June Photographs

Photos:

Sorry there are tons!!

#1- So sunny on the boat!

#2- Sunrise

#3- Whitehaven Beach --> The #1 Beach in the WORLD

#4- Sunrise over the islands

#5- Jason and I in our Titanic Pose

#6- The crewmen throwing meat at the eagles

#7- Soldier crab

#8- Samurai (Our sailboat!!)

#9- Sailing the islands

#10- Sunset on the ocean

#11-Pirate Ship

#12- Posing by the sunset

#13- Me and the boys (Jason, Me, Tom, Joe)

#14- The Whitehaven Lookout

#15- Jumping off the boat

#16- Jaime and I

#17- Me and a HUGE piece of coral

#18- HI MOM!!

#19- The AFL Game--> Brisbane Lions

#20- Violette (French girl) and Daniella (German girl) on the boat

#21- Sunset with tons of different colors

#22- Jason and I at the #1 beach in the world!

#23- Theresa and I at the Brisbane Lions Game

#24- GABBA Stadium

Love you all!! <3

Whitsundays

Just had the best week of my life. Eventhough it was study week...who honestly studies in Australia! haha. My friend Jason and I decided to head up north to Airlie Beach Australia. We took part in a 3 day sailing trip visiting the 74 islands that comprise the Whitsunday Islands. The boat was incredible. It was a racing sailboat used years ago called the Samurai. There were 20 of us all together on the boat including the crewmen. It is honestly so hard to put into words how beautiful this place truly was. Living aboard a sailboat for the past week has made me want to own a boat, live on a boat for the rest of my life and never leave the sunny lifestyle of Aussieland. Here's the details of my week:

Meet Team Samurai

Our crewmen consisted of a skipper named Maddy, a cook named Daniel and a scuba instructor named Greg. They were ridiculous but so much fun. All in their late 20's we had a rather awesome experience with them. They definitely knew how to have fun and show us a good time as well as beautiful islands. I also was blessed enough to meet some extraordinary people on my boat. Tom and Joe were two British boys we met. Honestly the four of us became best pals on the trip. It was like our only little gang of goofballs. I loved them. We became so close that they are already planning a trip down to see us in Brisbane this upcoming weekend. Woot Woot. Another girl I met was Jaime from Ireland. She's 24 and is working on becoming a lawyer (smarty). She was so fun and we plan on staying in touch in the future as well. Some other people included a couple from France, a couple from Ireland, 4 girls from Germany and a guy from Canada. We all got along so well. I couldn't have asked for a better group of people.

Whitehaven Beach

We were able to travel to one of the top and prettiest beaches in the entire world. It was called Whitehaven beach and it was truly magical. The sand was so fine they told us all to take off any jewelry we had and rub it into the sand for a few minutes and it would be like it was brand new. It was incredible how shiney the jewelry was after doing this. The sand was so fine that when you walked on it, it made this squeaky noise underneath your feet. It was so fun. In the sand there were also TONS of soldier crabs. At first we only saw a couple and after you adjusted your eyes to the sand you saw that they traveled in armies! They were EVERYWHERE. They were so pretty too because they had blue colored shells. We had a great time running after them and picking them up. When we were walking in the water along the bay we saw HUGE stingray as well. Honestly these stingray were MASSIVE but so pretty to watch glide in the water. After we goofed around on the water for awhile we headed up to the lookout point. The lookout was magnificent. It allowed you to lookout over the whole beach and it was like looking at a postcard. Some of the prettiest pictures I've ever taken (are to follow). I wish everyone could experience this gorgeous place. So cool!

Scuba Diving/Snorkeling

We also had the opportunity to scuba dive/snorkel. The Whitsundays is located in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef. The coral we saw was SOOOO COLORFUL. It was as if I was looking at a rainbow. The fish were so cool too. They came right up to my mask...not scared of you at all. This one fish we saw was named Elvis and he was the size of Brandy! No Joke! Biggest fish ever! It was so cool to see him up close and personal. I also got to see stingrays and squid! Had such a great time doing this!

Sunset & Sunrise

The sunset and sunrise on the Samurai were breathtaking to say the least. I never knew the sky could look so magical. The colors were incredible and I got to view it all from a SAILBOAT, how cool is that! I have tons of pictures so don't worry. The stars at night were also SO BRIGHT. The crewmen were pointing out the constellations and it was so cool to see so many stars in one setting.

Eagles

Our last night the crewmen anchored the boat down and for 30 minutes started throwing pieces of meat up at 3 different eagles circling our boat. The eagles would come soo close to us and literally swoop down to grab the meat. IT WAS SOO COOL.

All in all, one of the best trips I've been to in Australia. If I could bring my family anywhere in Australia, the Whitsunday Islands would be the place. It was INCREDIBLE and a great way to end my trips in Australia. Woot Woot!

