free free free...

Yes it is true. Room 2204 has been blessed by some sort of higher power. This doesn't just happen to anybody. Especially with the prices of normal alcohol over here. If I can find a case (4 x 6 packs) of full strength, acceptable beer for less than 35 dollars, it's a miracle. While me, Jen and Molly were spending the weekend in Brisbane, we got a call from my roommate, screaming.

"GUESS WHAT JUST HAPPENED?! WHEN I OPENED THE DOOR I FOUND A 30 PACK OF VB BEER, A 6 PACK OF EXTRA DRY, AND FOUR BOTTLES OF HARD LIQUOR!"

Amazing? The bottles of liquor weren't full, but there was some in there and the beer was at least 60 dollars worth. What did we do to deserve this treatment? I don’t know any of the answers to these questions but I have an idea. Assuming it’s one of our neighbors, possibly one that I may have talked to in the hour that I was locked out of my own apartment the other day, or one that one of my friends talked to when we had a bunch of people over for Australia day. Whatever or whoever it was, thank you.
We seem to be quite well at finding ourselves in these good weird situations that somehow fall upon us, in a way. Such as the random bloke that was staring at me every day from across our little pad in Surfers and follows us to the beach. Kind of creepy but I gave him a chance. He ends up being a super nice guy and drives me and all of our luggage (which is a lot when you live with three girls), to our new home in Burleigh. I couldn’t imagine carrying all of our crap on the bus with us.
Or maybe the time that we met a dude at the club, whose number we ended up getting, who just happens to want to continue his talks with us and ends up offering us a place to stay in Brisbane for the weekend. Which is what we ended up doing this weekend. We took a train from the Gold Coast to Brisbane Friday night with our desination being Scotty’s house. He is a 26 year old architect that is currently working on building a Supreme Court in the middle of Brisbane. Hmmm. When we get there, he picks us up, drives us to his house and starts cooking spaghetti with meat sauce for us. Wow. Busts out two bottles of wine and tells us to help ourselves. Introduces us to his roommates, one whom we already know (oh Andy…) and his third one (Jamie) who just happens to be the Australian version of me. Chilled there all night, played Guitar Hero World Tour and knocked out. Wake up Saturday morning and Scott is at work. So Jamie asks us what we are doing today.
“Nothing…”
He ends up taking us into town, in the middle of Brisbane and shows us around Queen Street, which is the crackin’ street in Brisbane. Also introduces us to this wonderful chicken place called Nando’s. Best chicken ever ya’ll. Some Portuguese style with amazing sauces and bomb chips. We bought him his meal because they are all being just too nice to us so he offers to get us waters. Sure. Comes back with four water bottles, which run for about three bucks a piece over here. We just can’t win in trying to show our thanks to these Aussies. Then after shopping and just kickin’ it in town, we decide to go see a movie. Now this was a real experience. First off, Jamie buys our tickets. 55 bucks... Then the ticket lady asks where we want to sit. When you go to a movie over here you choose your assigned seat. It was exciting. We saw Sherlock Holmes and chose smack dab center seats in the middle of the theatre. I don’t quite understand why we were able to get these awesome seats, or why other people don’t choose them first, but to us oblivious Americans it was definitely a win.
When we get back there is a party going on back at their three story house for Andy who just happens to be moving to Melbourne tomorrow to work. End up socializing with like 20 other Australians who are always intrigued by the pathetic American culture. Most of these people were like 25-30 years old so I felt a bit sophisticated to say the least :)
After the party we end up going out to the club in downtown Brisbane with Jamie, Lian, and Scotty. Of course Jamie buys our cab ride over there and the club is free. He also buys us a round of Jelly Donuts. Ever had one of those? No? Google it. They are amazing. Dance for a few hours up over there and then come back, with Jamie buying the cab ride, once again. Wake up the next morning, take the train back home and I would say there is a micro hurricane going on in the middle of summer. Wow. Go buy some steaks. Jump on the roof and throw ‘em on the barbie. Ever grilled in the rain in the middle of a storm on the roof of a 11 story building? Didn’t think so. It’s definitely an interesting experience. Bring ‘em back into the room and eat a lovely dinner once again. Talk about a good weekend.

so check it...

