Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oi Oi Oi!

Rugby is a very popular sport here in Australia and it would just be wrong to not attend a game during my time here.

So when my roommate Clint told me the season would be ending within the next two weeks I saw my dreams of seeing an Australian rugby game slowly going down the drain.  You see, there is a game next Saturday during the day and that just happens to be the day of my first midterm :/  This is also the last game of the season.

Luckily, Clint did some research and found out that there was going to be a game on Friday night between the Canadian National Team and the Australian Barbarians.  Apparently, the Barbarians are a team compiled of club rugby players and some players from the Australian National Team.  It was more of just a practice game which was fine by me.

The game started at 7:30 pm so we got on the bus around 5:45 pm and headed for the Skilled Park Stadium which is located south of Surfers Paradise.

I could hardly conceal my excitement as we approached the stadium!  I just felt like I was taking part in something truly Australian!

Once we were in the arena our first priority was beer.  I mean come on,  what is a rugby game without beer?

With beer in hand we took our seats and enjoyed watching the Australian team warm up.  Or at least I enjoyed watching them warm up haha.

Haha what is this guy doing?

They only filled up one side of the stadium because it was a practice game.

It was an exciting game and the Barbarians ended up winning 27-14.  Go Barbarians!

After the game we headed for the bus stop, as did the entire stadium!  It began to rain and I think the question on everyone's mind was...will there be enough buses to get all of these people home?

After waiting about 15 minutes in the rain a man from the stadium came out and broke the bad news.  There would only be one more bus coming.  There must have been at least 100 people waiting for one bus..how is that going to work?!

Luckily we seemed to be standing in right spot and we were able to get on the bus immediately when it came.

I'm not sure if everyone made it on the bus but man was it full!

 

This little stinker in the green sweatshirt kept pushing the stop button!  I thought the lady in front of him was going to smack him!

Finally it was time to get off the bus.  I couldn't have been happier to get home!  I was so tired and hungry!  Overall it was a very fun event and now I can say I have been to an Australian Rugby game!  

Anna

Clint's Bday!

On Tuesday I decided to give up my usually "me" day to prepare for Clint's Birthday.

Our friends from Brisbane decided to make the trip to Surfers Paradise for the festivities so my day was spent cleaning, grocery shopping, and making the birthday boy a cake :).

Brithday Boy!

Silly boys

Originally we had planned to have a barbecue outside but a storm blew in late Monday night and had not cleared up yet on Tuesday.  So we decided to have Taco Tuesday instead!  Our friends from England and Malta, who visited, don't eat tacos very often.  I think they were impressed :)

After dinner it was time to sing happy birthday to Clint!

The rest of the night was spent playing games and hanging out with friends.  Hope you had a great birthday Clint!

Anna

Trip to Brisbane!

Last Friday Kevin, Clint, our new friend Justin and I decided to take a little adventure to Brisbane.

At around 2 pm we hopped on the bus toward Helensvale Railway where we would then catch a train to Brisbane.

All of us on the train!

On our orientation field trip to Byron Bay we made some friends who attend Griffith Universities campus in Brisbane.  They were nice enough to provide us with a place to stay for the night. 

Once we got their our hosts cooked us some sausages and hamburgers, on the barbie, and we washed those down with some Korean beer that had a very interesting name.

Think it really gives you clean skin?  I doubt it.

After dinner it was time to set out for a night on the town.

On the bus headed for the city

Some of the boys

The next morning Kevin, Clint, Justin and I woke up and headed back into the city to get something to eat and check out Brisbane.

Our first priority was to find a place to eat.  After walking around for awhile we found a Mexican restaurant and we decided we would give Australia's Mexican food a try.

The boys had burritos and beer.

While I had nachos,  which were actually pretty good...

and a diet coke!

After lunch we walked around the city of Brisbane for a little bit.  There was a market going on and I really wanted to look at all the different booths....but the boys didn't seem to have much patience for that so I had to refrain.

And in the middle of the market hung a man on a unicycle...

View from opposite direction

We also walked past a man playing a didgeridoo!

He wanted a picture with me...

He made me wear those ridiculous glasses!  I couldn't see a thing!

And because they don't have beaches in Brisbane they have to make their own.

On our way back to the train station  Kevin, Clint and I had a strong craving for some ice cream.  The first place we saw was Movenpick Ice Cream Shop.

The ice cream was a little over priced but who am I kidding...EVERYTHING is over priced in Australia!  Nevertheless my Creme Brulee hit the spot.

We made it to the train station with about three minutes to spare.  However, we realized that we were on the wrong side of the tracks for the way we wanted to go and we had go all the way around to the other side to catch our train.  We literally had to run, ice cream in hand, to make it on the train.  

We would have been fine, had we missed the train, because another train would be coming 30 minutes after this train but we were all tired and didn't want to have to sit in the cold for 30 more minutes.

We were all able to breath a sigh of relief when we sat down in our seats.

It was a great trip and we all had an amazing time!  I may just have to make a trip back to Brisbane on a Saturday, without the boys, so I can spend sometime at the Lifestyle Market!

Anna

my ME day!

Tuesday's I have decided are my ME day!  Reason #1 being, I don't have school on Tuesday's.  Reason #2, all of my roommates do ;).  Not that I don't enjoy my roommates company, it's just nice to have a little time to myself every now and then and i'm sure each one of them would say the same.

