From "Cannot Swim" to "Wake Boarder"

Okay so maybe not so much a pro wake boarder but I am impressed with how much I have been facing my fear of water. The ladies and I are in Cairns, 2nd time for 3 of us. We chilled out yesterday and splt today. Amber, Erika, and I went wake boarding. Knee boarding at first (baby steps) then moved on up to pro wake boarding .... not sure if spending 4 hours face planting the water after standing for only 5 seconds every time counts as being pro... but I was well on my way. They did much better than I did. I was quite the persistant one, going up again every time I .... well failed. It was heaps of fun though, and I didnt panick in the water. Go Me !!!

When in PARADISE.....

Its frustrating trying to update on this blogger thing.... Oh not because I don't want to fill you in but because I seriously just don't have the words to describe what I am feeling at the moment. Anything I say no matter how much I emphasize No matter how many exclamation points I use No matter how many "sadjkfbwfiwufbfb" I type Its not enough. Not even the pictures. I am on Magnetic Island off the coast of Australia. Population of 2000 people Most of the island is national park with koalas just chilling with walabis and roos. I am staying at Base Backpackers which is on the beach.... Its my third day here. My second morning where I woke up, walked out of my room stretched looked to my right and " OH hey beautiful blue sky and gorgeous blue ocean" and to my left "Oh morning amazing view of green mountain tops". WHAT MORE COULD ANYONE WANT !!! Having my coffee and breaky while listening to awesome tunes and the sound of the waves splashing in the background. I am in love with life. Yesterday we rented scooters for the day and rode around the entire island. Sun on our backs, hair in the wind, riding across cliffs that give sights of beach and just plain beauty. Oh funny story- I got some air ... OFF MY BIKE. When I thought Julia was going to crash and I die I tried to like save her life unecessarily and ended up superman flying off the bike- so I had a scuffle with the ground..... TKO the ground won. Scrapes and bruises. It hurts more today than yesterday. The company we rented from noticed some damage and charged me for it. Yea sucks ...but why frown... did I mention I am in paradise?!!! Today we checked put but are sticking around because we have about 10hrs to kill until out next bus leaves for Cairns. No worries... no better place to kill time than somewhere as gorgeous as Maggie Island. Crazy thing is Base is having their Moonlight Party today which goes from 3pm- 7am. About 2000 + people come for this. It supoposed to be big deal. So there is no chance for us to actually chill out because its going to be a shit show here.... We'll see how that goes. P.S I am seriously considering coming back to Aus ... to live after Skid. Most likely small beach town. Work at like a backpackers or something; meet so many interesting people. Its a serious thought.

Oh thats just the sound of my skin sizzling.....

I will try to make this somewhat breif. But basically I am currently in the middle of the best 2 weeks of my life. Vacationing up the coast of Australia, best idea ever. So since last post we went on a day tour on Fraser Island, in the rain forest and such- yea rain forest on island made completely of sand. It was beautiful especially swimming in the fresh water lake- fresh enough to feel bathed once out- like can open your eyes under water without burning fresh. That night we took a 12 hour bus to Airley Beach which I enjoyed. Airley is another beach town which I liked better than Hervey. There isn't really a beach but the feel is there. First day we bummed out on the lagoon- the sun was there to finally keep us company. And off sailing the next day. RAINING !!!!!! It was raining the first day sailing. No worries. It was amazing. Rain caots over bikinis on a sail boat with rain pooring viciously on us- hail at one point- while the boat rocked dangerously on the water. Amazing. Unbelievable. So much fun. The crew was a blast, and the food was great. We went snorkeling once the rain calmed a bit. And by bed time it was nice enough out for us to just chat (there were a total of 20 people) and enjoy the sound of the water under the stars. The wearther was not too great the next day but no one cared it was all fun. We went for a hike and a swim on a gorgeous beach- white sand blue water- - btw I CAN SWIM ... thanks to Kelseys brief swimming lesson. And of course the skies eventually cleared and the sun must have been some kind of angry because we came off the boat burnt to a crisp. Im actaully approaching the point where I am worried for my health ... my body is a little over cooked. May have to stay away from the sun for a bit. Any how, that night we went out for some drinks. Hung out with the people who were on the boat and had an amazing time. We had no choice but to stay up because we had to catch a 2am bus up to Townsville. The bar was hosting games- one a relay race- I'll just say my "gazzele" like hops on tables won my crew heaps of free drinks as well as my limbo skills. What a great night. We made the 2 am bus and caught the ferry in townsville to magnetic island. Which is where I am now. Our backpackers is on the beach which is lovely. We had an early brekky overlooking the waves. How can this vacation get any better ??!!!!