We are finally moved into our HOME! So weird calling it home... My home is in Australia, for the next 3, possibly 4, hopefully 5, months. Yeah, I think I want to milk my student visa for everything it is worth. Australia is already the best time of my life (yes, I know all you loyal blog readers have probably read that 10+ times before) and I haven't even paddled out yet. Is that possible? Apparently.

So you know how like when you are watching a new reality TV show and the season is starting. Let's say the Bachelor. And all the girls are going into the new sexy house that they are going to stay in for like the next month, while they cat fight and drool over one stunning looking bloke? But anyways, they go into the house for their first time and they are running around screaming, calling their rooms and beds and crap. Yeah that was us. All four of us. Me two times, since I was first in and then when Jen and Molly had their go, I went for round two. Duh.

Okay, long pause, I just got thrown off.

Anyways, yeah so our house is dope. I haven't taken any pictures yet, but I am planning on doing an MTV Cribs-like clip of our house so everyone can see what's up. Yee. Get it. It's the real deal, and it's our/my house. So we moved in and the first thing we did was go out and have a feast on the roof. Went to Coles (grocery store), blew a couple hundred notes (bills), and bought food for a feast (garlic shrimp - seasoned steak - ranch salad - white rice - garlic bread). Threw some shrimp on the barbie, cracked open a coldie (XXXX Summer), and did my thing. It was serene and definitely one of the highlights of the trip. Chillin on the roof of our apartment, beach on one side, sunset on the other. Got that Rastafarian music playin in the background. So nice.

Next. I have a girlfriend. Yeah, I'm putting it on blast here. The lovely, drama-filled, emotional, fake blond, insecure, sensitive, stubborn, valley girl. She's mine. I fended off many good-looking, cut, athletic, instrumental, all around good guys (like Kip) to be with this AMAZING [she doesn't like that word :)] woman. After weighing out the pros and cons of dating this lady, I decided that the cons outweighed the pros so much that I should have never started talking to her. But oh well, I was in too deep so I just asked her out.

Just kidding.

Jen is definitely one of a kind in the best way possible. She makes me laugh (at her) all day long. I never know what to expect from her. She loves rice, sushi and luke warm water. She doesn't wear earrings because shes too sensitive. She doesn't look at prices when she shops. And she has a tattoo of a continent in which she's never been. Definitely special. I can talk to her all day, whether it be joking or deep, emotional, serious talks (just how she likes them). She loves the beach (crucial) but she's still a city girl. She's beautiful. She's low-key good at a lot of things I wouldn't ever even think about her trying and she loves Jesus. I'm in like.

Yesterday was Australia Day. Equivalent to the 4th of July for all you Americans. So yes, it was crackin. Nothing like throwing a little housewarming party three days late on Australia day. Yep. We had around 20 cool kids come over to our sweet little pad to kick it for the day and night of the best day of the year in Australia. What did we do? Oh the same thing we always do. Jumped up on the roof, bought 2 kilos of chicken, garlic and herb marinating sauce, made some rice, told people to bring other sides, and had yet ANOTHER feast at sunset. It was sweet. A bunch of friends just over at our new hot spot, guaranteed to happen again after how successful it went, just chillin and talking. Then when it got late we took it down to our apartment, got changed, jumped in the jacuzzi and went to the beach. Nothing like the beach at night. It was definitely another good day. Well that's been the theme of the trip so far, good days made easy by a five day weekend and two days of school. G'day mates. :)

livin it up...

First week of school. Check.

Easy as pie. Act dumb, play smart, and party hard. That's kind of the equation for a good time in Australia. I don't know who told me that classes over here were harder than the ones in America, but after one week, I'm definitely not convinced of anything along those lines. And it's a good thing. I think my two online classes I enrolled myself in back home are going to give me a harder time than the three I'm taking at the uni. Well anyways things are good. After everyday I go to school, which is two days (lovely), I come back to my lovely apartment in Surfers, crack open a beer and sit on the porch. It's a beautiful thing. It feels like I don't even go to school. I do have some homework I should be catching up on but I don't feel like doing it. Duh. An HD is a High Distinction in Australia, equivalent to an A in the states. A P is a Pass, equivalent to a D in the States. The saying around here is P's get the degrees and HD's get the G's. I ain't looking for any HD's over here. Sure they would be nice, but I got better things to do in another country. Maybe like make an easy 18 bucks an hour on a nearly 1 to 1 exchange rate. Or surf my butt off every morning since I'm living on a world renown break. Or try as many beers as I can because I can. I just want to experience the Australian lifestyle as best as I can when I'm over here and I feel like school isn't going to give that to me. But after straight A's minus my B online, while taking 23 units, I don't think I'm going to have too much of a problem. What it do baby boo?

