4 days of Fun

Hi Hi!

It's Sunday here now, sorry I haven't written in a few days, I haven't had a chance to get over to the library. Let's see what I've done. Wednesday I went over to my new house and unpacked all my things, got situated and walked the campus. UQ is freaking big! Walking everywhere is a new thing for me since I'm so used to the bus systems at U of I (we are lucky people!) I figured out where all my orientations are going to be for this upcoming Orientation Week, haha I know big nerd and checked out all the sports stadiums and fields. It's so pretty on campus, everything is so outdoorsy. They have all of these outdoor cafes and bistros right on campus! My house is like a 5-10 minute walk from the center of campus which is perfect! That night while I was making dinner in the house (which is not air conditioned) I'll have to get used to that, a gecko just comes walking in the window, I freaked out (haha) but later found out they are harmless and can and will be found everywhere. Thursday I headed back into the city to meet up with Brian. I took what's called the CityCat down here but is really a ferry ride that takes you up and down the Brisbane River, I sat on the top deck and got to take pictures of the city skyline as I came in. It was so cool. Thursday night we went to the movie theater in town and saw The International, which was really good I recommend it and then got some icecream at a little cafe nearby. Friday we headed to the beach which is just down the street (about a 5 minute walk). The beach is right on the river and it was such a fun day just relaxing, getting a tan and hanging out in the water. I finally got a picture of that bird I was talking about!! Haha it came like right up to our lunch table so I snapped a good one (it's called an Ibis). Even with 30+ sunscreen on I got a really bad sunburn but it's now a tan so I'm rocking the Aussie skin already! That night we were all exhausted from the beach that we just stayed in cooked some chicken and rice and watched some tv. Saturday was fun as well, after talking to the madre on skype in the morning we headed to the city to just walk around and sight see. Later last night we headed into the city to a night club which was crazy madness but I had fun! We met up with some of Lester's (Brian's roommates name) friends and hungout with them. They were all from Malasia so they were asking me thousands of questions about movie stars, Chicago and the lifestyle in America. It's crazy how different their lives are on this side of the globe. Today is Sunday so I'm just relaxing and getting ready for stuff to start this week. I realized I don't have any notebooks or anything so I'm going to head to Coles (which is like a Walmart down here) to pick up some necessary things so I can take notes this week. It's pretty sunny out so I may head to the beach for an hour or two and catch some more rays before school starts (ahh I'm geting excited!!) Some interesting facts before I go:
The paper money down here is impossible to rip, I'm not sure what it's made out of but I honestly tried ripping a 50 dollar bill the other day and you can't do it, the type of chemicals they use to laminate the paper doesn't allow for ripping.
Words they use in place of some of ours:
McDonalds= Mackers
Sunglasses= Sunnies
Breakfast= Brekkie
Your Welcome/Thank You= No Worries

Love you all. I'll post later this week about Orientation week and all that fun stuff!
Love you and miss you from the land down under.

-Manda