My apologies...

I am very sorry I haven't written in over a month. So much has been going on and I have been so crazy busy that writing a blog about all of my adventures seemed overwhelming. I am not starting to write about the adventures just yet, but here is an overview of what I've done this past month. I will expand on each event with detail in later posts but this is just to tide you (Mom) over!

September 20th:

Shopping with Aly and Makenzie on George Street after a long stroll through the MCA, Museum of Contemporary Art, with Makenzie.

September 24th:

Garden Party!!! Huge **EXCLUSIVE** party on Shark Island, an island in the harbour, with only college kids. Fun day of tanning and drinking on an island wearing matching t-shirts!

Leave for New Zealand- hectic trip to the airport but made it on time and to New Zealand!

September 24-29:

Traveled New Zealand in a Nissan Sunny on the other side of the road. Got lost more than we found our way but saw more mountains and sheep in the 5 days there than I've ever seen in my life! Definitely one of the best trips of my life and the most beautiful place I've ever been!!!

September 28th:

Halfway done with the trip. Very sad day :(

September 29-October 1st:

Hung around Wesley bored out of my mind because no one was here. Wish I could say I got a lot of work done but I really just chatted with a bunch of people from home, compiled videos of last year, spring break and New Zealand, organized my room and my computer, watched movies and waited patiently for people to come back!

October 6th:

VD!!! - Victory Dinner. Since the Soccer Boys won the Rawson Cup for Wesley, we had a huge dinner and party for them. The theme for the rest of college was "Wesley at Sea" so we all dressed as pirates, sailors, fish, seaweed, jelly fish, all sorts of things! However the soccer boys had their own theme - Firemen- and they all looked so beautiful in their firemen costumes!!! Its typical for the sport to have a different theme from the rest of college and it was definitely funny! The videos I have from the night are HILARIOUS! I can't wait to finally help you understand how crazy these kinds of dinners are!

October 8th:

Totally killed an Engineering Quiz! Go me!

October 9th -October 10th:

Got SCUBA certified!!!! Very exciting! Anyone wanna go diving with me?

October 14th:

Black Ball! - Wesley Formal. I wore a beautiful purple dress that I love so much and got all dolled up to have a College Formal. Its just like prom but without the dates and everyone is drinking legally.

October 15th:

Recovery Day for Black Ball! - After big events like formals, Wesley hosts a "Recovery Day" on the front lawns. Music, drinks, food, and lounging all day to hopefully cure the hangovers that resulted from the night before.

October 16th:

Recover from Recovery Day! haha everyone was so tired!

October 17th:

Adventure Day 2! Went sand surfing, 4WD through sand dunes, dolphin watching (not in the dunes), had fish and chips for lunch all topped off with an ice cream cone. We were blessed with a gorgeous day!

October 18th:

Worked on the balcony of the library for 4 hours in the shining sun and got my first sunburn! It wasn't a bad one, in fact, it was gone the next day! But it was a sign that the weather is finally getting warmer!!

That's what I've done the past month! Here is a look at what I have for the next month to come!

October 20th:

Fairwell dinner with my Study Abroad Program.

Girls Night in - kind of like Girls Night Out except we have our own party in the college while the boys go out! Not sure what to expect from that. I heard some pretty gross stuff about Boys Night In so I hope its nothing like that!

October 26th:

Huge final paper for my Indigenous Australia class due! Need a good grade in order to pass the class!

October 27th:

All of my Art class stuff due!!! So much stuff!

Valete - fairwell dinner for the third years in Wesley. We all get dressed up, say goodbye, and have a huge party (just like Victory Dinner and Christmas in July) in the courtyard. Will be the last one of the year so its pretty sad!

October 28th- November 4th:

MOM COMES TO VISIT! We are going to pack her trip with fun things to do because she's only here for a week! We'll do all of the touristy stuff around Sydney, most of the beaches, watch a show in the Opera House, go on a pub crawl, hike the Blue Mountains and so much more!

October 31st:

Having our own Halloween in the American room because no one really celebrates Halloween here so we're having our own party!

November 1st - November 3rd:

Mom and I will be in Melbourne! November 2nd is the Melbourne Cup which is equivalent to the Kentucky Derby. We hope to wear big hats if we can find them!

November 5th:

3/4 of the way done.. getting sadder!