Today we went to a fair at the uni and Nanae and I joined a mixed 4's beach volleyball team in a AA league (very competitive). I'm stoaked to kick some Australian VB ass. Nanae and I are going to tear it up with our hopefully legit other two team members. We've been peppering at the beach about four times a week with the wind and sun. It's a beautiful thing. Team Name: Peacin' it Together. What up? Aside from the volleyball club we joined we also go ViP entry into just about every club in downtown Surfers! So now we can literally hop from club to club for free, EVERY NIGHT. Over here they treat students like they are kings and queens. Half off bus fares and ViP treatment into clubs. Royalty. HA!

Australian day is January 26th and is going to be wild. It's like the 4th of July in America. And I'm definitely more patriotic in Australia than I am in America. I bought these sweet Aussie boardies for $80 bucks yesterday in town and I have my "Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!, Oi! Oi! Oi!" tank to match it. I'm bout to be decked out in Aussie gear with a case of our new favorite beer brewed on the Gold Coast. South Sea's Beach. At first we were buying the South Sea's Pale Ale because it was cheaper, but we decided to step it up yesterday and spent that extra three bucks. I'm telling you right now, this beer is so smooth and light, it goes down like agua. BETTER THAN CORONA for all you corona and lime freaks (yes I was one of them too when I first got here). I think I'm definitely going to have to bring a few cases of these home with me. Conserve them for life.

Yesterday we also went on a mission to check out our permanent stay which we will be moving into in just two days. And boy is it BEAUTIFUL. It is, without a doubt in my mind, the hottest hotel out of the 20 or so that graze the beach in Burleigh. Only a two lane road separates me and the beach for 15 weeks.

So the picture above is the roof of our apartment where we will be throwin' some shrimp on the barbie our first night there (Sunday)!! Epic view right? Hopefully we will have an ocean view, but if we end up with a hinterland view we get the lovely sunsets every night. I'm definitely fight for the ocean view though. I'm tired and hungry and the moment so that is all today. How about some Kangaroo meat tonight eh?

AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE! OI OI OI!

school starts...

Oh yes. The time and reason that I am on another continent has finally come. Yesterday was the first day of classes and it was wonderful. I had two classes, one of which I am no longer part of and the other which I don't have to go to, but I know will be a good time. Human biology never sounded so interesting until i came over to Australia with a hilarious professor and a light hearted class. If he said the things he was saying in his class over in America, let alone APU, he would either be sued, fired, or murdered. But that is what makes a good professor. Duh. What successful professor ever did anything good without causing some commotion right? Anyways, the Prospects on Global Politics class was a major fail. Sure it counts as a two-fer for my international business degree at home, but it just isn't worth it when you are in a class with 50 and 60 year old post graduates debating about global politics. Two of my least favorite things: debating and politics. Oh and throw on top of that some doucher professor, class times that will keep me at the uni for up to 4 hours each day longer than what I would have to spend before, and me being a Study Abroad student from AMERICA, which just happens to be the professors "favorite" country. Not. After only one class it was apparent that she was definitely not fond of our power house of a country, but I'm not either.
I could just picture this situation...

We are in a debate for the necessary two hours a week that we need to and America is brought up in the conversation. Mind you I am already hating life because we are debating about politics. The teacher will obviously pick on me to stand up for my country in this debate because I'm from America and I should know about it right? I don't like America. I don't like debating. And I don't like politics. Merging all three of those together would piss me off. So I booked it. :)

INTERMISSION
Jen made a Blog worthy video of me and roomies first two weeks in Australia. So pull out the popcorn and sodas, take a piss while it loads and ENJOi.


I'm taking three classes at the uni which amounts to 11 units since it is Human Bio (4 units), Spanish 2 (4 units) and Marketing (3 units). I'm also taking Accounting 2 Online (3 units) online at Cerro Coso and hoping that my wait list will fall through for Art (another 3 units). Amounting to a grand total of 17 units. Solid.