Love you all.

Brisbane Lions

So went to my first Rugby Game saturday night. It was soo cool. The stadium was HUGE and I felt like I was at home at a football game. There were soo many people there. The stats said that 33,000 people attended the game! The Aussies seriously get so into it! The cheering, yelling and chants they do are INSANE. I had such a great time! The game was between the Brisbane Lions (woot woot) and Carlton (they are from New South Wales). We had super good seats too. We were really high up but it was better because we could see the whole field from up there. I really think I like rugby better than American football. It's much more intense and the game is continuous, they don't stop to set up another play. It's almost like soccer but they can use their hands and tackle the crap out of eachother. They have to be in such good shape! Of course we get seats right behind a family of Carlton fans...but don't you worry we made ourselves known and cheered extra loud whenever Brisbane scored! All in all had a great time though. I'm really glad I went and it was a great way to see the Australian culture. Once a Brisbane Lions fan, always a Brisbane Lions fan! :)

I'm a local

Awesome story.

I was able to skype my little cousins (Olivia and Leah) and neighbor (Amber) today which was awesome!
The other great part about my day was I was on campus today and these two women come up to me and ask me where they can get a nice sandwich on campus. Very politely I escorted them to my favorite restaurant on campus...The Co-Op Bookshop Cafe...on our walk they asked me questions about Brisbane and such and I felt so cool that I could answer them all. When we finally reached our destination...they said and I quote..."Thanks, it's so nice for the LOCALS to show us around"...they called me a LOCAL...haha I'm an Australian local...woot woot! haha. It made me happy and I feel cool.

Great day.

Live in the moment

One month left.

I cannot believe how quickly time has gone by. I cannot believe school is done in a week. 1 week until I go to the Whitsundays. 2 weeks until finals. 3 weeks until Mom and Jen get here. 4 weeks until I'm home in the States. It's crazy. I wish time could just slow down a little bit. Ahh.

"Trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be."

I'm living in the moment for the next 4 weeks!
With love.

Sydney Pictures

Pics-->

1. Sydney Opera House. So pretty. I've dreamed about seeing this FOREVER. Someone was getting married inside when Pat and I went in. So cool.

2. Sydney Harbour Bridge. When Pat and I were walking around we could see people climbing on top of the bridge. I want to come back to Sydney one day and climb it!

3. Me and Pat. We spent the day in downtown Sydney. So much fun!

4. The girls. Jess, Liz and I. Love them.

5. Me gazing at the Sydney Harbour Bridge at sunset. Beautiful.

6. Funny sign I found while wandering Pat's campus. haha.

7. Darling Harbour (Where the Real World Sydney was filmed!) Cute little place.

8. Coogee Beach. 2 minutes from Pat's apartment. We could see it from his balcony. Great view!

Love you all. <3

Sydney and other things...

Yo.

