#G’Day Mate Kangaroo t shirt

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Week #1

I thought about starting this with something cheesy like “G’day mates” but I can’t get myself to, so I’ll start with this. Oh my goodness. This week has flown by. Literally because I was on airplanes for 20.5 hours and crossed the international date line so I skipped an entire day. When I arrived in Brisbane I had to lug around a huge 50 pound bag, a 30 pound backpack, a I don’t know how many pounds carry on backpack, and a camera bag. I met with the group (ISA is the program I’m going through that hosts an orientation,) and we headed to Byron Bay. Upon arrival we then had to carry those bags on a 10 minute walk through the city streets to get to the hostel. I felt like I had done a work out the next day. After dinner that day, some friends and I went out for a drink in order to stay awake past 7 to get on a normal sleep schedule. I got my first legal drink because drinking age is 18 and it was delicious. (Sorry Joyce, I know I told you I’d only write what grandmas want to hear.) We immediately went to bed after the one drink and all woke up a 3 am and laid in bed pretending to sleep so we didn’t wake each other up even though we were ALL up. (The we in that story is the 7 girls in the same room with me. As you can imagine it got quite messy with each of us digging through our large bags trying to find anything.)

Enough about that though you’re probably wondering what I did all week besides drag 5,000 pounds of luggage across the state of Queensland. The day after we arrived in Byron Bay we hiked near the light house and watched the sunrise. It was pretty cloudy but you could still see rays of pink poking through and it was beautiful. (I’ll be posting pictures soon, but the WiFi here is HORRIBLE. Apparently the government got scammed? Google it, all of Australia has horrible internet.) After the sunrise we had surf lessons. Not to brag or anything but I got up on my first try and the instructor told me I was a natural, so basically I’m a pro. I’m definitely going to make the bus trip to Surfer’s Paradise and go surfing some more.

The next day we went on an organic farm tour and got to plant lettuce. Also, did I mention there were puppies? There were 8 puppies that were like 4 weeks old and I just about cried. Don’t worry the pictures of THAT are coming soon too. After the tour we went to a brewery for lunch and everyone was upset that we didn’t get any beer because we’re not allowed to drink on ISA outtings. (Don’t worry Joyce.) Later we went on a bush walk with “Cockatoo Paul,” who if you read Allison’s blog, is a bit crazy and has a pet cockatoo named Pickles. He taught us about the different plants in Australia and showed us some to eat. As great as that information is, I don’t think I’ll be attempting to eat any plants on my own any time soon. Once the bush walk was over we returned to the organic farm and met with an Aboriginal man. He told us stories about his culture, his life, and a little history. He played the digeridoo, showed us a story painting he made with his uncle, and taught us a dance. It was so cool to get to learn more about the culture of Australia that isn’t seen as often anymore. (Roughly 2.5% of the Australian population is Aboriginal.) Later that night, the whole gang went to a gig at The Northern to see The Chats since it was our last night. If you don’t know who The Chats are here’s a link to a song called “Smoko.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j58V2vC9EPc It was a really good show and I got a sick t-shirt. Unfortunately I had to miss the encore because I had to get up at 5 am the next day to pack and get ready. Ya girl needs her beauty sleep and boy she got none this week let me tell you.

Friday we left at 7:30 in the morning on the trek back to Brisbane to say goodbye to the other ISA students that were flying to other cities. Of course this wasn’t without a pitstop. We made a little detour to the Currumbin Wild Life Sanctuary. I’ve been there before when we went and visited Allison and it’s just as amazing as it was that time. My friends and I made a beeline for the kangaroos obviously. Who wouldn’t want to spend as much time as possible petting and feeding kangaroos while also getting a sick selfie in the process? We also saw a salty (salt water croc) and now I have no plans to go up north as cool as that would be.

After dropping everyone off at the airport we went to campus, but that’s a whole story and this blog is already WAY too long sorry. I’ll write about that more later. I’m late for dinner with my neighbors.