Spanish 2 over here is equivalent to the second part of Spanish 1 over in America. So when I went into the class, I took the lovely advice of one of my new Australian friends to play dumb for the teacher or else she will promote me to the class I actually belong in. Job well done on my part. Obviously APU wouldn't catch anything like that, even though I provided the course synopsis for them straight in their face, because my school sucks. Many times I wonder how they achieved the label "University", but hey, if I can get 23 units of upper division classes in one semester and pull straight A's, they're doing something wrong, cuz I ain't smart. Which is also the reason I will be paying $1,500 to take a calculus class that I didn't take because the academic advisers don't know what the heaven is going on and they steer me in the wrong direction. Maybe I don't love Australia that much, I just hate the other place. Ha. Just kidding. I love it here and I love it there. But here wins. :) Oh and an awesome ID picture. HAHA!

no worries...

I'm in paradise. Today, me and my roomie had a fairly deep conversation about comparing Hawaii to the Gold Coast slash Australia. Since we both that a deep love for both the Gold Coast and Hawaii she was the only one who I could have a legitimate conversation about this serious topic with. We came to the conclusion that the Gold Coast is better than Hawaii when you are under 21. For one main reason. The Gold Coast is filled with lush plantation, plumeria flowers, palm trees, white sandy beaches, 80+ degree water and epic snorkeling. All of the wonderful features of our prior favorite place in the world, Hawaii. The Gold Coast is to Oahu and Cairns is to Kauai. It's a big thing for me to say I love any other place in the world more than I love Hawaii, like huge. But it's true. The nightlife doesn't compare to that in Hawaii and that is where Australia earns its kudos.

Anyways, this is the last night before school starts. Weird. WEIRD! School starts tomorrow... Lame. It's been like a wonderful 2 week vacation doing everything that we have been doing. Like bombskiis. The past two days me and Nanae have spent the WHOLE day at the beach. We bought a 12 dollar beach volleyball which may be the greatest investment we could have made on this trip. I had a wonderful time playing pepper and then rotating to body surfing three times. Pepper, body surfing, pepper, body surfing, pepper, and body surfing. Perfect day? Oh yeah and then we went out to Sin City and night where we have VIP access and we get in for free any night of the week. And on our bus ride over to downtown Surfers, we managed to pick up 2 chicks and 2 dicks to come along with us to Sin City since we got them in for free. I'm pretty sure 2 of them had no plans of going out that night either. People over here are so chill. We have made friends with like 4 other rooms in our hotel and random people we run into. Love it.

We also finally found a way to eat cheaper. The supermarket, Coles. Two nights ago we bought pre-made lasagna and cooked it in our oven. I decided to take over the kitchen that night and failed to notice that there are two settings on the oven. Grill and oven. I had it on grill and it didn't turn out so well. But I salvaged it by scraping off the top layer. Then the next night we bought pre-seasoned chicken and both of these meals amounted to around 25 bucks for 4 people?! Yep. Finally getting the hang of things around here. Nutella, not Vegemite, has become a staple in our diet. Along with some ham and eggs. Oooo and a dope soft drink called Passiona which is a passion fruit soda. Omg. Amazing. It tastes like real passion fruit carbonated in soda. Well, we are going to stay in tonight since we have school tomorrow. But DJ Kronic is playing at the Bedroom Nightclub, with some other popular Australian DJ and we have free tickets to it. Oh and this Bedroom Nightclub is a club surrounded by beds. STD city. Sooo I wouldn't be surprised if I stopped by. Not because of the STD's tho... Ha. Night ya'll. :)

put the toilet seat down...

So the trip has been basically amazing so far. But, I am definitely learning some major life lessons. Living with three girls, there are some things that just need to be done on the mans part. Such as helping those who pack too much carry their luggage, even though I warned and threatened them many times not to. Putting the toilet seat down when you go pee. I have been taking a daily yelling for this failure on my part, but I see it as at least I'm putting it up before I take a piss right? Because wouldn't that be a BZ to have to clean it off every time instead of just putting it down. I'm just throwing it out there. :)

However, there are luxuries of living with three women. At least one always has a purse to carry around my stuff in since board shorts don't have sufficient pockets for my daily necessities such as my phone, wallet, chapstik, and camera. Which brings me to another luxury. When I happen to forget my camera, which happens just about every time we go out, one of the three lovely women always has a camera. So we always have part of our trip captured by one of the four of us. And I love them.