I usually like to start my Tuesday with a morning gym session and then I'll head to the beach to do some reading or just relax in the sun.

Last week I decided to do something a little different. I thought it would be fun to take myself on a little adventure to Australia Fair.

NO it is not an actual fair with farm animals and carnival rides.  Here in Australia they call their malls fair's.  Not exactly sure why but they have a couple that are in close proximity to Surfers Paradise, where I live, including Australia Fair and Pacific Fair.  I have already visited both :)

I walked around Australia Fair for awhile with the intentions of just "window shopping."  Of course I found something's I just had to have so I splurged a little.  What can I say? I'm in Australia!

I did however use some self-control and all I bought was a book and a blouse I found at a store called Ally.  Ally kind of reminds me of Forever 21 in the United States only the store was a lot less overwhelming than Forever 21.

The book I bought is called The Help by Kathryn Stockett.  My sister read it and said it was quite entertaining and my mom is currently reading it so when I saw it I figured what the heck  Also, a movie version of the book is coming out in theaters in September which gave me even more of a reason to buy it. 

After I made my purchases I figured I'd better leave the mall before I spent anymore money.  Since, being in Australia I have yet to really try any Australian food.  So I decided I would try a Kebab.  Now I know kebab's are not Australian food but they are everywhere in Australia so they may as well be!

There are a few kebab restaurants near Australia Fair and I was looking for a place that sold kangaroo kebabs.  Now that would be truly Australian!

I walked around for about 30 minutes looking for kangaroo kebabs and each kebab place only sold chicken kebabs, lamb kebabs and doner kebabs(whatever that is).

I swear I have seen kangaroo kebabs being sold somewhere.  But clearly not at Australia Fair.

Finally, I decided any kebab would do it and I settled for the kebab place that was right next to my bus stop.

I ordered a Chicken Kebab a Shirazi Salad and a Coke from Shiraz Kebab and man was it delicious.

 

Do not be fooled, I did not order whatever a Doner Kebab is.

After my kebab, I hopped on the bus and headed home.  It was a pretty peaceful and productive Tuesday I must say.

And as a result of my shopping at Australia Fair I had something to do on my ME day this week.

There is nothing like sitting on the balcony of my apartment, drinking a glass of wine and reading a great book.  What a great way end MY Tuesday :)

Doner Kebab: is a Turkish dish made of lame meat (mainly) cooked on a vertical spit and sliced off to order.

Mainly?  I think I'll stick with chicken :)

Anna

Sunrise, sunrise looks like mornin' in your eyes..

This morning I woke up extremely early because I just could not fall back to sleep.

Since I could tell I would not be going back to bed soon I decided it would be the perfect opportunity for me to watch the sunrise over the ocean.

I googled what time the sun would be rising on the Gold Coast and it said precisely 6:23 am.  I threw on my ugg's, jeans and a sweatshirt, grabbed my camera and headed for the beach.

It was already starting to get light and there were quite a few people already on the beach.

I had some time to kill before the sun actually rose so I took about a million pictures of myself in front of the sunrise.  If you know me you know I have a problem keeping my eyes open when a camera flashes.  This would be the reason I took so many pictures.  Here is the best one I could get.

And finally around 6:19 am the sun started to peak up over the ocean.

I couldn't help but think, as I watched the sunrise, what a beautiful world god has made for us!  It really is the simple things in life that are most enjoyable.  

I don't know how many more times I will watch the sunrise here in Australia but, I can say that it is probably one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.

Anna

Race Day

After returning from Byron Bay it was time to buckle down and get ready for school to start.  

Though school has so far turned out to be quite easy, my roommates and I have been taking it easy for the past two weeks to get used to our schedules and to get a little more settled into our new Australian lives.

However, this weekend brought a little more excitement.

Before coming to Australia I had heard from students who had previously studied abroad at Griffith that Race Day was a ton of fun! 

My roommates and I woke up early on Saturday morning to get ready for the event.  It is customary in the United States to get dressed up for a horse race and it is just the same for Australia.

Once we were ready we called a cab to take us to the race track.

We arrived the Gold Coast Turf Club around 10:45 am.

The event was not supposed to start until 12 pm but we had been told to get to the track as early as possible because apparently the place fills up fast. 

Unfortunately we got there a little to early and we were told we could not be let in until 11:30 am at the earliest.  Because we had about an hour we thought we would take a little walk to find a place to get a drink. 

The walk to turned out to be a lot further than we expected and before we could find anywhere to get a drink we had to turn around and go back so we would still be early enough to beat the crowds.

We made it back to the track at 11:30 on the dot and we were let in to the special Griffith University student area where we received food and drinks while we watched the races.

We had a chance to make bets on horses we thought would win but I chose to just sit back and watch.  I figured my money could be better spent somewhere else :)

Carly and I just walked around most of the day looking at what other people were wearing, meeting a lot of new people and enjoying the races.

When it was time to leave we hopped on a bus heading back to surfers paradise, where our apartment is.  The bus ride home was interesting.  After we got on the bus we immediately noticed a group of guys all dressed in the same t-shirts that were supposed to resemble a tuxedo.  However, one of them was dressed like a drag queen.  Carly had the luxury of sitting next to him haha.

After awhile we learned that it was the drag queens bachelor (stag) party and his groomsman had forced him to dress like a woman for purpose of humiliation. 

It was a memorable way to end a great day!

Anna