Horse Race Photos

Here we go:

#1- The dragqueen with the best abs/kegs contest in the background. Had so much fun listening to her and judging the boys.

#2- The Boys Gone Wild during their dance. Hotties!

#3- Mohawk, the horse I bet on, that freaking got 3rd to last place. I have no luck. haha.

#4- Me with my $300 hat on (haha or not!)

#5- Go Horsies Go!!

#6- The Doomben Track

<3

Weekends in Brizzie

Hi Hi!

Since I've been spending waaaayy too much money lately, I decided to stay in Brisbane this past weekend. Besides hanging out at the beach, getting a nice tan, watching some movies and catching up on much needed sleep and homework...Kim, Theresa and I decided to have a little bit more fun on Saturday. This boy that Theresa has become fond of (he's an Aussie boy and his name is Jori) invited us to the Doomben Horse Races for the day on Saturday. Doomben is like a 20 minute train ride out of the city. The coolest part about going to these races is that they are a really big deal to a lot of Aussies. So big that you have to look super nice to even get into the place. Women go all out with their fancy shoes, dresses, hats and hair pieces and the Men where really nice tuxes and suits. The three of us girls had soo much fun getting ready for this day. Kim and I decided we wanted to fit to the point that we went out and bought huge hats to wear for the day (pictures to come). While we were at the races, we kept on getting compliments on our hats and we never knew if the women were kidding around or being serious so we just pretended that all the compliments were good hehe. I know I don't like to bet, however you only go to the horse races in Australia once in your life. I decided to bet money on a horse named Mohawk (mostly because I liked the name) and he ended up getting 3rd to last. While everyone else made fun of me, I basked in the glory that at least he didn't get last place (right??) haha. The other awesome part about this day at the races was that it was "Ladies Day Out". So they like catered to us. We got free candy and drinks. They also had a best abs and best keg contest that all the men could compete in and the women got to vote. Sooo fun! The best part of the day was the DragQueens and Boys Gone Wild show they had for us. I swear to you that every woman at the races was screaming out loud for these guys...they were VERY good looking. haha. All in all we had a great day at the races.
School has been going very well. I very much enjoy all of my classes and I'm meeting new people each and everyday. I love going to class and having people to sit with..it just makes class and school in general that much more fun and enjoyable. School is definitely picking up though and assignments are starting to be due, so I'm starting to have that stress on my shoulders. I'm trying to keep up with my readings as well as my assignments in advance so I don't have to have late nights here. It just makes life easier that way.
Today was a great day. I had class, went for an awesome run for Jason and then took a nice shower. After the shower however, the day turned for the worse. I was making myself a nice pasta dinner and as I'm cooking the noodles a freaing cockroach the size of literally my big toe came out of nowhere! IT WAS HUGE and disgusting. I screamed bloody murder and Bruce (my roomie) came running out of his room. By the time he got to the kitchen though it was gone and now we can't find it. I swear to god I'll be coming home earlier than planned if that freaking creature is found in my room. I'm not even kidding. Haha. Ewww why do there have to be bugs in Australia or in my house for that matter. Ew Ew Ew!!
Loving life over here! Love and miss you all!

-Manda

ANNOUNCEMENT

HEY EVERYONE!

THIS IS A REALLY IMPORTANT POST! I KNEW I HAD TO WRITE ON HERE AS SOON AS IT HAPPENED!

I MADE A CHEESEBURGER ON THE STOVE AT MY HOUSE AND DIDN'T SET THE FIRE ALARM OFF! AND IT TASTED AMAZING!

HAHA.
LOVE YOU ALL.

Pics from Moreton

The pictures that I promised.

#1- Kim, Me and Becca on top of the world. This was on the gorge walk we did and literally we were sooo high above the ocean. It was a great scene!

#2-The humongous sea turtle we saved! She was soo pretty and her shell was so LARGE!

#3- Puffer Fish that we caught!

#4- The girls (Jenna, Taylor, Becca, Me, Liz and Dakota)

#5- The pacific ocean on the gorge walk (surfer man in the distance)

#6- Pajama Squid (I'm holding it!)

#7- Moreton Bay

#8- Huge waves (we saw sea turtles here!)