Moving on. Yesterday we went to the beach for the first time despite the fact that we live only one block slash five minutes away from it. We have just been catching up on life this whole trip and figuring out all the little things that we didn't know about [thanks AustraLearn (the program we went through) for nothing] such as our own airport transfer, even though they promised us transportation from the airport and granted this promise to just about everyone in our program but us. How to make transportation in general all around surfers paradise so it doesn't bust my wallet, because those 30 dollar taxi rides just weren't cutting it anymore. When you see food or anything in general that seems too cheap to be true, it definitely is. Such as a 7 dollar steak lunch which has the catch of a minimum 5 dollar beer purchase too, which still isn't a bad deal, but I'm not trying to spend 12 dollar for lunch everyday. Or the Sea World tickets that were 2 for $40. How awesome would that be? But to take advantage of this deal you need to be at least 28 years old and citizen of the country. Damn.

So that was a little rant off what I was going to talk about. SOOO the BEACH! They are definitely comparable to Hawaiian beaches in many aspects. The Gold Coast has 30 kilometers of pure white sand beach, clear blue water that is the perfect temperature to cool off in but also stay in all day, and el prefecto waves for surfing in. Although I don't have a board yet, since I don't want to be lugging that crap around until we OFFICIALLY settle in, I just went body surfing and it was awesome, minus the fact that I lost my peace sign necklace that I bought at Venice Beach (my favorite place in the world) for only a dollar. It was definitely love at first sight. And yes it does exist. Anyways, the beach looks exactly what you would see in the pictures if you Googled the Gold Coast. Pure bliss surrounded by tall buildings that are nothing special besides the location of their housing. These buildings are tall and in mass but that's all they really have going for them. After being spoiled off the hotels in Vegas a month ago, these things look like crap. But they have ocean views and a porch and offer a place to stay while in paradise. Beer on the porch. Mmmmm.

After spending the day at the beach we decided to go into town. It is pretty sweet in downtown Surfers. They have tons of shops and little places to eat that are bomb. And the temperature is perfect at night. Sandals, board shorts, and a tank top are all I need all day. And some SPF 800 sunscreen (when its the daytime). No matter how many times i reapply I always manage to get burnt. It has something to do with the nonexistent ozone layer over here. Which is also part of the reason the Outback is like 8 bazillion times worse than death valley. If you get stuck out there, consider yourself part of the Aboriginal diet. Shoot, even when we were up in Cairns, some of the people from out group almost became part of some 14 year old Aboriginal's diet. Two girls got socked in the face and had to file a police report AND we were in the middle of town. And we learned it's a common offense on Thursday nights in Cairns, even in the middle of town, for an Aboriginal to attack a tourist because this is the night that cops are switching shifts or some crap like that. And I guess it's some Aboriginal hobby to attack tourists? Idk. Weird...

Oh and I don't think that I have mentioned the school yet. Um it's straight up B-E-A-utiful. I didn't know that it was legal for school to be this pretty. Like for real, I can't believe that I am going here. It's like one of those schools straight out of a movie where you think to yourself "damn, I wish I went to school there." Here are a few pics...



Anyways, that's whats up to date with me. Cheers mate :)

it just keeps getting better…

The more time I spend here the more I fall in love with this “little” continent/country. I love everything about it from the weather to the people. The weather is a lovely 85 degrees all day with random showers to cool you off just when you need it. The people are all over the place (obviously) and willing to offer help to you in any way that they can in the most polite way possible. One love. Ha. Anyways, yesterday was a cool day. We went to this rainforest preservation camp where we helped them out in planting trees and fertilizing their plants. We did a bunch of different things for them but Jen, Nanae, Molly and I mainly were working on resoling a lot of the plants, ridding them of their weeds and taking out all the dead plants. I even found a plant that resembled me (tall, dark and handsome of course) It actually turned out to be a lot of fun just going around the nursery talking and screwing around. It started to rain pretty hard when we were there but luckily we were under a tent while the rest of the group was out in the open field planting trees. When that was over we came back and it was pouring balls. For the rest of the night it was raining super hard like hurricane status, not really, but it was hard. We had the brilliant idea of walking a few blocks down to a food place that was undetermined until we saw it and it ended up being Rex Burgers. It was bomb there and we ate outside, soaking wet and it was still like 80 degrees. I love that part. Then we came back to the resort/hostel thingy and we jumped in the pool for an hour. We originally wanted to go into the Jacuzzi but I guess they don’t heat them in the summer time because it is already hot enough. So since it was still super hot outside, we just went swimming in the rain.

