday so it was really easy to connect with. I would tell you about the teacher, but I've only ever received emails from her. ha She seems nice though.

 

That is the basic week in the life of Kylie here at the University of Australia. Stay tuned for some more information! :D 

Oh Newcastle...

We traveled all day and arrived in Newcastle in the late afternoon. We checked in and I headed to Uni to drop some things off plus Marli wanted to check it out a bit. As weird as this sounds, I was "TEDs" sick. Definitely missed my friends here while on holidays. We had some dinner at the hotel and hit the hay. It was another early morning. We traveled to the Hunter Wine Valley for a vineyard tour. There are over 100 vineyards at the Hunter. We experienced 5 of them plus a cheese shop and a chocolate shop. I have never been the biggest fan of wine and I can still say that I am still not the biggest fan of wine. My mom and grandma got a kick out my facial expressions every time I tried a red wine. The bitterness got to me a bit. It was a beautiful place though. We even saw some wild kangaroos around the area. We stopped at a brewery for lunch. We had some lunch entertainment of a didgeridoo player and some Aboriginal dancers. Oh and I was able to try some beers while there. Everyone brought home a favorite wine! Marli was in heaven. She loves wine! We headed home for a night out with my friends at the dorms. I wanted to show Marli what the night life was like here. We had a blast and danced the night away.

The next two days we walked around Newcastle. I took them to Nobby's Beach and Newcastle Beach along with the Newcastle Baths. They loved the beaches. I showed them the popular places that we go for lunch and to hang out. We did some shopping and I took them to the girl's favorite restaurant on Darby Street, Zinc. I took them to campus. They thought my dorm was very cute. They were shocked that our dorm had a pool! They also enjoyed the campus. My mom brought some American goodies for my friends so I gave those to them as well. My friends were so excited to meet my family. Oh one night we went out to dinner, I tried an oyster for the first time. It was definitely my last time having one also! I wanted to be adventurous! We celebrated the last night with some bubbly! Then they finally headed back to head back to Sydney to catch their flight back home.

It was a great vacation. I was so happy to see them and enjoyed showing them my home for the semester. It's crazy to think that I have been here 3 months already! I only have 6 weeks left. Ahhhh!!
Until next time! :D

Trying some beers!

Aboriginal dancers at lunch



Mom and I at one of the Vineyards

The girls at the first vineyard

Marli and I on the tour

My oyster..ick!

Mom and I on campus

Celebrating the last night with some bubbly!

Island Paradise and the Coral Sea!

From Cairns, we took a ferry over to Fitzroy Island. It was an hour trip through the ocean. It was such a pretty ride. This island has one resort on it and that is it! It is the perfect secluded get away vacation. We checked into our rooms which were awesome except for the fact that the bathroom had one very small light that still didn't make the bathroom bright. It was like a cave. It was pretty funny. We got some lunch then explored the island a bit. There were a few trails that you could walk. We only did the short ones though that led us to a secret garden and another that took us to Nudey Beach. Don't worry, it wasn't actually a nude beach, but it was beautiful! All of the beaches on the island were coral beaches. There were only a few patches of sand. It was one of the neatest things I've ever seen. The water was clear blue and pretty warm. I got a few good swims in. There were paddle boards and kayakes to rents, but we all just laid by the beach or pool and sun bathed. It was kind of rainy on and off the whole time we were there so we had to plan accordingly. We splurged and got pina coladas laying by the pool one day which was fantastic!

The last day on the island, we woke up early and went on an excursion out to the Great Barrier Reef! The water was extremely choppy, but we made it though. What was neat about the trip was if you wanted to scuba dive for the first time and didn't have any training, you could! Yes people, I went scuba diving for the first time at the Great Barrier Reef! Definitely one of the coolest things I have ever done. I saw so many neat things like a huge clam, tons of sea cucumbers, and tons of colorful fish! I even found Nemo! If I could have, my jaw would have been dropped. But then it would have filled with water...not good! We headed back to Cairns! Marli and I hit the town for drink with some friends we made on the boat! Then it's off to Newcastle in the morning!

Marli and I

Our resort on Fitzroy!

Marli and I being silly

Secret Garden hike!

