almost done with school!

Hello! I am getting worse and worse at updating this so I finally told myself I needed to sit down and write some things out (especially because that is so much more interesting than writing an 8 page paper!) A few things have happened since I last blogged. Last weekend was international food fair on campus! Campus East itself has students from 43 different countries which is amazing in itself. So for one day they shut down the kitchen and teams of different countries prepare food from their home country and all students come out and go around to each stall to try some different food out. I was on team Italy (yes, I am quite aware that I am not from Italy it's just team U.S.A. was headed by another group of people and my roommate was the head of Italy so she kind of recruited me to help out) We made a dessert and a pasta dish - the dessert was so good! A dense chocolate cake with a middle filling nutella and marscapone and then the pasta was just fresh tomatoes, olive oil, garlic and italian spices. Our food stall was the first to run out of food so I deemed that meaning Italy won haha but every country put forth such amazing dishes that I had never tasted before. I was so full for the rest of the day but it was a great event that I'm so glad campus puts on for us.

Another night my friends here and I decided to do was a Wine and Cheese night. I was in charge of getting all the cheese and everyone would bring a couple dollars and a bottle of wine. I went a little overboard with the varieties of cheese but hey, if it looked good, I got it! and it was delicious! Here is the spread:


From Right all the way around clockwise is homemade guacamole, then a plate with laughing cow variety pack cheeses. The next plate had four different types - Danish blue cheese, gouda, a swiss cheese, and a sundried tomato cheese that was SO GOOD! Then a plate of hard salami with different types of crackers. The next plate had a cream cheese spread that was flavored with sweet thai chili sauce - another fan favorite. A tin of feta cheese and semi-sundried tomatoes in seasoned oil. A chunk of Norwegian cheese - jarlsberg and cambert. A dish of green olives with those fun tooth picks with the tassles. Cut up Dipping bread with Extra Virgin Olive Oil I got in the hunter valley and this balsamic glaze that goes down the bottom and makes a delicious dip. And then a whole plate of cheddar cheese slices with apples and crackers. The finishing plate was a three creamed brie and a salt-washed rind cheese that is like brie but a little more punch to it - mmmm...Altogether it was delectable!


Then comes the wine part!! Above is Matt, Amanda and Myself with our delicious wines and below is the whole spread of the different wines we all brought and shared! I also broke out my little bottle of chili schnapps which we all took shots of at the end of the night to top it off. I actually passed mine to someone else because I tried it on my wine tour (I also didn't want to have my mouth be on fire for the rest of the evening). It was a great night just to get away from tests and assignments and attempt to be sophisticated together.


So I've figured out I only have one more week on Monday left in school which is so bittersweet. I got to talk with Jean Marie yesterday and it made me miss home quite a bit but at the same time I really do not want to leave lovely Australia! Also talking to Jean Marie I've realized there are some avid readers of my blog - thanks for reading!! I do have a shout out for one particular reader - Joy Agule! Joy, I have to give you props because Jean Marie informs me not "Brenna, I was reading your blog" but instead "Joy was telling me that you have in your blog that you did...." haha so Thank you for updating my mom because she wouldn't know half the things if it weren't for you :) also I hope you're doing well and I can't wait to see you when I get back!!

Also about five minutes ago I was a little bored and realized that my sort of bangs were quite long. Nikolai my roommate was just floating around in my room and I told him I think I should cut my hair. My friend Taylor did my bangs one random night and they came out really good so I decided I could do it too. My being the idiot I am just cut them SO SHORT - haha I look like a little boy who was attacked by his mother with a bowl to get his bangs trimmed up. Nikolai also photographed the whole event because he knew I would mess it up somehow - well pat yourself on the back Nikolai, I messed up. Whatever, hair grows back but now there's this big clump on my desk and it makes me a bit depressed that I just did that haha. So word of advice, if you're a little nervous to cut your own hair don't do it ha.

