One Month Down

Hi again!

Sorry its taken me so long to post. I am just too busy settling into my new life in Australia. I can't believe that I have now officially been here for one month. It feels like so much longer. I am so thankful to have this wonderful opportunity and to have met so many amazing people since being here. To start off this blog post I will talk about the real reason I am actually here which is school. I am taking four classes while I am here and they are Introduction to Event Management, International Food and Beverage, Event Marketing and Sponsorship, and OrganiSing and Staging the Commonwealth games (Yes, organising is spelt with an s here). In case you do not know what the Commonwealth Games are, they are a gaming competition where countries that are apart or once were apart of the Commonwealth compete. No, I had not heard of these before I came here. I gather that they are like a miniature version of the Olympics, but here is the exciting news......They are being held in the Gold Coast in 2018!!! There is construction all over the city preparing for the games which are four years from now. The games will be held right across from Griffith University (where I go). They are also constructing a tram that goes all across the city. They are expected to finish it right when I am leaving, of course. So far, my classes do not seem too difficult and somewhat interesting. I have a lecture and a tutorial in all of them once a week and have Thursday and Friday off. I am so thrilled to have a five day weekend every weekend! Griffith is a pretty nice school and I am getting to the point where I see someone I know almost every time I walk across campus! I love seeing familiar faces around because I can't always say the same thing about UCF. Overall though I feel like it will be a good semester!

Next, I want to talk about my weekend in Brisbane! I had so much fun traveling with such a great group of international students. We left on Friday and the trip to Brisbane was so easy and cheap. I spent less than 5 dollars getting to Brisbane. After we got off the train and headed towards Griffith University Nathan Campus to meet up with old friends and new ones. Some of our international friends from the Nathan Campus set us up to stay with their friends. So we ended up staying at the house of three French students. To thank them for letting us stay, we made them dinner. Maria and I made a wonderful sweet potato salad for them and got chicken wings to barbecue. (If you want Maria's recipe just ask, its so good!) We hung out at there house for a little while and than headed to the city to meet up with more of our friends in the center of Brisbane. We went to a place called down under and hung out and played some pool. Our friend Dorris even won $50 dollars in a dance competition. I would have entered, but I didn't think it would be fair to the other dancers. ;) The next day we explored Brisbane and I have to say it is a beautiful city. There are many tall intricate buildings and the Brisbane river flows right through the city. We took a ferry to the other side of the river where we went to a street market and a public pool. It was very cool and the vendors had so many nice things, I wanted to buy it all! We later walked to the Brisbane Botanic Gardens where we lounged in the grass and enjoyed the vegetation. Afterwards we headed to Cole's (grocery store) and bought food for a barbecue. (We have a lot of barbecues here). We had so much funny barbecuing by the river and the food was delicious! Brisbane is such a pretty city and I can't wait to go back now that I know how easy it is to get there. 

Well that is all for now! Remember to keep in touch with me. I'm telling you about my life, but I want to hear about yours!

Lots of Love,

Erica a month out of America

Byron Bay Adventures

I have now been somewhere other than the Gold Coast in Australia! This past Wednesday, I joined Extreme Adventures for an excursion to Byron Bay. While there I enjoyed many different activities and further bonding with my fellow international students.

The trip began at the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. While there we got to see all the wonderful animals that are native to Australia. I loved seeing all the animals and I have got to say that a lot indigenous Australian animals are pretty precious. At first we rode a train to one side of the park where we didn't see very many animals, but felt a lot of Mosquitos! We finally found the Dingos and they were very cute. They reminded me a lot of the dog breed, Shiba Inu. While we were looking at them something must have been bothering them because they kept howling at something.

We next discovered the kangaroos! I loved being able to be so close to them. I even got to feed one of the younger ones! We next saw the koalas, which I have to admit, were my favorites. I held one and it did get a little frisky...

Num Num Num

Kangaroo Selfie

Nico getting funky with an iguana

After leaving Currumbin we headed straight to Byron Bay, which took about an hour. The drive wasn't too bad and we saw a lot of Australian countryside. As soon as we arrived in Byron we checked into our hostel, put our stuff down, and went straight on a hike. It was a nice but very exhausting hike. There were a lot of stairs involved and not many breaks so I did get a little winded. It was all worth it though when we reached the lighthouse. The views were breathtaking and almost seemed unreal. It is also exciting to say that I have now been to the Eastern most part of the mainland of Australia!

Perfect opportunity for a Titanic pic

After the hike, we ended up getting lost trying to find our way back to the hostel, but on the plus side we got to see some of the city. After finally making our way back (with some bonus blisters on my feet), we headed to the beach. As soon as our group got to the beach we went to the water to cool off and then passed out on the beach. After about an hour resting we learned that there is actually a time difference between Byron Bay and the Gold Coast and that we were running late. We hopped off the beach and got ready to go to the Cheeky Monkey. Back at the room I realized I forgot to bring my other pair of shoes, but luckily Maria (from Denmark) was nice enough to let me borrow a pair of her flip-flops. It worked out because apparently it’s the style in Denmark to wear tennis shoes out. At the Cheeky Monkey, a restaurant that turns into a bar at night, we ate food and socialized until the music started. As soon as the music started everyone jumped up onto the tables and started dancing. Cheeky monkey is known for having tables that double up as dance floors. It was a fun night and my group established our party anthem, which is “Trumpets” by Jason Derulo.

The next day we kayaked and the guides definitely took a fancy towards me. I think it was because I was the only one interested in buying their shark repellent. We had a great time kayaking in the ocean. Maria was a terrible partner though!!! (She was actually awesome; I kind of was the bad partner) Maria and I were nice enough to show the group how to get back in the kayak after you flip over and we most definitely did this on purpose... We were also the first to flip over because we didn’t want the others to feel bad if they flipped over. After kayaking a little we took a break, and that is when I volunteered Nico to compete in the Tim Tam challenge. The goal was to eat 16, but he only managed to eat 8. At least he tried! Overall, kayaking was incredible. I was a little disappointed that we didn’t see dolphins, but we can go back for free since we did not see them. Also just a fun fact, it is really hard to kayak onto the beach.

After kayaking, we spent the day shopping and exploring. Byron Bay is an incredible place and is full of hippies. Everywhere we looked were hippie vans! When we got back from shopping we had dinner at the hostel and I was lucky enough to have two dinners because I might of accidently spilled the first one all over myself….whoopsie. As fellow blogger Joyce Lansky always says, “you can dress me up, but you can’t take me anywhere.”
The next day I learned how to surf and I actually managed to stand up on the board for a wave or two! I’ll have to try again another time. Someday maybe I’ll be good enough to enter the Quicksilver surf competition that’s going on at the Gold Coast right now! Hey, I can dream! After getting back from a tiring surf lesson a group of us played volleyball at the hostel. Luckily I don’t think my team realized their disadvantage of having me on the team. We actually managed to win 1 out of 3 games. It was a tough competition though!

So Determined!

Not so Determined!

Overall Byron Bay was an amazing place that I recommend anyone and everyone to go to. It is full of beautiful scenery and crazy hippies!

I will now leave you with my groups party anthem, Trumpets!

Lots of love,

Erica Not In America