HOLIDAYS

Yesterday morning we met at 350am to get going for our 6am flight to Brisbane::wait, round of applause for Tiger Airways - for no cancelations and no delays:: I dont remeber the flight... I was running on no sleep... though I did drift off and then my own open mouth snoring woke me up- yeaa... not attractive. Our excitment over powered how delusional we were from not sleeping when we exited the plan and noticed it was warm !! Cloudy ... but I'll take it. Melbourne has not seen many warm days thus far. A 25 minute train ride took us into the heart of the city where our hostel was located - Base Backpacker :: sound familiar Jason Pennington ?:: Other than the dim lighting and weird Barney colored ways Base was not half bad. May I add, they had an awesome deal on dinner. Still in desperate need of sleep we found the energy to explore the city. Brisbane has much more of a city feel to it than Melbourne- feels more bussiness city. We started our journey on South Bank which is where we saw a bit of an art gallery and ... ::deep breath:: the VALENTINO: Past, Present, and Future exhibit. Valentino dresses every where... need I say more ??? Wish they allowed photos :( On our way to the other side of the city we stopped by a book store ; Brisbane seemed to have a lot of books stores with really amazing sales on like crappy romantic novels. We alsop took a ton of pictures of just about anything and everything, Amber and I took it upon ourselves to satisfy our random urge to roll down a grassy hill in by the river. Don't ask. I Ccan't explain it myself. We walked to china town - Julia of course lead the way :P Unfortunately this China town was not as exciting as we were hoping. It was a bit ... umm, sketchy. Run down buildings, not many people. We made a short loop and bought some snacks at an Asian market. Julia introduced us to sesame cookies - WARNING very addictive. As a rest stop we enjoyed the cookies at a near by park. We were so exhausted, poor Erika was falling asleep everywhaere she got the chance. So it was about time we head back for a nap. Btw it wasn't even 5pm at this point. Nap- Dinner which was slightly interupted by a random guy who clearly had way too many drinks after work. That night the bar downstairs was having an international party.... the bar wsas called Down Under... Clever ay?! I feel like any place with such an unoriginal name gives itself away as a hotspot for tourists. It was a toga night so there were heaps of drunk foriegners with their blankets just draped over their shoulders. I helped this one confused bloke with his toga- don't think he liked my Valentino inspired halter design. It was not the busiest night at Down Under but we sure did make the best of it. I practiced my spanish with 2 Colombian exchange students who seemed very sweet. And we busted some dance moves with our two roommates Eva- Germany and Joong - Finland... no Denmark...or maybe it was Austria. Any way I found his "1 and 2 and 1 and 2" dance moves pretty amusing. He had a dance off with Amber of which he totally won with a cool spin move. Down Under also helled a Hard Man competition- sounds skecth doesn't it. Well three guys had to race to eat a cup of beans, do 10 pushups and sit ups, eat an entire onion, and down a jug of cola. It was as bad to watch as it sounds. The winner was fifty bucks richer :: Good on ya ! :: This morning checked out, went for breckie, and caught the greyhound for Hervey Bay. Not a bas bus ride- sure did get exciting when the driver played Cactus Jack lol. FACT- Men and women who are not related can not sit on the bus next to each other. It was a 5hour ride of which I was asleep for most of. Basically just drove past "the mid of no where" and "no man land". This one creepy town- Maryborough or something just had a lot of shacks for homes.... one of those creepy places that is especially creepy bc you get the sense no one has left the town ever in their life... Maybe I am over thinking it. Any way at Hervey Bay we were picked up by a guy from Nomads Backpackers whos long blonde hair and large upper body made him look a lot like a retired wrestler. FACT- Hervey Bay is the Whale watching capitol of the world, and the fastest growing city in Australia. Nomads is not too bad. Thought the bathrooms are not too .... ehhhh nice. And there are giant rats aka possums every where. Just climbing staring at everyone with that "hey feed me" look. There is also a bar where we played darts and giant jenga. And of course we went to the beack though it was dark. The sand felt like baby powder in between my toes. And though its dark you can tell the water is clear. We also saw sharks !!! ... well according to the receptionist it was most likley Dolphins but I think sharks is way cooler for story telling. So far, so amazing. Tomorrow we are doing a day tour of Fraser Island- largest sand island in the world... I think. Until the next time I find a computer.

CHEERS.

Spring Break in a place Down Under

I have never been as excited for a break as I am now... May be because I never actually planned anything for a break before... and if I had, probably still would not have been as awesome as a trip up the SUNSHINE COAST. I leave in a few hours. So no sleeping for me or else, I'll have four screaming girls outside my door because I overslept my alarm. As I mentioned, I am going with four of my girlfriends, awesome girls- Erika, Kelsey, Julia, and Amber. And the trip will go as follows. We first fly to Brisbane- stay over night; bus to Hervey Bay/ Fraser Island- day tours; Bus to Arlie Beach- 2 day sailing- excited but slightly freaked out..... water freaks me out (Me= bad bad swimmer). But she'll be right. Then bus to Magnetic Island- Beach bumming it ! and last but not least Cairns. All that in about 11 days. 11 of what will probably be the best days of my life thus far. Oh my word we are going to be burnt and tired when back home. Such a good thing we still have vacation days left when we arrive- just to get our selves together and possibly peel some of the sun burnt skin off our bodies.... ::Did I pack my sun screen?::

Because I have not yet learned how to travel into the future I have no pictures of my trip just yet, however here are some pictures I picked off line of some of the destinations we will hit. MMMM white sand, blue water.

CHEERS.

NEW PM !

17 Days after the polls were closed, Australia has found its new Prime Minister - and its not Tony Abott, PHEW ! Nice to know the majority of Australia thought twice before voting for a fundamental xian/sexist. Julia Gillard, time for "MOVING FORWARD".

Planning ....

Thank the flying spaghetti monster ... ITS FRIDAY. I think I just handed in what is the WORST piece of writing I have ever come up with. And it was for a psych class. Shame on me. I am so glad its Friday. And now I am planning spring break. So far I am thinking flight to Brisbane, back pack/ bus up Sun Shine Coast then flight to New Zealand South Island, Up to North Island, then back to Melbourne. How will I fit this all in two weeks.... We'll have to find out...... How much this is going to cast me ..... I really don't want to know.

TA