November 10th:

First of two finals - Engineering Materials!

November 12th:

Ashley's 21st birthday!!! Big party for her here! Australians actually celebrate 21st birthdays here like we celebrate sweet 16s! its kind of funny because 21 isnt really a big deal here because you can drink when you're 18!

November 17th:

Second and last final - Math: Partial Differential Equations. Worth 70% of my grade. Wish me luck!!!

November 21st:

Say goodbye to all of my Wesley friends and hope that they come to visit me in America!

November 21st-December 8th:

Travel with Makenzie all around Australia! Try to pack in as much traveling as we can before we have to leave our new home!

December 8th-December 15th:

Vacation in FIJI with Makenzie! Hopefully it will be a week of more beautiful and fun things! I plan on taking advantage of my Scuba certification!!

December 15th:

Fly back to America if they let me in!!! God Bless the USA!

One of the best weekends here so far!

Thursday, September 16:

Thursday morning after rocking my Math Midterm, I took an awesome nap to rest of for Girls' Night Out and Brianna's 21st Birthday Celebration. Wesley hosted this event "Girls' Night Out, Boys' Night In". The Wesley boys stayed at Wesley and had a massive Frat party where they got way too drunk and way too rowdy by themselves. The girls, however, went to a karaoke bar in the city and had an awesome couple of hours of free drinks and singing! Each "grade" had a different theme to dress as: 3rd year - gangter/rapper, 2nd year - 90s/grunge, 1st year - 70s/hippy. However, the same night was Brianna's 21st Birthday dinner so Makenzie and I missed most of the Girls' Night Out but got to see the end which was probably the best part! Brianna's dinner was wonderful! We went to this Greek restaurant by her school and had some awesome food and company!

Friday, September 17th:

Friday morning was AWESOME thanks to one of our new good friends Faf. He has been taking girls at Wesley out to breakfast for the past few weeks so he took me, Ashley, Aly an Makenzie! We drove thru Mcdonals (because that is what we wanted) and then to a really cool dock that looked right onto the Anzac bridge. We saw so many live jelly fish in the water and talked about funny things like embarrassing stories. It was a wonderful morning! The rest of the day was kind of quiet but it was a good day to rest up for the big day we had Saturday. I watched a lot of One Tree Hill thanks to Addie who got me hooked!

Saturday, September 18th:

Ashley, Makenzie and I had another early morning and headed to the beach. But not just any of the popular beaches around Sydney, a very secluded and quiet beach. The weather was absolutely beautiful and we couldn't wait to hit the sand! We took two busses and arrived in one of the most beautiful areas called Vaucluse and decided that we would live there if we ever earned enough money. We finally made it to Milk beach which literally stretched about 40 yards! I don't even know if I would call it a beach! The water was just the harbour and there were no waves! However, there was NO one there except us and it has an amazing view of the harbor and the city from the other side. We climbed up this huge rock that had a flat top and tanned up there to absorb as much sun as we could. It was also the first beach I found shells at so I went crazy picking up almost all of them!

As the day went on we saw a lot of people going up this path and we decided we wanted to go for a little walk to find out where everyone else was going! We walked along the harbour from the other side and just saw amazing views from really awesome cliffs. Carly and Trey made an album of themselves in handstands all over New Zealand so Makenzie and I decided we wanted to do something cool like that. So, on this huge rock we found overlooking the Sydney Bridge so we decided put ourselves into bridges. As you can see in the picture, we're identica. One rock was over really deep water and we decided to jump! I, of course, let the girls go first so that if anything happened I could go in and save them. How responsible. Also, I had to take the picture! So after hearing about how cold but awesome it was I was convinced to jump off! They were definitely right about the cold part! Getting out was tough because we kept cutting out legs on the sharp snail shells and barnacles on the rocks. Other than the cold water, the blood dripping down our legs and the wet bathing suits under our clothes, the jump was totally worth it!