Coral Beach

Out at Nudey Beach

Going snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef

Heading back to Cairns

Our friend Sam from the boat!

Marli and I about to head out to the reef

Me right before my first dive!

Welcome to Cairns!

And it was off to Cairns we go. Fun fact: It is pronounced Cans, not how it is spelt. It was a short 3 hour flight. The way that they board the plans is so cool. You don't have to go through the little tunnel. You get to walk outside and go up the stairs. Marli and I were fascinated by it. When we got to Cairns, we had some lunch at the hotel and went exploring. It was way hotter than Sydney and humid which was not the most fun thing to deal with, but we got used to it by the end. Our hotel was right on the Esplanade, the walkway to all of the shops and restaurants. We also were right on the mud lands. There were heaps of signs warning people not to go in. I mean it was gross mud so I don't know why anyone would want to go in, but they warn you because of the crocodiles.

Mom and Grandma were on their own for dinner. Marli and I met up with one of Marli's friends who was an exchange student at NAU. He took us to Barnacle Bills. It was delicious. I had the taste of Australia. It was a plate of crocodile, kangaroo, and barramundi, it's fish. It was awesome meeting him and Marli really enjoyed catching up. He told us of some fun places to go while relaxing earlier in the day. So Marli and I went to this bar called the Pier Bar. I had totally forgot it was the rugby finals too. It was insane, but so much fun! Watching rugby is way more insane and crazy than any NFL game I've ever watched. The rugby finals were more intense than the Superbowl!! I love it! I am officially obsessed.

The next day Adam, Marli's friend recommended that we sign up to do the Kuranda tour. It was a beautiful train ride up to the little village. We passed water falls and neat rock formations. We made our first stop at a butterfly aviary. It was so cool. There were butterflies every where and I'm not going to lie, I was a bit freaked out that they were flying all over the place and almost hitting me in the face. A bug is a bug even if it is pretty. ha Marli and I had to dodge a few. We had a guided tour that taught us all about how caterpillars turn into butterflies and different characteristics of butterflies. The next stop was lunch at another park called Rain Forest Station Nature Park. We then went on an Army duck! It is a vehicle that can rove on land and cruise around on the water. They were made back in the day for war to transport different materials to and from the ships out in the water. We took this in the rain forest and had our tour guide Moz teach us about some nice plans like orchids and some bad ones like a stinging tree that stings you and the pain and effects can last up to 6 months! Moz had been stung 5 times! It was then time for the Aboriginal dancing. They did a variety of dances for us. Some including: The Welcome, Mosquito Dance, Warning Dance, The Silent Snake, Sugar Bag, The Cassowary Dance, and the Shake-a-Leg dance. They asked for volunteers to do the last dance, but I got too nervous to go on stage. The Aboriginal people showed us some things after their performance like different leaves in the rain forest that they use for everyday things. We learned how to throw a boomerang which is harder than it looks! He taught us how to play the didgeridoo and how to throw spears. I felt like I was a part of the land. :D It was awesome! The best part was last! The wildlife part of the park! EEEEKKKK! I love animals! They had kangaroos hopping around that we could go pet. They had all of the main Australian animals. They even had "Jack the Ripper". He is a HUGE salt water crocodile that many different places tried to get to breed but he ended up killing all of his mates hence the name. The dingoes are so cute, but they are vicious. I love the kangaroos. They let me go right up to them and pet them. I want to adopt one and bring it home with me! We even saw a mother and her joey in the mom's pouch and out of the pouch. Last but certainly not least, We saw the koalas and GOT TO HOLD ONE!!!!!!!! They were like little babies that just hung onto you! Oh my!! Soo cute!! We took the Sky rail back down the mountain. We were on top of the rain forest instead of in it. The top of it is like a ceiling because of all of the trees. The rain forest is an awesome thing! It was back to Cairns for a fun night out with my American friends that spent their holidays there too. It was so fun. It was off to Fitzroy Island in the morning.

Walking to the plane!

Our Hotel in Cairns

Pier Bar for the footy

Marli and Adam

Train ride to Kuranda

Waterfall

Army duck

Aboriginal Dancers

Jack the Ripper

Holding a koala!

Skyrail!