Fun fact: When Molly does flips in the pool, her stomach “drops,” explained by her as the feeling you get when you drop on supreme scream. Weird?
Anyways, that’s what we did that night after being burnt out from going out the two nights before and it was chill.

Today was AWESOME. We went to the Rainforestation. It is this place with a mini wild animal park with kangaroo’s and wallabies and crocodiles and koalas and tons of other native Australian animals. They took us on this Indiana Jones-like tour through the rainforest and it was doooope. They showed us all these plants that we shouldn’t touch since they will basically burn our skin for the rest of our life and some green ant nests that are equivalent to the American bee hive. It was a sweet little vehicle too that was used on D-day when whoever the hell stormed the beach in Normandy (or I think that’s what it is called.) Some fool even told me that they took that same vehicle to their prom on the east coast. Hm. After the sweet tour we went and took a picture with a KOALA. AMAZING! It was actually surprisingly heavy and I almost dropped it? But it was sweet and super soft. We also found out how they mate with each other in which they had a very interesting technique. So me and Jen tried it out. Then the aboriginal people showed us a little about their culture and how they hunt and do dances. They were throwing this little skinny bamboo spear super far and hitting the fake tigers in the field. Then they whipped out a real boomerang and threw it and it was crazy. I’ve never seen a real boomerang work. I got a chance at throwing it too but mine didn’t go too far, but non-the-less impressive. :p Next they took us to a stage where they showed us several of their dances that they do and some were quite hilarious. The movements that they do with their legs are kind of like a high speed “jerking” dance. This turns out pretty funny when you see 5 aboriginal men doing it with very serious looks on their faces. During this whole time they were dancing they were making the music with the didgeridoo which is an amazing instrument. It is only a special branch from a tree that is hollowed out with beeswax on the end to save their lips. Then they have to do a funny movement with their lips and tongue to make all these different noises. It is truly an amazing instrument. Then we went to a bomb all you can eat buffet and they had passion fruits, watermelon, honeydew, steak and chow mien. After that we went to the wild animal park where they had kangaroo’s, wallabies, crocodiles, koalas, dingoes, marmots, and other Australian animals. We layed with the kangaroo’s and fed them. The way that kangaroo’s lay down is pretty awesome. They lay down kind of like a human so we all posed just like they did. I secretly wanted the kangaroo to jump up and kick Nanae or Jen but that didn’t happen. They are too nice. But that was basically the end of our two days. Pretty bomb days I must say. Tonight we are eating pizza and just relaxing again. Then tomorrow morning we take off for Surfers Paradise where we are staying for two weeks. Orientation began today, but obviously we are not attending right away. But tomorrow when we move closer to Bond is a TOGA PARTY! Yeahhh. :)

first few days...

G'day mates. Australia is dank. I love it here. The plane ride from LA to Brisbane was a piece of cake with the help of friends and a sleeping pill. Then the transfer from Brisbane to Cairns wasn't too bad, minus the fact that we lost our luggage on another plane and had to get it delivered to the resort we are staying at later that night. First night in Cairns we went to a brewery with the rest of the whole AustraLearn group and had a free dinner and my first legal beer. It was a good night. The next morning we woke up at 6am to head out to the Great Barrier Reef. It was lookin like a pretty ugly day until we got two hours out into the sea and deep into the reef. We went snorkeling and had to buy these SWEET suits to protect ourselves from the deadly invisible jellyfish they warned us about. The reef was beautiful and enormous. My favorite part were the amazingly huge clams that were at the bottom of the ocean. It was like straight out of a movie. Some of them were like bright vibrant colors of green and purple, and when you would dive down and swim next to them they would tense up. Crazy. That night was also suuuper fun. We decided to go out into town for dinner at this place called the Wool Shed. Just my luck, we end up going on ladies night where they promised guys in jock straps serving all of the ladies unlimited free champagne. I wanted out of there right when I read that but going with three girls, I knew that we would end up staying there. So we did. It turned out to be pretty awesome. Loud music, dancing on the tables, lights. AND each of the girls would go get some free champagne and bring it back to me and pour it in my cup. It was a beautiful thing. After that we went to another place called PJ's which was more of an expensive bar. We just sat down and started talking to some locals. They explained to us their hate for Americans, but by the end of the conversation, me and Molly convinced them that Americans aren't that bad after all. They even labeled us as "the coolest Americans yet." After that some of the group wanted to go back so we went, but we ended up going out again to this place called Gilligans. This place was DOPE. It was a full fledged club with fun music. Me, Jen, Molly, and my new facebook friend that I met, Luke, danced for a little over an hour till it closed at 2 in the morning. The last song was "Lean On Me." And the second to last song was that one that goes "we live from the land down under, blah blah thunder." Idk, it's from Kangaroo Jack. Watch it. It was a good night and a good song. Gilligans was soooo dope that we are going back tonight. It is supposed to be their biggest party of the year tonight, soooooo that's what's up over here. Oh and things are expensive as hell over here. Gas is 5 bucks a gallon and a regular size bottle of coke is 3 bucks. Cheers.