my, my, my

HOLY SMOKES! it was been far too long since I have updated my blog...my sincere apologies!! The end of school is winding down so the work is increasingly piling up. Last weekend, our campus had a harbor cruise right in Sydney Harbor! It was supposed to be an open bar and fancy dress so I was quite excited! It ended up being a good time but the people manning the boat were big mean faces. As soon as I walked on I saw they were serving coronas and I thought to myself, wow, this is a nicer beer than I thought they would give us. Turns out, they were from 2006 and way overdated. I didn't drink any, but all the boys were complaining how they tasted a little "off". They also didn't explain to us you couldn't double fist (have two drinks at once) and one of the random staff members would pace around just ripping drinks from peoples' hands. He wouldn't even give them warning, just walk around grabbing them. I found it hilarious to watch peoples' faces because he was crazy! They also yelled at random people for no reason (well, I'm sure there was a reason but n the story, there was no reason). The boat also docked early so no one was pleased about that.

But before the harbor cruise started, I went into Sydney with a whole big group of Norwegians from campus for Norwegian day! It's like their 4th of July, so there was a big parade through the city and ice cream and rolls at the end. So many little kids and adults were dressed in traditional clothes which I happily stalked with my camera and took stalker pictures. There was one boy who was just going to town on his ice cream getting it eeeeverywhere, so he was a must kodak moment!

I also called home to have big dave transfer money from my accounts because I have three weeks off and who knew that travelling cost quite a bit of money! So I guess I asked for a bit more than he was expecting and was like "Brenna!! This is your money so I want to ask you a question - when are you going to pay yourself back for this!!" Um, eat ramon noodles for the rest of my life?? He also wanted to know my plans for the three weeks and where I would be going. I went through the places (Melbourne, Fraser Island, Whitsundays and Fiji) and when I got to Fiji he goes "FIJI! What! You're going to Fiji!! Jean, did you know she was going to FIJI!....fiji!" I kind of wish I had recorded it. But after talking with him, I did realize how much money I was actually going to spend so my travel buddies and myself went through some things so we could cut some corners on money. For example, in Melbourne we were going to do a tour of the great ocean road that looked pretty reasonable. Instead we decided to get a camper van so we could travel and sleep (that way we wouldn't have to worry about hostels) and it turns out that renting the van for the whole time there between the three people going will be half as much as just that one tour. The van also comes with a stove which is good because that way we can get cup-o-noodle (for like $.50 each) and eat that the whole time instead of spending huge amounts of money on food.

I did however splurge on one thing that I am SO EXCITED ABOUT!! So I saw Cirque Du Soilel in Florida when I was like 15 and it was so good! Well, turns out it is touring in Melbourne! So I checked out tickets and turns out the two I'm going with wanted the nose bleed section but the ones one section up where only $20 more. But I figured out in one section there was a front row single seat open!! SNAG!! I got so excited! I will be seeing Cirque Du Soilel front row! I've never seen anything front row...freaaaaking out!! so excitied! I do however need to get through a ridiculous amount of school work before all of these adventures start :(
Hopefully everyone is enjoying there beginning of summer...soak it in for me because it's starting to get cold here :( But I'll be home almost a month - that is ridiculous.

007 Ball

This past weekend, University of Wollongong had a ball that was titled the Casino Royal Ball - themed James Bond style. A bunch of my friends and I decided to buy tickets and go! I didn't have a nice gown so I decided to do some Op shopping (thrift stores) and I found this great brown long dress for only $12! I was pumped about this but when I tried it on, it really looked like a pregnant woman wore it before me. Everything was fit fine until it got to my rib line and then it just bubbled out. So I decided to buy some ribbon and pray that I could salvage the dress. It ended up looking fine so I just was like - hey, it didn't cost that much so if it looks semi-decent it was worth it. It was so much fun and we got three drink vouchers when entering the function hall. There were also dressed up people coming around with appetizers - holy smokes were they fantastic! It was like gourmet appetizers. I kept on yelling to Rolf that we needed to find the people with the appetizers. After stalking down several of them and getting a ridiculous amount of food, our group decided to go find our table after getting our drinks. When we got to our table, there provided for us were a bottle of white and red wine, a pitcher of beer as well as two juice pitchers. It was fabulous! Dinner came soon after and honestly, I would have paid to just eat the dinner - marinated salmon in this amazing vegetable sauce with asparagus or the most tender, rarest steak with pureed potatoes and a gravy sauce. Rolf and I both had half of our dishes and then switched so we got the best of both worlds. Then to top that off the desserts were uh- so good. I got the berry one that was a blend of all different berries with a whipped cream on top - I was in heaven. The then had all different kinds of gambling games set up but I forgot my money voucher at home so I just watched everyone else play the games happy just to sip my wine and enjoy! It was such a fun evening just to get all fancy and feel like you're going someplace more adventurous than your unit room. Here are some pictures from the evening:

my date Rolf and I before we left

The girls all dressed up (r-l) Yvonne, me, Sophie and Amanda (I have no idea why this is underlined in blue...I tried to get rid of it, beats me!)

All the boys - I don't if they were going for a James Bond pose or what but they are wearing nice clothes so that's all that matters - Braidon(Amanda's date), Jesse, Nikolai, Rolf and Rob.


My berry dessert! mmm....sooooo good

Myself, Edwin (Rolf's roommate first semester) and Rolf - this is personally one of my favorite shots of the evening. As you can see, it was quite a fun time.

Jumping out of a plane is highly advised

So I went skydiving. It was awesome.

I always wanted to skydive here in Australia and I finally just grabbed a couple people and booked it. It's with a company called Skydive the Beach Sydney and it drops you at 14,000 feet which is the highest a person can skydive. Jeff Crimmin who was a good friend from my high school was studying abroad in Scotland and decided during his reading week for finals to make a stop over in Australia - random but great! So he got in touch with me to say he wanted to visit Sydney and see if we could get together. I asked if he wanted to go skydiving while here, he said yes - perfect opportunity to fulfill one of my dreams. I only booked it one day in advance so the only time slot they had open was 6:30 am but I was too excited to turn it down. We woke up groggy and took a taxi (turns out the place was a lot closer than we thought). I decided to upgrade my dive to include photos and DVD and t-shirt (a lot of money extra but SO worth it). I met my guy Dan who I was going to be jumping tandem with. He had a video camera attached to his wrist so he could film the whole experience. He pulled me aside so could do the intro to the video which was pretty cheesy and he also asked me questions that I didn't know the answer to!? He was like "Brenna, what are we doing today?" and I said "doing what my Dad says - jumping out of a perfectly good airplane" and he said "oh you must be crazy girl"...all I could answer back laughing was "um......no not really" It's so awkward on the video and it makes me laugh everytime cause I was just like speechless and he was all up in my face with the camera. I forget what else he said that was awkward...oh I remember now. I was like "sorry Jean Marie and Big Dave, you don't know I'm doing this so my apologies" and he was like "don't apologize, you're gonna love it!"....It just was awkward...I think you need to see the video...but besides that I was pretty calm getting my harness on and boarding the bus to the airport. We boarded the airplane and my nerves surprisingly weren't an issue. I think I was too busy laughing at Jeff. He got assigned to jump with "the veteran" - this old man who had been working for the company for 36 years. Jeff also didn't purchase a video but the guy decided he was going to film him anyways so throughout the whole process the guy was up in Jeff's face, filming him and asking all these questions. Jeff's face was priceless because there was no reason why this guy was filming him, but for some reason he kept on doing it. (Jeff ended up buying the video at the end so, I guess it worked out in his favor). When Dan started strapping us together and the green light that said "1 mile to go" flicked on, that's when I got nervous. I was the third one to jump out so I got to see the door open up, and two people jump out. I think that was the sacriest thing - knowing that I was going to be doing the exact same thing that they did. So scary. But finally we jumped out and it was such a speechless moment - literally. As soon as my mouth was open, air filled in and the whole thing was dry. But free-falling didn't even feel like you were free falling, it just felt like you were above the ground soaring because the earth didn't look like it was rushing towards you. When you pulled the chute, that was really cool too. Dan let me steer the parachute and he pointed out all the little places. I also didn't tell my parents about this little adventure because like the good daughter I am, I didn't want to worry them. But I uploaded pictures and I changed my facebook picture so through the grapevine they found out sooner then I could tell them - whoops! But hey, Jean Marie, I'm alive - no worries!