Sorry it's taken me soooooooo long to update my blog. I had a pretty rough week with schoolwork. I had a HUGE paper due in my history class and my final for my marine environment class. If you couldn't already guess, I spent a GREAT DEAL of time in the library this week. While you may think this was boring of course us kids here in Brizzy made the most of it. I haven't laughed so much in so long. Kim, Sean, Mel and I have been spending EVERY SECOND together and it's been all fun and good times. We can make eachother laugh at ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. I was laughing so hard in the library the other day that it made my stomach hurt. Don't worry though. I got my work done. About two weeks ago (I know it seems like FOREVER ago) I went to visit my friend Pat O'Reily in Sydney!! I've never flown by myself on a plane so that was a first! I actually got around the airport and terminals quite easily (haha unlike on family vacas when at least one person gets stopped in the security check). Pat is a friend from U of I. I was soo excited to see him. I haven't been around many friends from home in awhile and it was nice to see and be surrounded by a familiar face. Pat lived on my floor freshman year in the dorms and he is also a part of the fraternity my sorority spends a lot of time with. If you couldn't already guess...We had a good time! We went bowling, had bbqs, spent time on the beach and I met all of his awesome friends!! He doesn't live quite in the city of Sydney but a few miles off in a town called Coogee Bay. It's such a cute little town! I really enjoyed myself. His friends were all super nice as well...very welcoming and fun to hangout with. We all had some good nights and memories together. Crazy thing is that one girl who I became super close with named Jess actually is from Chicago. She went to grammar school with one of my really close guy friends from U of I...in saying that...we plan to hangout A LOT when we get back home. I'm super excited to get back together with everyone I've met. Reunions will be so awesome. Pat's other friends went to University of Michigan and University of Wisconsin so we plan on making trips up there as well. :) The best part about the trip to Sydney was the day Pat and I spent downtown. He took me to Darling Harbour (where Real World Sydney was filmed), the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House! It was BEAUTIFUL! I've always dreamed of visitng these places, so it made the day that much more special. We had a good day together...taking pics, being dorks and eating some good food. It was great! Pat also took me to see his campus one day. He goes to the University of New South Wales. It's a very nice campus...very retro...and very different from my campus. I'm not gonna lie..I like my campus better hehe. After the weekend in Coogee, I'm so very happy I made the choice to study in Brisbane. I just feel like I fit so much more in the Brizzy atmosphere than the up-paced Sydney lifestyle. Good job amanda! haha. The coolest part about Pat's location though was how close he was to the beach. You could LITERALLY see the Coogee Beach from his balcony...it was 2 minutes from his place. We walked there everyday. Beautiful sites! After a great weekend in Sydney, I was very excited to come home to Brisbane, my house and my friends!
This past weekend I spent with my Brizzy friends. We went to the movies to see "Angels and Demons" which was ok (the book was SO much better). Saturday we spent the day on the Gold Coast. We went to a little town called Burleigh Heads. It was gorgeous there! The beach was so awesome and we had a great day laying out, playing soccer and volleyball and goofing around with the waves. We also did this nature hike into the National Park of Burleigh Heads. Beautiful sights. Just spent the day being goofballs. I love my friends.
Today, May 21st I got to watch my sister graduate from high school. My mom informed me that D230 had put a live feed camera at graduation and that I could watch it via the internet! I was SOO excited about this and that it actually worked!! I was getting sad early this month that I was starting to miss all the important things going on in my family's life and this just made it so much better. It was like I was actually at the graduation (I probably had a better seat than most people haha). I went to the library on campus to watch the graduation and it was quite funny because at different points I actually got pretty emotional. The people sitting around me had to be wondering why I was crying while staring at my computer. When the choir sang "My Wish" by Rascal Flatts I broke down (haha I'm the mushy type). The boy sitting next to me started to laugh at me. Haha. It was sooo incredibly cool to see my cousin Michelle and sister Jen cross that stage and accept their diplomas. It honestly made my day. So that was cool.
I got a card from my best friend Kerry the other day in the mail (which made my day). The quote said "Live in the moment and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering." I loved this quote and plan on living the rest of trip based on this quote! That is all for now!

Love you all.

P.S.--> Gramma just so you know I'm going to start fighting you and Mom for the seafood at family get togethers. I love it!! Haha.

G. Coast Pictures

Alright. So I kinda messed up and added the pics in the wrong order but just stick with me on this one. If you have to go backwards up the pics it may help haha.

#1-At the end of our zorb. Soaking wet and laughin till our stomaches hurt! We also got the biggest wedgies of our lives!

#2-Us rolling, flipping, sliding and twisting all over eachother!

#3-The Zorb in action.

#4-At the top of the hill about to be pushed down!

#5-Finally. We found the zorb park! (If you can't tell we are really excited!) hehe.

#6-Surfers Paradise. The beach was 5 minutes away from Matt's apartment. Can you say heaven?

#7-Matt and me.

#8-Kim, Me and Jason. Best friends.

#9- Surfers Beach. So pretty.

#10-Dr. Pepper is back in my life. Thank goodnes!!

Love you all.