P.s. Pictures will be coming when I get a better internet signal.

less than 24 hours...

In fact, exactly 23 hours from now I will be taking off for the land down under. Kangaroo Jack was always one of my favorite movies for its corniness and just pure randomness. Who knew I'd be living on its set for four months...

Usually when I go see a movie I don't want anyone to tell me anything about it. And I don't like to see trailers. All of these preconceived interpretations and insights on the movie ruin and shape my outlook on what I think the movie is going to be like or how good it's going to be. It forces unwanted expectations that I then place on the movie. Not only is this unfair to my judgment on the movie, but it's unfair to my own enjoyment of it! When I think of some of my favorite movies (The Hangover, What Happens in Vegas, The Holiday, Kangaroo Jack, just to name a few...) I had NO CLUE what the movie was about when I went to go see it. The movies had to meet no expectations for me to qualify it as good, let alone one as of my favorites. I just saw it and created my own thoughts and opinions about it, not subconsciously accounting for anything anyone else said about it.

I'm not afraid to lay expectations on Australia. Every general and specific expectation I have about my next four months is going to happen. It's going to be AMAZING. It's going to exceed anything that I could even expect. How's that for an expectation? Amazing times. Best times of my life (so far). Beautiful beaches. Perfect Waves (Yeah, those waves will be 50 meters away from my doorstep). Epic sunsets or sunrises, whichever we will be experiencing daily. Warm summers. Chill people. Great Friends. Oh, and a cool school I guess. It's just the top academic school in Australia. No big deal. Many pictures. New experiences. Unforgettable adventures. And lasting memories...

I'm laying in my bed for my last time for four months. The longest time I have been away from home, ever. The longest I have never seen my parents or my house had been for two weeks when I was in Maryland, and even at that I was ready to come home. But there's some slight differences about Maryland and Australia that have me thinking after two weeks in Australia I'll be praying that the semester lasts as long as it can. I hope it's not one of those things that's over before you know it.

Game Plan:
Soak up every moment over there. Put nothing to waste and have no regrets. Find the bright side in everything unfavorable. Minimize the bad days and maximize the good times. Don't say NO. Surf as much as possible. Take advantage of the 18 year old drinking age (just as it should be). Barely pass all my classes. And live it up. Goodnight. God Bless. Game On.

so this is it...

I will be taking off for Australia in exactly 3 days from now. 11:50pm is when the flight leaves. January 4th. LAX. I'm not packed and not mentally prepared. It's like one of those infinite-finite things. Like where infinite can't understand finite. I honestly don't know what to think about it. Like Australia is INFINITE and I am FINITE. I will never be able to understand the things I will experience and go through over there, no matter how much I read or study, until I actually go through it. Hm. It's just like incomprehensible, as stupid as that sounds... ANYWAYS, I said bye to some family today and I have a few more goodbye dinners to go. Am I sad? No. I'll see them again, unless I die on my flight over...or maybe pull some crazy LOST crap... Who knows. Anyways, this is my first post of many on my blog. Definitely accounting for every adventure that I may end up in/on in Australia. It's gunna be nuts. I can't wait. First stop will be Cairns or something weird like that. Great Barrier Reef, Outback, and Jungle tours with Koalas and Kangaroos. It's just like a little culture integration program that AustraLearn puts all the students through so they get the "real" Australian experience and acculturation that they need, supposedly. Packing, see you laters, and a 15 hour flight are the only things that stand in my way till then. Yep. Blog you later. Peace :)