Dan and I on the plane getting ready to take off!

Worst moment right here, knowing that you have to jump out of that plane.

Self - explanatory

Being able to steer the parachute, so cool.

All done and back on solid ground. So so so so cool. Two thumbs up.

These are also some randoms from Tasmania. I forgot I never posted photos and those are so much more interesting than my words so here are a few.

This was the group that went a couple days early so we took a drive down to the Southern most tip - this is the first stop we took for scenic pictures. Nikolai, myself, Amanda, Adam and Matt.

The view at Fisher's Point.

We were late enough to see the sunset as well.

The whole group at Cadbury Chocolate Factory. We had just picked Mali up from the airport so now the whole gang is together!

This was our first view on the hike so I thought this was Cradle Mountain, but that was a mistake because Cradle Mountain is so much cooler.

We finally found it! Cradle Mountain - yeaaaa

This is what we hiked. You can see the path on the right hand side, it looks like somebody just traced a tan pen on the mountain. If you see that bump on the right, the heighest peak - that would be the summit. It took a long time to get there but it was probably the best hike that I've done.

Mitz the wonder mobile

Wow, it's been a while since I have updated this!! I just got back from a trip to Tasmania - amazing! I had three days of school and then left on Wednesday from class to the airport to meet the other four who were going - Adam, Matt, Amanda and my roommate Nikolai. Mali came as well but she had a test that she needed to stay for so she met us on Friday. So we flew out of Sydney and arrived in Hobart around 8:00pm. We checked into our hostel and then got a recommended place to go out and have a couple beers. We ended up being super hungry afterwards so we took a walk down to the Salamanca markets to find a 24 hour bakehouse which served up hot meat pies and rolls. So tasty! We then woke up the next morning with one mission - to rent a car. We asked the woman at the hostel and she recommended a place. We called up and figured out that we could get an eight passenger van for a week for $500. We were sold so we walked over there, filled out some paperwork and were introduced to our new friend (who we named Mitz) - a blue Mitsubishi van that looked about 20 years old but at the same time awesome! She was a standard and they also drive on the opposite side of the road so this was a huge adventure waiting to happen. After getting some maps and directions we decided to go to the southern most tip of Tasmania and I guess the whole country of Australia and see the sunset. It took a little bit longer to get there than we thought because one of the roads was all dirt and rocks so we took it slow with Mitz. The whole drive there was unbelievabley gorgeous with rolling mountains and fresh green everywhere. The two hour walk we took around Fisherman's Point when we got there was also breathtaking. Adam kept on saying how he couldn't believe this was real - everything was just too pretty. We got to see an amazing sunset over the water with deep reds and oranges about mountains that looked like someone had a file folder of them which they just like stacked all together. It was a great first day in Tasmania.

The next day, Friday was day to pick up Mali. We had to figure out our accomodation situation for Cradle Mountain - tenting or cabin and then rent whatever we needed. We decided on a cabin and cheated the system a little bit. A cabin came with two sets of bunk beds and a double bed for $150 a night for two people and then it was $20 for every extra person. I didn't understand this because the room came equipped with six beds? So we just booked it for two people and then split that six ways. We then decided to get some sleeping bags so we rented those and then picked up Mali from the airport. We then treked out to the Cadbury chocolate factory where we got a presentation on the factory and then got released into their "discount chocolate shop" - um I was in heaven. I think my bag at check out weighed about seven pounds but we were good to go in the chocolate department for our trip. We then drove five more hours to our cabin up in Cradle Mountain stopping occasionally for food and scenic spots etc. The roads were super winedy and very mountainous. In one of my travel books it said that if you flattened all of Tasmania out, it would be almost as large as the mainland Australia. After a great night sleep in our cabin (which was clutch for the weekend, it was so good equipped with stove, bathroom, beds and a dinner table) we woke up to hike Cradle Mountain.