We walked through the rest of the park and back to the bus satisfied with our trip! It was the first beach I actually wore my bikini, went into the water, and wasn't freezing because of the wind. I now have a bit of sunburn and I've never been happier about it! Its a terrific sign that winter here is over and its about to get really fun :)

Later that night Makenzie, Kendra (another friend from Trinity studying here), and I went to the Fogarty's (Lachlan's family) house for dinner. We had the worst luck when it came to catching busses so the trip there was very frustrating however once we did it was so much fun. We had a wonderful home cooked dinner (salad, hamburgers and chicken yum!) and amazing mousse for dessert. The company was even better than the dinner! Lachlan's two friends Nick and Evan came over as well so we had plenty of laughs at the dinner table. There was not a silent awkward moment for a whole 4 hours that we were there! It really amazed us girls how close Lachlan's friends are to his family and of course how close the family is. We have been so distant from any form of family not just because we don't have any here, but kids at college rarely have there parents come and visit! We have become pretty good friends with Lachlan's sister Gen as well and we all plan to go out again sometime soon. We are going to have to plan something awesome for the Fogarty's for being our home away from home!

Sunday, September 19:

Makenzie and I had another early morning and went to church. We decided to go to the beautiful cathedral in Hyde Park because we hadn't had a chance before. We got there pretty early and saw that the Sydney Marathon and Fun Run were going on right in the park! We cheered for a bit for the runners and giggled at the little girls chanting "Go Daddy Go" at all the men because they had no clue when their actual father was going to run past them. Luckily, we got to watch the dad hi-five the girls and the wife which surprisingly made both me and Makenzie tear up! It was so sweet. We made our way into the Cathedral and took our seats. This mass was a bit different from their services because they had a boys and mens choir singing almost the whole mass. They are one of the best choirs in all of Sydney apparently and I can definitely believe that! The race was over when mass got out so we didn't get to see them all finish and congratulate anyone but we decided that we wanted to run through Hyde Park because it is so beautiful! It is a good thing Mom is staying so close to that park. I passed the street she is staying on and it is so close to everything! The shopping, the park, the markets, the harbour, literally everything! I can't wait for her to come. On our way back to school, Makenzie and I planned to go back to where we were and do some sale shopping for winter things going on sale! And of course for dresses for Black Ball, the formal coming up in a few weeks!). We also stopped into the Woolworths Grocery Story (yes mom, thats the popular one and its so close to where you'll be staying) and bought some TimTams, the best cookies here, 2 for $4. Big deal! But dont tell the boys I live with that I have them because they'll be gone before I even open them!

Once back to Wesley and after lunch, Makenzie and I did some planning for out traveling once school ends. Makenzie did her research and marked all of the places we should go and I looked up prices for the Greyhounds that can take us to and from these destinations! We have 3 weeks after our last final to travel the whole east coast and little money to do it on. Hopefully couch surfing will be as convenient as everyone says it is and save us a bunch of money! We have plenty of time before November 17th but a lot of planning to do before then in order to make sure everything goes smoothly and so we don't throw away too much money on spontaneous fun. We will fly up to Cairns to see the Great Barrier Reef and just find our way back to Sydney before the 8th! Don't forget, we have a whole week in Fiji after we leave here!

School is getting in the way of my vacation!!

Well I haven't done anything too exciting these past few weeks because its coming down to the Mid-Semester mark! I can't believe its here already! Thank goodness I'll be here for an extra month after my finals! But these past few weeks have been hectic with work.

2 printmaking projects

1 Critical Review

2 Presentations

2 Presentation Papers

1 Math assignment

1 Math quiz

2 engineering quizzes

All of this in a 4 week time period! Its a good thing I was blessed with intelligence... or maybe its just the ability to BS my way through work under pressure! Just kidding, Dad!

On top of all of my work I've been:

1. Attending 9 hours of lectures and 7 hours of tutorials a week (as teacher’s pet)

2. Watching Men's and Women’s Intercol Tennis (as spectator)

3. Taking out Makenzie's dreadlocks (as a good friend)

4. Playing the guitar (as student aka Taylor Swift)

5. Singing in Palladian - Choir competition (as Soprano)

6. Surprising our friend Beatrice for her birthday (as her American friend)

7. Eating a whole bunch of junk thanks to my Mom's awesome care package (as "that" girl in college)

8. Reading Uncle Pete's daily emails (as Maggot)

9. Watching the Trinity Soccer team and sending some friends encouraging messages about the season (as honorary Soccer Mom)