Gold Coast

So two weekends ago (May 2nd-4th) Kim and I decided to go visit our friends in the Gold Coast. I met Matt (Canadian) the weekend we were in Byron Bay and we've been really close friends ever since. He's a great kid and I'm almost positive we will remain friends even when when we return to N. America. Matt and his friend Will are just backpacking throughout Australia for awhile and have decided to settle in the Gold Coast for a few months to make some money working jobs. They've come up here a few times to visit us in Brisbane, so we decided to make a little trip one weekend and go visit them. It was so much fun. It only takes us like 45 minutes by train to get down there and only costs $5!! How awesome is that. So we had a long weekend because of Labour Day in Australia and we decided it would be the best time to go! We got there and headed straight for the beach. What I love about Queensland is it is still hot enough to lay out on the beach and get a nice tan, so that's exactly what we did! Matt's apartment is literally 5 minutes from the main beach on Surfers Paradise. Surfers is a lot different from Brisbane because it is a much more commercialized place. When people want to take a holiday this is usually the place to come. There are beaches everywhere, a huge night life and tons of theme parks including Dreamworld (just like Six Flags), Movieland (just like Universal) and Wet-n-Wild (waterparks). There seems to be something for everyone in the Gold Coast. That night we met up with the boys and went out for a great night on the town. Sunday we woke up super early and headed out to the beach again. I'm not even kidding but I think we landed ourselves right in the middle of a huge sand storm. When we left the beach later that day my bag was overflowing with sand, I honestly could have made a man made beach of my own with all the sand I had in my bag haha. We did a little shopping, grabbed some food and then went to meet up with Theresa who was coming down for the day. Guess what we did???!! We went ZORBING!While I'm not sure how many of you know what that is but it's probably the coolest thing in the entire world. However, it wasn't the easiest activity for us to get to. It took us a very long time, riding several different buses to finally find this place, but in the end it was all worth it. And guess what we saw while driving to the Zorb Park...WILD KANGAROOS!! Soo cool!! I couldn't stop smiling as they all jumped around the side of the road (come on how many people get to say they saw wild kangaroos!) The gold coast is the only place in all of Australia where a person can zorb and yes, I did it! Basically what it consists of is going into this gigantic blown up ball and getting pushed down a hill where you are flipping, spinning and turning chaotically again and again! You have to start off by getting a running start and jumping/flinging your body through this little opening in the ball in order to get in (now picture three girls in swimsuits trying to do that). I honestly have laughed so hard in my life. The coolest part about it is that we (Kim, Theresa and I) all went in the same ball! Can you even imagine three people flopping all over the place...yah it was pretty crazy!! (I'll add some pics for you!) So that was tons of fun. Later that night we were pretty worn out from all our fun activities throughout the day that we just took a chillaxed night and ate some YUMMY chicken parmasean (which Kim and I cooked) and watched movies at Matt's apartment. Monday was Labour Day (so no Uni woot woot) and we enjoyed another fun filled day at the beach before heading home to Brisbane. Ohhh another fun thing that went on this weekend. I've been CRAVING Dr. Pepper so bad. They don't have it here...anywhere! So I've been making a list of everything I have to have as soon as I get back to the states as far as food goes and Dr. Pepper is on the top of the list. As Kim and I were leaving the train station I see this sign that reads, American and Canadian snacks and goodies store. We stop in and guess what they have right there in the refrigerator....DR PEPPER BABAY!! I was so excited and enjoyed a very nice soda beverage. Haha. All in all, a great weekend with great friends in a beautiful ocean town...what more could a girl ask for!! Love you all.

G'Day

Hello Everyone!

Not much has been going on around here. Just school, hanging out in the sun and spending time with my friends. This past weekend was really relaxing. We went out a few nights and had movies nights--> lots of fun. I had a ton of homework to catch up on so I also did that. School is getting pretty intense with assignments and tests so I've been trying to get on the ball with all that. Been thinking about you all a lot. School is almost over for the U.S. so you guys will be on summer break soon and I'll still be in school (boo!). I'm getting very excited for my mom and sister to come visit--> been planning a lot of cool things for us all! It was my cousin Leah's birthday the other day so I surprised her by calling and talking to her. She was super excited and so was I to hear her voice! She's getting so old! Her communion is coming up in a few weeks and I'm sad I have to miss it. I'll just have to make up for that on the cruise (spend every second with her!) haha. My sister Jenny's birthday was the other day as well! Surprised her with a gift and cute card! She loved it (yyaahhh!!). Miss her too and cannot wait to have her experience Australia with me!

Ok love you all for now. I'll keep you updated on cool things in the future!

-Manda

SB'09 Pics

Spring Break Pics:

#1- View of the mountains after our day of white water rafting. So pretty. I know this picture doesn't look like the rapids were big, but they were HUGE! This is the calmer part of the water at the end of our day.

#2-Me swinging on a rope into the swimming hole.

#3-The boat we took out onto the Great Barrier Reef for our scuba diving day. So much fun and soo nice!

#4-Scarface. The humongous crocodile we saw on our crocodile boat tour! He's huge!

#5-The Rum Runner sailboat we took out onto the Great Barrier Reef for our snorkel tour.

#6- Where the rainforest meets the reef. So beautiful.

#7-Hilarious sign by the beach we stayed at in Cape Tribulation. We DID NOT swim here.

#8-The killer coconuts that kill more people in Cape Tribulation than anything else. Haha. We avoided these at all cost.

#9-The spiders the size of dinner plates that were all over our hostel in Cape Tribulation. The locals said they were "small" this season. I think they are crazy big!

#10-Another funny sign we found in Cairns warning us to avoid the coast of the beaches.

#11-Daintree River; freshwater crocodiles live in here as well as bullsharks! Dangerous River!!

#12-Crazy bark of a tree we found on our rainforest walk! The rainforest was soo green and soo pretty!

#13-The HUMONGOUS box I received from my awesome family for Easter!! It was like a junkfood treasure chest! Love you guys! Thanks for all of my favorite foods that I'm craving and can't get down here! Don't worry I will eat every single thing in there! <3

Enjoy.