#9- The beach we hungout on for the day (this is where we saw the pod of dolphins!)

#10- Australian Pelicans...so pretty!

Hope you enjoy.

Love you alls.

Moreton Bay Field Trip

Hey Everyone!

I went on an awesome field trip with my Marine Environment class this past weekend. We traveled about 2 hours to this ferry stop and took a ferry across to Stradbroke Island where we spent the weekend. It was kinda like a Marine Biology Camp sorta thing that we did. I'll explain.
Day 1- When we got there we checked into the Research Center where we would be staying and it was a pretty cool place. The Research Center is owned by The University of Queensland and it's a place where grad students can come to do there degrees and such. It's also an animal rescue place for animals that get hurt out in the wild, people can bring them in to get help. After checking in, we picked our rooms and Kim, Becca and I chose a room with 3 other girls. Taylor is from Joliet (weird right, soo close) and goes to St. Francis Unversity, Liz is from Oak Lawn (weird again?) and goes to St. Xavier and Jenna is from Portland. We had a really fun time together. Later that day we went tide pooling and saw tons of little creatures and cool underwater plants. Kim, who is a marine biology major, was teaching me about everything. After that we did what is called "Seine Netting", which is where we took this HUGE net and on both ends of it there is like a rope loop hole where you put your arm and leg and you drag this net out into the deep water and after awhile the waves and stuff start catching fish and other creatures into it and then you drag it back onto shore and see everything you've caught. It was soo cool. We saw so many awesome underwater animals. Lemme think of what I saw...Flounder Fish, Puffer Fish, Stingrays, Squid, and Crabs. We all got to hold and touch them all. I had so much fun!
Day 2- Today we got up super early because we had to go to our science experiments at low tide. We each were assigned a hypothesis we had to try to prove correct or false. So we had to go out in the ocean and gather information (a little nerdy but I had a great time doing it..hehe). Kim, Becca and I had a great time flipping huge rocks over and seeing what was growing or living on the underside of the rock. One rock we flipped over had an OCTUPUS on it! It was crazy. This thing was brown when we flipped it over and then all of a sudden it starts turning NEON blue and we are like wow that's so pretty. Well, while we are intrigued by this awesome octupus one of the teachers come over and is like umm DO NOT TOUCH THAT. He goes on to tell us that it's a blue ringed octupus and it's the most venomous octupus there is. If it bites you, it can make you stop breathing instantly and you can die from it. I've never seen 3 girls run so quickly from an animal before in my life. It was hilarious...how cool that we got to see that though! Don't worry I'm still alive. Later that night we had to present our science experiements and the three of us told our story about encounter with the deadly octupus.
Day 3- Our last day on the island was so much fun. They took us on a gorge walk across the island today and it was gorgeous. The Pacific Ocean is so pretty. We all had so much fun climbing up high onto these huge rocks and looking out over the ocean. (Pictures are to follow.) We got some homemade gelato as well which was scrumptous. Later that day they took us to a beach where we could relax and hangout in the water. The waves were HUGE. Funny story actually... Kim, Becca and I were playing in the waves and I could feel the top of my suit getting loose. Well what do you know the next huge wave comes...and there goes my suit. It literally flew off over my head...so then you see me ducked down in the water trying to find my suit as quickly as possible and retie it as Kim and Becca are dying laughing at me. I was like "and that's enough water for me." I got out and layed on the beach the rest of the day. The coolest part about today was while we were on the beach...a pod of dolphins swam by us and were jumping through the waves and stuff...it was beautiful...i love dolpins! We also saw tons of sea turtles! Oh a story about sea turtles for you. While we were at the Research Center one day...this fisherman drives up with his truck and in the back of his truck is this HUMONGOUS but pretty seaturtle. He said that while he was fishing the turtle had got caught in his net and he wanted to bring it in to make sure it was ok and not cut up. We all got to help carry this HEAVY beast of an animal into the center. She was the prettiest turtle ever! It was sooooooo coool! She was ok and after about an hour of doing tests they set her free back into the wild (good story I know). hehe.
It was a great weekend and not only did I have fun I learned a lot too. If anyone has any questions about fish or tide pooling or anything..I'm definitely your girl. Haha. Hope everything is going good at home...miss you all lots. Hope you all are enjoying this blog thing, I know I am!