Cradle Mountain was a total 6-8 hike which we all geared up for. It was pouring when we woke up but turns out the visitor center didn't open for another hour when we got there so by the time we got our map and were situated on where to hike, the sun started shining. The hike was absolutely breath taking. It was one of the most scenic hikes I've ever been on - since the trees aren't very tall, you can see everything around you as you hike. It definitely combined some of the best hikes I've done all together - it had the tundra like Alaska, the beautiful lakes and rocks like Glacier and the scenic route like Mt. Katahdin in Maine. There was a point in the hike where you climbed up an edge to see Bam! Cradle Mountain. It looked like something from Lord of the Rings. It was so cool and the fact that we got to climb to the summit was that much better. My camera however did die right before we got to the trail leading up to the actual mountain so I was a little bit bummed about that but life goes on. But getting to the summit was kind of ridiculous because you would follow these markers as you were boulder climbing and you would see one in the distance that you were like "oh yea, that must be the end" and then you would get there and see another seven markers ahead. There was also this grey haired man who we deemed mountain goat because he passed us hiking at a ridiculous speed and then passed us again on his way back down. I commented that he was a mover and he just smiled and said he was pressed for time that day so he needed to do it fast - aka lapping 20 year olds making us look so out of shape. We finally got to the summit though which was awesome. For three of the six, this was there first successful mountain that they had reached the summit to which kind of boggled my mind because I guess normal people don't live with big dave's whose idea of a vacation is cross country driving to all different mountains. The way back down was pretty but so long. This is what I've figured out about hiking...getting there is awesome but very kind of a pain because normally it's uphill and stairlike so you're quads hate you. The summit is awesome but you can only stay there a little while before your sweat dries on you from the wind up there. And going down is great at first cause it's a lot easier than going up but after like an hour, you just want to get down the mountain and to your car. So we hiked down for a good four hours because I guess we took the longer trial back. It was almost 6 when we spotted the car and by that time the sun had gone down and it had started to rain. We were so excited to get back to Mitz and go back to our cabin, take hot showers and then go out to eat at the only restaurant around. I got into the drivers seat and attempted to start up the car and it started sputtering and then shut down. Then I tried again and it did the same thing. Matt switched, turned the ignition and nothing happened. Awesome, the battery was done. So we all got out and started to push the car to attempt a jump start. Nothing worked. Finally, other hikers saw us and offered to jump our car. The only problem was we had no idea where the battery was located cause Mitz didn't have a hood. It took us about a half hour to figure out that you had to unhinge to hooks next to the passenger seat up lift the whole middle consol up to find the engine and battery. We hooked up the cars and the car still wouldn't start. Finally, Matt decided to check the oil to find the tank completely dry. By this time it was almost seven and everyone was closed because it was a National holiday and there was no cell phone service in that part of Tasmania. Matt hitched a ride up to try and find help at...somewhere while the rest of us tried to stay warm in the car. Matt ended up flagging down a tour bus for "Night with the Animals" and convinced the driver to take us back up to our cabin. Thank goodness because our cabin was 10km. away and we were absolutely freezing and cold and exhausted. Once we got to our cabin, we took hot showers and rationed our food because we couldn't drive out to the restaurant. Mali and I ended up having peanut butter and jelly pasta (which was actually quite tasty!...try it)
The next morning, Matt and I woke up early to go try and figure out the Mitz situation. We bought oil and get a lift down to our car by a shuttle bus. We filled up the car and attempted to start to it but our battery had again died. We caught the shuttle bus back up to notify the ranger so he could come and jump our car. We again rode the shuttle bus back down to our car and pushed Mitz into place. A couple women saw us and asked if we needed a jump. We decided it wouldn't hurt to try it out because the ranger was going to be another half hour. We hooked the cars up and again, the car wouldn't start. The woman was like "mmm, it's not your battery. It could be your alternator" so I was like "oh brother, what the heck Mitz!!". But then the ranger came and hooked us up with a generator and the car started after the second try - thank you jesus! Matt said it was probably because the oil needed to get back into the engine so it needed a couple times to turn over. After that we picked up the other guys and started our scenic drive back to Hobart. We stopped off here and there for photo opportunities and ended up in Hobart around 9pm. We parked and grabbed a quick bite to eat at a pizza shop. To save money for the night, we were just going to sleep in the car so we were going to move the car to a better location. I got back in the car to start it up and discover that yet again, Mitz died on us. AHHHH!! so we were standed again and our flight was in 10 hours in the morning. Someone had the geneous idea to call the phone number on the van and people came within ten minutes to give us a jump. Although Mitz was unreliable, it was one of the best trips ever - so gorgeous. And you know what, it makes for better stories when you get back - count it.