10. Organizing Soccer Moms for the boys soccer team back at Trinity (as Soccer Grandma?)

11. Taking penicillin and Advil 4 times a day (as sick chick with tonsillitis)

12. Talking to my parents as much as possible about school/life/my illness (as the favorite daughter)

13. Applying to every job that is looking for someone (as the desperate female that wants money)

14. Scheduling a dinner with Lachlan’s family (as honorary (homesick) daughter)

15. Evacuating Wesley at 3:45am because of a fire alarm (as innocent sleeper)

16. Writing my Christmas list (as Sydney on Santa’s “NICE” list)

17. Entertaining Anna and Carly on their Spring Break to Sydney (as the best roommate ever) – separate blog to be posted shortly

18. Teaching Australian’s how to make s’mores –in the microwave (as the best American to ever enter Wesley – just kidding about that one)

That is all I can think of at this time but it seems like a lot. I’m having a good time here if you can’t tell but school is definitely getting in the way! I want it to be over however I don’t want my trip to end! I do miss home and definitely miss Trinity University since everyone is back now and having fun, but I know this trip is an experience that I won’t ever get to have later in my life! I will be home/at Trinity for the next 2-6 years and only here for 3 more months! Even though my list looks long, and fun, I need to step up my Australian game and get some more fun out of my experience – if its possible!!!

Shout out to the Trinity Girls and Boy’s soccer teams that won this past Wednesday! Good luck this weekend!

Manly Sydney

Contrary to what you may have thought about this blog post because of the title, I still have no upper body strength. Manly is actually a beach in Sydney right on the Pacific Ocean. Ashley's friend Ashley came to visit from Brisbane early Saturday (August 14th) and we took her out for a gorgeous day at the beach. We took a bus to Circular Quay where the bridge and Sydney Opera House are and took a ferry to Manly Wharf. The ferry ride over there was so beautiful it was a shame that we had to sit inside and take our pictures through the windows. I took so many because everything was just so beautiful and green. We saw all of these beautiful apartments on cliffs that look right onto the harbour, awesome lighthouse, and gorgeous boats of all different sizes:

Once we made it to Manly, we had a lunch picnic on the steps overlooking the beach. While fighting with the seagulls for our hot chips (french fries) we managed to fill our stomachs and still want Copenhagen Ice Cream. The shops and restaurants on the Manly Strip are so cute and fun that I'm thankful they're so far away or else I would lose all of my money (or my parents' money).

We finally made it down to the sand and relaxed under the sun. It was such a beautiful day but the wind was blowing pretty hard so it made enjoying the warmth difficult. Aly and Makenzie took naps that included a little drool and a lot of rest!

After the sun was no longer dominating the wind we got up and walked around the market and shops. In hopes to catch free dinner at the dining hall at Wesley we quickly hopped on a ferry! It was perfect timing because we caught the sunset over the Pacific as well as dusk/dark along the skyline (we also made it just in time for dinner). I hope you enjoy the pictures because I took so many trying to capture how beautiful the trip really was!

Bike Tour around Sydney

Our Study Abroad program signed us up for a Bike Tour with Bonza Bike Tours on Sunday, August 8th.

I would have to say that is one of the best tours I have ever been on! I learned a lot of great history about Sydney and that I can still ride a bike after 13+ years! My bike was called "Meatballs", probably because I'm Italian but the you don't get to choose the bike - the bike chooses you.

Here are some fun views at different angles of the Sydney Opera House, Darling Harbour, and the Darling Harbour Bridge! We actually crossed the bridge twice on the bikes which was pretty awesome! A little piece of history about the bridge - you can't see but there are tiny bolts that line and stabilize the entire bridge. These were nailed in by men holding onto the bridge for dear life while the bolts were still hot. Surprisingly, only two men died from constructing the actual bridge part. Unfortunately, 14 men died because of the machinery that was used to construct the towers on both sides that serve no structural purpose to the bridge.

When we walked through the Botanical Gardens we saw this huge tree. No one really knows how old this tree is because its actually not a tree at all! Its a vine! When the vine grows, the stems can grow into the ground and act as roots! It is gated off because the branches are actually hollow so they don't want anyone to climb on it (sorry Carly)!