Stay beautiful. :)
Manda

More Pics from Byron Bay

More Pics Ya'll-

#1- Me and Friends by the Waterfall

#2 & #3- Surfing Woot Woot!

#4- Kim, Our surf instructor Simon and Me

#5- Me getting ready to skydive

#6-On top of the waterfall

Enjoy!

Byron Bay Baby!

HIIIIIIIIIIIIII!

Pictures for you!
#1- Theresa, Me, and Kim

#2-Awesome Beatles Van we found!

#3-Jumping off the cliff

#4-Surfer Girl (hehe me!)

#5- Brandy on a Surfboard!

I honestly just had the best weekend of my life! I wish you all could have been there with me but I'll try to put everything into the best set of words that I can (it's going to be hard). I went to Byron Bay this past weekend with some of the girls and it was the coolest place! We stayed at this awesome hostel called Nomad's and met the best people ever! Everyone in the hostel called our room Team America because it was literallly all Americans staying in one room together. (The name stuck with us all weekend, which was hilarious!) We met this couple (Erin and Jesse) who just graduated from University of Pittsburgh and decided to backpack through Australia and we met this guy (Derrick) from Hawaii who was the biggest surfer ever! We all had so much fun together! Anywho about my adventures!

Friday--> It was kinda a cloudy day so we spent the day adventuring through Byron Bay. We walked the beach, looked through shops and bought groceries. Later that night we went out to this dance club called Cheeky Monkeys and had a GREAT night. People are just so genuine and fun down here, it's honestly impossible not to have a good time and i love it!

Saturday--> We got up early and went on this tour called the Grasshopper Tour. It takes you to all these different towns surrounding Byron and we got to stop at each one for like an hour and check it out. We stopped at this one town called Nimbin- totally a HUGE hippie town. I LOOOOOOOOOOOVED IT! We had soo much fun looking around and seeing all this tye-dye and oldies stuff. It was a cute little town. After we were done adventuring all the towns, the tour bus took us to this Rainforest Area where there were all these pretty waterfalls and such. We were able to jump off the cliffs surrounding the waterfalls into the water! It was sooooooooo cool! I have some pics of me MID AIR! (I'll post one!) Later that day we had a barbeque and did some sight seeing from the tops of mountains down on the city of Byron...overall great day!

Sunday--> Probably the best day of my life so far! Like honestly, this day is sooo hard to put into words. I completed two things on my "List of Things to do in my Life". We woke up super early and went SKYDIVING! It was honestly the most incredible experience of my life. I thought I was going to be super scared but there wasn't even time to be scared. They teach you how your technique has to be for both falling out of the plane, while falling and landing. After that they suited us up in our gear (I looked sweet haha!) The plane ride was soo pretty. They take you out over the ocean and we saw dolphins and sea turtles swimming below us (so cute!) and then we start going up and at a certain point (at which we were SUPER high) my instructor goes, "Guess what Amanda, we are only halfway up", I was like ohhh jeeeeeeeze! After about a 15 minute plane ride, they FLING the door open and this huge gush of wind comes blazing into the plane! I was like OHHH CRAPPP HERE WE GO!!! I watched my two friends go before me and all you do is see them fall head first out of a plane! I got really nervous at this point. The scariest part for me was when I had to hang me feet over the side of the plane and just like sway 1,2,3, over the edge and then you just fall! You will all see on my video the fear in my eyes as I'm waiting for my instructor to just push us out of the plane (haha it's funny!) Then it's just amazing time...you are just soaaaaaaring through the air...it doesnt even feel like you are freefalling but you are! I was able to freefall for 70 seconds! Best 70 seconds of my life! I was just yelling the whole time and smiling and screaming and smiling!! AHHHHHHHH! After about 70 seconds, the instructor pulls the cord and you get like flown backwards as the parachute comes out! When the parachute is finally out you can take your goggles off and experience the beautiful view of Byron Bay and the Ocean. We glided through a rainbow and tasted a cloud (hehe!) After about 3 or so minutes you get ready for your landing. They tell you to lift your legs and you just kinda slide into the ground on your butt. Perfect Landing! The adrenaline is seriously crazy after this and it sticks with you for honestly the whole day! I thought I was invincible! LOOOOOOOOOVED THIS! Another dream of mine was to go surfing! We took surf lessons later Sunday afternoon. It was so awesome to learn. Our surf instructors were so chill and I honestly do have the technique down now (I'm alittle weak in the knees but I'm perfecting it). I will definitely be a pro by the time I get home and can teach all of you (haha!) The place we went through for lessons is called Black Dog Surf and they own a black lab named George that actually knows how to surf!! I took pictures of him. The creepy thing is that he looks JUST LIKE BRANDY! It was soo cute. Fun fun fun day! I had a smile on my face the ENTIRE day and just loved the idea of being in Australia with awesome friends and doing things I was questioning I would ever do in my life just a few months earlier! It's a great feeling! I loved Byron Bay and would give anything to go back there another time! I wish I could put it into better words but this is the best I have right now, stories will come when I get back home! :)