computers are stupid

So, I got all excited to come back from spring break and upload photos and update my blog and my computer decided he wanted to ruin my dreams. Apparently my screen lights have slowly gone out to the point where my screen is now all black with little visuals of what i'm supposed to be seeing. So this whole week (aka two days) has been me mooching off of people's computers and being in the computer lab constantly. But the girls got back fine and dandy...we went to the Aquarium our last day to find nemo and see sharks. We were successful on both so that was a plus and then went and got meat pies (which are a big thing here). But I got an email from Becca saying they got in safely which was great!

I am actually flying out to Tasmania today which is ridiculous and I can't believe I just got back from an adventure and I'm going right back to another one but I can't wait! The cadbury chocolate factory is there so that was a big starred item on my list haha. But I will update you on all the adventures once I get back!! Hope you're having a great week!

So many leash kids...

ADVENTURES CONTINUED!! whew...I know you were waiting for this...no worries...I am back to update! so where did we leave off? The bridge climb? sure...

So the bridge climb went superb! After that we went to the Glebe markets which were like a boutique store and a vintage store combined in these outdoor vendor booths. Becca picked up a really cute shirt and I found a steal of two shirts for $5 from this woman. I also made my sisters get kebabs for lunch which were huge and delicious. We then headed back to the hostel to take a quick nap, change and head out to St. Mary's Cathedral for Easter Vigil Mass. It started at 8 and the church was absolutely massive with beautiful stained glass windows and a stunning alter. We were pleased to get candles at the beginning just like St. Elizabeth's does back home at the Easter Vigil. The mass was done by the Cardinal so that was pretty cool but all three of us walked out at the end (finished up around 11 so not too bad) singing the songs from back home because there really is no beating Easter Vigil back at St.E's. The music was all choral and monotone one note if not in latin and the homily started off with the Cardinal giving bullet points for something - the best part was the actual size of the mass and building. We then went back to the hostel to call big dave because it was his birthday still in the U.S. After that we all crashed to wake up the next morning to our Easter baskets that the Easter Bunny had shipped all the way from Acton (jean marie, weigh the packages before you send them, that was a little excessive but well appreciated and loved - thank you!) Becca ate my peeps and I devoured Reese's cups because of the lack of those here in Australia. We had a lazy morning and then went out to go get brunch at a place called Pancakes on the Rocks - SO GOOD! Becca and I split two meals - one was a crepe filled with bacon, potato, onion, chives and cheese with a garden salad on the side and the other meal was a "black and white" which was one chocolate pancake and one buttermilk with a scoop of chocolate and vanilla ice cream. We decided to get strawberries to go with them. We ate the whole meal ridiculously fast and were fully satisfied with our delicatable choices. Afterwards, we went to the Scenic Wildlife World to get our Australian animal fix in. Becca found a new obsession which was koala's. She kept on running around with all the six year olds shouting "this one's awake!! come here! this one's awake"...she would even get excited about the sleeping ones. Every half hour they do "koala talks" where a ranger talks about fun facts about the animals and so forth. Afterwards she took one out of it's tree and brought it around to be touched - I thought Becca was going to pass out. At the one stop, she apparently took around 100 photos solely of koala's - it's an issue. I also found a new obsession though - spotting kids on leashes. The first day we were in Sydney I found two (hilarious) but the best one so far was at the Wildlife World. He looked just like the little kid from Jerry McGuire but screamed all the time. I don't mean scream like high pitched but more like shouting at all the animals. He was harnessed in a fancy navy blue leash and unlike the other longer straps that they other ones spotted had, this one was only about two feet in length. I was shocked at this but after creepily watching him for several minutes I realized why it was so short - he was a tornado of energy - always going, never stopping and causing as much destruction as possible. At the kangaroo exhibit, I really thought he was going to hop the barrier and get in there with them - he came pretty close, I mean the ranger had to come over and scold but him and the parents. They did let him go at some point in the day (no, I didn't stalk him that heavily, we were just in the same area again...okay maybe just a little stalking) so he could eat an ice cream. He ended up climbing up on the table, slipping off and banging his head on not just the table but the bench also. After he calmed down he was off and running - maybe that's what big dave was like as a small child? who knows? All I know is that leash kids are ridiculous and once you get over the fact that they are actually on a leash you figure out the reasons why. This kid needed to be leashed.