This is St. Mary's Church at the North End of Hyde Park. This is actually where the Pope stayed when he came to Sydney. A funny story we heard was that before the Pope came, there was no bathroom in the church. They thought they would have to put him up in a hotel but then they had a hard time deciding which hotel would get to say that they put up the Pope! Long story short they decided to put plumbing in the church so that the Pope could stay where he wanted. They have no idea if the Pope used the bathroom but they destroyed the toilet because they wanted to make sure no one sold it on ebay! St. Mary's is now a Catholic Church with no bathroom once again!! I guess that's why there are so many Port-a-potties out on the side!

We saw so many things around the city all in four hours! I would definitely recommend this tour to anyone coming to visit. Carly, if you're reading this - I'm signing us up for a tour when you come to visit because I get a discount for my second ride (and I'm trying to get a job at the bike shop)!

Some things I left out...

I may or may not have already told you we lost our last Rugby game but we had fun watching and learning anyway. It was supposed to be cancelled because of all of the rain we were having but they just moved it to a different field. The boys were covered in mud! The boys were tackling each other in these huge mud puddles that were pretty gross but I guess they didn't really care too much! I was on the sideline and almost got my legs taken out from under me by a St. Paul's bloke. He went to tackle one of our guys and just kept sliding right for me! It was a good thing I moved out of the way as fast as I did or I would have gotten mud all over the jumper (sweatshirt) that Addie let me wear for the game! Of course I kicked him while he was down and said "stay on your own side!!!!!". Just kidding.. I considered it though. Its a shame that we didn't win but the boys had Christmas in July to look forward to that night!

Wesley is the Black team and the Griffindor wanna-be's are St. Pauls. The beautiful building behind the field is another college St. Johns.

Christmas in July was a beautiful formal dinner prepared by Wesley for the students. We dressed up, sang songs and made people do funny things! For instance, everyone started banging their spoons on the tables and chanted "Sabretooth!". All of a sudden this one boy goes to the back of the dining hall and runs to the front on all fours!!! He was literally running like an animal - a Sabretooth in fact. I could not stop laughing, I thought it was the funniest thing I had ever seen! I wish I took a picture of him! Then they would make people stand up on the chairs and tables and scream funny things like: "I'M A MONSTERRRRRR!!" or make donkey noises. Yes, this was supposed to be a formal dinner, haha! After the dinner there was a big party for the Wesley students in the courtyard that lasted what seemed like forever. It was definitely a fun time and I can't wait to have another formal dinner like that. If we win the championships in one of our sports we get another dinner just like this called a Victory Dinner.

Makenzie is dressed as Hannukah and I'm supposed to be dressed like an Angel.

This is when we all stood up on our seats and sang funny Wesley songs. Toby decided to stand on the table.

Carnivale and Wesley Softball

As most of you know, Ashley and I joined the Wesley Softball Team! We got a cool Wesley Softball polo shirt, a jumper (sweatshirt) that says Wesley Softball, and a hat with a big W on it so that's pretty neat! Yesterday (Tuesday afternoon for Australia, Monday evening for America), we played a college called St. John's. They're the most similar college to Wesley so we don't really like them. In fact we don't really like anyone except Wesley! However, yesterday we lost 11-9 but we put up a good fight! I hurt my thumb which kind of stinks because it really affected my throwing for the game yesterday as well as today. Good thing I don't have another game until Tuesday! Today's game was against Sancta Sophia - one of the all women's college. We won 18-4 which was really great for us!! Let's hope it wasn't our only one! We have two more games - next tuesday and wednesday against Women's College and St. Andrews. Our biggest rivals are St. Andrews so us American's refer to them as Slitheran (obviously Wesley is Griffindor). Apparently both teams have really amazing pitchers so we'll have to be on our offensive game next week!

Carnivale was last night. It was a HUGE party hosted by Wesley and right on our front lawn. Everyone dressed up kind of like they would for Mardi Gras - bright colors, glitter, feathers, tutus, ... etc! I painted a pink dress with gold paint in spirals all over and then wore bright purple tights and crazy sparkles on my eyes and face! My hair was extremely curly and bouncy with a silver sequin headband. I don't have any pictures but maybe Makenzie does! All of the Freshers (first years) at Wesley had to work for a 3 hour shift but it was still a lot of fun! We raised a lot of money for the college and showed everyone that Wesley throws the best parties!

Here is a picture of Ashley and Makenzie in their Carnivale outfits!