St. Patty's Day--> Australians DO celebrate St Patricks Day...HARDCORE down here. We decided to get festive and cook our own fancy dinner. We bought CornBeef, Cabbage, Red Potatoes, Carrots and Wine. We all got dressed up in our green and enjoyed a yummy meal all together (just a family dinner away from home). We had a good time! Hope you all have a great St. Patty's Day!! Love you all!

Cheers-

Amanda

Shoutout!

Hey Everyone!

This is a shoutout to Aunt Donna for the AWESOME letter and picture I received in the mail today! I literally was laughing out loud! It made my day! I have it hanging in my room already. Goooooooooooood Memories! We will definitely have to look for Buddha again on the plane ride this summer! I'm getting super excited for the CRUISE! Love you! Thanks again!

-Mandy :)

Fun Pics!

Hey Ya'll-

Here's some more fun photos for you guys to look at...enjoy!

#1- Wombat (cool huh!)

#2- There were koalas EVERYWHERE!

#3- A kangaroo just lounging around...haha

#4- Me holding pretty lorikeets

#5- Sleepy little Koala

#6- Me holding Mr. Peabody (he was cute and fuzzy!)

#7- Group picture (sorry I don't know why one turns out small sometimes)

#8- Feeding a roo!

#9- Emu

#10- The roos ate the food right out of my hand

#11- Mr. Koala being all cute!

Hope you enjoy! Love you all.

Love this life

Hi Hi-

Wow. It's been awhile since I've written hasn't it. Sorry about that everyone, I've just been super busy. I have so much stuff to update you on, so get excited! Haha. Friday was probably my favorite day in Aussie thus far. Jason, Kim and I decided to go to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary (none of us have class on Friday). It was AMAZING. I had a smile on my face the whole time we were there. There were SOOOO many different kinds of animals, we had such a fun day. Some highlights from my day there. I took zillions of pictures of cockatoos, cookabaras, lizards, bats, wombats, tasmanian devils, crocodiles and dingoes! The best part of my day was when I got actually hold and have a picture taken with a KOALA! How awesome is that! His name was Mr. Peabody and he honestly was the cutest, softest and most adorable creature I've ever seen. I wanted to just give him a huge hug, I wish you could have all been there to see it! I didn't want to let him go. I have pics of this too though so don't worry, you will be seeing them soon! We also got to go into the Kangaroo Plantation. There were kangaroos, wallabies and joeys EVERYWHERE. I got to feed and touch so many cute, little jumpy kangaroos. They are so cute when they eat out of your hand, ahh so much fun! To wrap up this awesome day, as we were walking out of the sanctuary I hear this cookabara say "goodbye" to me. So I return the favor and say "bye" back to him. He goes on to ask me to "scratch" and opens his wings and lets me pet his feathers. It was adorable and we got so many pictures of it. Come on, how many people get to say that a cookabara asked them to scratch their feathers, I DO! haha. Honestly one of the best days of my life. Oh fun fact for you all. Tons of celebs and famous people go to this Koala Sanctuary and there was a picture of Taylor Swift on the wall, so I asked the woman working there if she got to meet Taylor and she goes on to tell me that she was there the day before me! Taylor Swift is in Aussie, I'm going to find her! haha. (Be expecting pictures up soon of this day.) Today was a lazy day. I have tons of homework to do and articles to read so I'm just spending the day at my house catching up on schoolwork (it sucks but it has to get done). This week coming up the girls have planned a trip to Byron Bay so we are getting super excited about that. Oh! Other cool information. I got a package in the mail Friday from Mom and it had a stuffed animal bear in there (that I named Mr. Peabody after my koala friend, hehe) and HSM 3!! She sent me the movie so me and the girls can watch it while we are over here! How cool right! Ahh I was so excited. Oh, had quick an interesting morning today. So I really stink at cooking (I need to take a class or something) and actually set the fire alarm off in the house today trying to cook a cheeseburger. I felt so bad because my two roomies came FLYING out of their rooms in their pajamas and were trying to help me turn off the alarm. It was quite funny. I'm so stupid. I think I'll just stick to PB & J's from now on haha. Oh lord Amanda. Well that's all the news for now but I'll hopefully have some interesting stories soon to come! Love you all and stay beautiful.