After Scenic World, we had some gelato at darling harbor and then went back to our hostel to check out and head to the airport - Cairns here we come!! Our flight was wonderful and we touched down in misting rain but very tropical tempatures. We found our hostel no problem and met up with Dawn (she owns and runs the hostel - crazy but super nice woman). We got all the info on our reef dive and headed to bed because we were getting picked up at 7:00am for our next adventure. We first got an underwater camera dropped off so we could take photos and videos of the reef and then were on our way down to the pier. We boarded a huge ship and got our snorkels and fins and headed to the roof top to get a nice spot in the sun. I was an idiot and didn't find out my certification information to go on a "certified dive" but they did have the option for an "intro" dive on the reef so we all did that. We first were able to snorkel right out to the reef before getting called in for our dive. My ears have such trouble "equalizing" which means as you descend in the water, you're supposed to push air back into your ears to stop them from hurting. Mine were being a pain so I dove a little bit above the group until finally they got settled. Our guide picked up a couple sea cucumbers and let us touch them. We also were able to go around a big piece of reef and take in all the fish. You could really see the difference in the color of reef from a couple years ago. It was quite faded and greying but the wildlife were still pretty cool. We then boarded back on the bus to have some lunch and go to our second diving spot. We opted to not pay the additional fee to dive again and just snorkel out to the reef. The fish were again super cool and we took numerous photos with the camera so that was awesome. At the end of the day they gave us a glass of wine and cheese and we all fell asleep on the way back. Forgetting how strong the sun is out in the water we all got very badly burned. Because I have been here for almost two months mine blended in pretty well but Mollie looked like Zorro took a few swipes to her back and Becca just looks like she has a really bad disease. She is really splotchy and the majority is only on one side haha But at least they'll look a little tan when going home.

After the reef we went out to dinner where we hunted down a place that sold kangaroo. I got the game meat plate which had both crocodile tail and kangaroo filets while Mollie got kangaroo and Becca got a kangaroo burger. Enjoyed by everyone! The next day we were up early again to trek out to the rainforest of Kuranda. We took a Scenic Railway tour first which was a rickedy old train that took you up and into the mountains. There were some really pretty views of waterfalls and valleys. In our cabin was an adorable Chinese couple about mid 50's. The wife (Lena) was the asian version of the old lady on Wedding Singer who did the rendition of rappers delite. No joke. She was that cute. They were both from New York City and it turns out the husband (John) worked right by where Mollie used to live. They were a little bit obsessed with us but I was a total fan (especially cause they thought I was the oldest - point for Brenna!) After two hours of train travel, we got up to Kuranda where we looked around the Aboriginal arts and crafts market and had the most scrumptious sandwhich lunch! There was also a walk through the rainforest which we all decided would be super (and it was free so we were all keen on that). We ended up getting the full rainforest experience because it poured on us - and we got absolutely soaked but we had fun while doing it!

Ah! I only have two minutes left....this will be another to be continued...but we fly out tomorrow to Sydney and then the girls are out the next morning :( But I'll upload pictures for the full story :)