Oh the Beauty

Hey Hey!

It makes me really excited to hear that you are all reading this! It's probably the best way for me to tell you guys EVERYTHING that comes to my mind. I see things or think of things throughout the day that I want to tell you guys on here, so I have this little pad of paper I carry around and I'll jot a note down here or there to remember things to say. I'm really enjoying this! (haha) Anywho. So school started this week and so far it's been amazing. One of my classes is Sex, Drugs and Disease and it basically talks about the health of marginalised groups based on their social situations, jobs and activities. My teacher is this CRAZY lesbian, feminist who I love. She's very outgoing and says whatever is on her mind. I think she is going to make this class great and I'm super excited to see what is to come. I'm also taking this Australian History course and I sat next to this boy Logan today. He's from Michigan and attends University of Michigan back at home. We really hit it off. It's fun to know that I'll have friends to sit with in class (hehe). I'm also taking a Marine Biology class...it's so fun..Jason, Becca, Brian and Kim are in this class with me and it is full of all international students from all around the world. We basically take really fun field trips to reefs, beaches and bays and study the life of the sea. We are going to have a fun time with that class. I'm also taking a Health Population class (which I haven't attended yet) it starts tomorrow and Melissa is in that class with me. I'll let you know how that goes. School is so different here though. The call college Uni and they don't have terms like freshmen, sophomore or junior..it's 1st year, 2nd year and 3rd year. Down here they only have 3 years of undergraduate work before they graduate from college. It's such a relaxed and layed back environment down here, I really love it. I joined some clubs with my friends. We went to a Sailing Club BBQ last night and had a lot of fun. We met a lot of Aussies (yes, some were cute). Saturday they are going to take us out on their boats and teach us how to sail...how awesome right! My friend Sean and I are also going to do Beach Volleyball club and that meets tomorrow night on the courts...I'm super excited about that...get back in my volleyball mode. I'm getting tanner by the minute down here, I had one class today and then went to the beach with some people for the rest of the day. It was SUPER hot today. We had another family dinner on Sunday (we are going to try and all get together for dinner one night a week to bond and catch up)..we had BBQ chicken and veggie kabobs! Guess what everyone...I like veggies! I'm seriously starting to eat so healthy while I'm down here (because of everyone else). I thought that would make everyone happy, I'm expanding my horizons with food. We plan on having a St. Pattys day dinner that will consist of corned beef and potatoes, so I'll feel right at home with that! I'm not sure what our plans are for the weekend but I will def. keep you all posted. Hope all is well in the states. Love you all!

Pictures

Hey Everyone!

I hope you can all see this pictures! I'm going to explain them starting from the top one. They are kinda all out of order but it's the best I could do.

#1- Is the Noosa River. We took a train 2 hours north to the Sunshine Coast and stayed in a town called Noosaville. Our hostel was right on this river. It was sooo pretty and relaxing. We went kayaking and swimming in this river. Sting rays everywhere! So fun.

#2- It's alittle small (don't know what happened there) but this is the Noosa National Park Coastal Path we took. We hiked five miles around Noosa National Park and got to see the prettiest beaches and bays imaginable.

#3-Me with a Kangaroo we found in downtown Brisbane.

#4- A HUGE lizard we saw while on our hike in Noosa...it was creepy!

#5-One of the beaches we visited at Noosa. There were all sorts of water sports going on but sufring is definitely the biggest leisure time down here. Everyone, young and old, surfs! So much fun!

#6-Me and the Girls.

#7-This is Southbank Beach. It's on the other side of the river from my house in St. Lucia. We take the ferry over here all the time to lounge and swim. It's so much fun and so sunny. I have a nice tan going on!

#8-This is an IBIS (some sort of bird they have everywhere here). It walked over my foot one day. Haha. Cute little guy.

#9-This is Brisbane. The city sits right on the river. So much fun!

Well that's if for now. Love you all.

Enjoy and talk to you soon!

Manda

Noosa <3

Hey Mates!

Just got back from the best weekend ever! We traveled to Noosaville on Friday morning, which is about 2 hours north of Brisbane, traveling by train and bus. The train system is really cheap down here and was only like $5 for a ticket. We arrived at our hostel around 11am, checked in, dropped off our backpacks and headed out for the day. The town was such a relaxed and enjoyable type of place. It was very family oriented (made me miss home alittle) and quiet. It was definitely a place I would like to live with my family. It was super cute! We went hiking at the Noosa National Park. It was honestly the prettiest national park ever. We took the Coastal pathway which consisted of beautiful views of the ocean, nature, wildlife and surfers (my favorite!) It was about a 5 mile hike and I honestly took thousands of pictures (be expecting some soon!) I'm going to try and upload my pictures within the week. That night we got a bite to eat at a local restaurant that was on the riverfront. There were fireworks going off over the river and we got to sit there and watch the boats (so pretty!) Friday was a very busy but enjoyable day. We got up nice and early and headed to Kayak Noosa. The whole day was spent kayaking the Noosa River, the Pacific Ocean and the National Park. We honestly kayaked over white caps, it got very intense! It was the prettiest sight ever seeing everything from the ocean side of things. We snorkeled at Ti Tree Bay and saw tons of different fish. Morning tea (haha that's what they call a snack in between breakfast and lunch) as well as a very yummy lunch was served. The kayaking was rather crazy, Melissa and I (my partner in the kayak) were soo tired afterwards. I honestly thought my arms were going to fall off, haha. We had a great time though. That night when we got back to our Hostel we met some of our roommates that were staying with us. Adam, a guy from Washington, Aaron, a guy from England and these two Swedish girls (sorry I don't know how to spell there crazy names) were the people we were sharing our room with. The hostel we were at had a bar within it and they had a happy hour special of pizza and beer so we all went and at that. Later that night we had fun playing games and getting to know eachother. The Swedish girls knew the funniest games ever to play and we spent hours learning about eachothers culture and way of life. We all got eachothers information so we could keep in contact and share pictures and videos that were taken throughout the night. I was laughing so hard throughout the night that my stomach was in pain. I love this hostel life! You meet so many people from all over the world traveling throughout Australia and for just a few nights you become the closest of friends. It's a great way to get to know other cultures and backgrounds. Sunday was a chill day. We went to the local beach and swam and hungout before catching a train back to Brisbane. It was such a long and tiring weekend but SOO AWESOME! In just one weekend I took so many awesome pictures, met so many amazing people and had the time of my life. I don't know how this place could get any better, I'm excited to see what more is to come! The group got together Sunday night to have our weekly "family dinner" and enjoyed BBQ chicken and veggie kabobs...ohh I knew there was something more I wanted to say. I think I'm becoming less and less of a picky eater. I've eaten more veggies (peppers, tomatoes, and zucchini) in the past two weeks than ever in my life. I bet Mom and Gramma are excited about that haha! My friends are making me try tons of things. School starts tomorrow and I'm excited but nervous at the same time. I know it's going to be a great experience but I feel like a freshman in college all over again (I'm going to be the nerdy girl on the campus with the huge map in my hand not knowing where I'm going!) It should be a good time and I'll definitely keep you all updated. School is finally starting for me and I cannot wait to see what is to come! Love you all!