Get some!

Why hello there,

Its been awhile since I have actually blogged-sorry! I just put up a bunch of pictures-hope that was not too annoying to look at. Last week was easily one of the best weeks I have had here, and nothing too eventful happened. Just spent lots of time hanging out with all of my amazing friends here. I cannot even begin to express how much I am going to miss them all.

It drives me crazy that I literally have a month left here. AHAHHHHHH! I hate that. I hate that so much. I don't want to leave. Life is so easy-going and relaxed down here. Imagine a life free of ANY stress for at 4 months at a time, because that is exactly how my life has been down here! Seriously no stress whatsoever. It is unbelievable.

Some of you may be wondering about classes. No worries-I may skip a few here or there to head to the beach or hang out with my friends but so far I have an A in every one of my classes! I am not kidding-I was pretty surprised myself :)

Classes finish up in 2 weeks, I cannot believe how fast time flew by! This weekend I am heading up to the Gold Coast with 13 other American students-I reckon it will be crazy fun. Then on the 6th I am planning on heading to New Zealand with a group of people, however we have yet to buy plane tickets.

Regardless the next month is going to be the best and worst time of my life. Best because I have a good solid month to simply hang out, without work/school getting in the way, with some of the coolest people on the planet. Worst because it won't be long before I have to say good-bye to them!

It is nice because all of my close friends here are from the states, so I will be able to see them pretty easily. However I also have quite a few Australian friends I don't want to leave, Sam and Thor being 2 of them. They are the coolest, most witty and charming fellas I know. The good thing about them is that Sam's dad lives in Minnesota so at some point he is going to HAVE to travel to the grand ol' Midwest and I reckon he will probably drag Thor along too! So at least I know I will get to see them again at some point.

However there is a group of Australian girls in one of my classes that are fantastic and the sad thing is that I may never get to see them again. They totally took me under their wing in my class and made me feel right at home. One of the girls, Steph, has helped me go over my papers and everything!!!!!!!!! She is so nice! They all are-yesterday they took me out for pizza, for no particular reason, just because. They are SUCH sweethearts and I am so glad I met them. I just wish there was more time to hang out with everyone...and am heaps sad that I am going to have to say good-bye soon.

Ok this is getting pretty long. I should probably get started on my homework.

Miss you guys at home. I will see you soon though. No worries.

Still living the dream :)

XOXO,
Stac

Living life the right way!

Adriana, Michelle and I trying to take a picture-we have SO much fun when we are all together- can you tell?? Hahaha I absolutely adore these 2 girls and miss them already....

Adriana, David and I out at one of the dance clubs :)

We LOVE to dance...

The girls breaking it down!

Some of our guy friends cooked dinner for us one night! It was delicious! And in the process of cooking for us, they may have had 1 too many drinks....

Monster Truck Rallies are just as hick in Australia as they are at home!

The fireworks at the end of the show were pretty cool!!

The crazy Demo Derby-everyone thought it was so crazy, but it was pretty weak compared to the ones at home! Still heaps of fun to watch...

The crew I went with: Jill, Kristy, Max, Kyle, Jess, Eddie and Stefan. We had quite a few laughs that night!

The super sweet Jet Van!

The Scooby-Doo Monster Truck


There just so happened to be a Monster Truck Rally in Newcastle the weekend I stayed here-and it just so happened I had nothing going on that night. Since I have never been to one I thought "Sure why not!" It ended up being crazy fun! There was Monster trucks, motorcross races, a Jet Van, Demo Derby, and much more! It was quite the experience!

Grilling at Betsy's House

Jess and I-thankfully she lives in Wisconsin so I will be able to see her often!!!!!

Charlie and Betsy goofing off-again-2 of the coolest people I know! Everyone here is so much fun!

Kira, Alissa, and I hanging out! More fun people that I am going to miss...

Sara, Katie, and Michelle-they are ALWAYS so much fun! We never stop laughing when we all hang out!

Jess, Michelle, and I-I already miss them and we have not even left yet!!!!

Cheers to the Gov'na

Some of my friends hanging out before we went dancing! We were playing a game called Cheers to the Gov'na. It is a super fun game!

Me with 2 of my favorite boys-Chase and Pat. They are HILARIOUS!

My loves Adriana and Michelle with me! I am going to miss them SO much when we go back home...

Ads and Patty Wagon-Australia would suck without them around!!!

Deej (his real name is David but we all call him Deej) and me taking a break from dancing.

Stockton Beach- Aka skipping class and hitting up the beach :)

The boys were goofing off while playing football

Pat, David, and Chase after we buried Michelle in the sand

My good friend Michelle and I-this picture was taking right after Chase drove through a HUGE puddle and we all got drenched. It was hilarious and so much fun!

The boys and I hanging out

Check out the sweet view we saw while driving home!


So last Wednesday, the 5 of us decided it would be a good idea to skip all of our classes and head to the sand dunes. We had heaps of fun!!!! We played football, buried Michelle and Chase, and drove around on the dunes. It was good fun until we got stuck and the sun was going down. The boys were getting so nervous it was hilarious. Michelle and I were not worried at all, just a tad cold. After like 25 times trying to get up, we FINALLY got over the big hills and went on our way. SUCH a fun day :)

Time. Should. Freeze.

Why hello again. I keep forgetting to blog and get side-tracked all the time. There is always so much going here. I feel like it could take me a year just to catch everyone up with my past week-oofta!

Time is flying by way too fast here. I don't like it at all!!!!! We all keep telling ourselves that we still have half our trip left but realistically we are way over half way done :( Since Easter break it has been even harder to be motivated to get schoolwork done. It just put even more of a travel bug in me and my friends. Don't worry though-I am getting all my schoolwork done in time! It is just done the night before by pulling an all-nighter.

Hmm well I will skip everything I have been up to before Melbourne (there is just too much to try and get into it...sorry!) This past weekend Adriana, Betsy and I went to Melbourne. We left Thursday night and was picked up at the airport from a friend of Adriana's, Mark. He went to UF last year and the had been facebooking back and forth. We ended up staying at his house all weekend, well his parent's house. Ads, Bets, and I had heaps of fun there....his family spoiled us rotten! His mom literally gave us breakfast in bed!!!! Anywho, on Friday we didn't wake up until noon-no joke! I think all the traveling the day before really wore us out.

Friday after we finally rolled out of bed we decided to go to this Penguin Parade thing. It was like an hour and a half drive to the country. We had high expectations for this place which was not the smartest idea. I mean, it was pretty cool, and sunset around 60 little penguins came out from the sea and waddled to their homes on land. We had the impression it was going to be hundreds of them, but oh well. We made the best of the situation and still had a blast!!!!!

Saturday was footy day! We went into the city around 2pm to meet up with David, Alex, and Jason. We planned to meet outside the MCG stadium, which is the largest stadium there. While we were waiting for the boys to come, a man came up and handed us 4 free tickets. We were SO pumped!!!!!!!! The boys met up with us and got tickets for the game (at first I felt bad they had to buy tickets, but then they told us that the night before they won like $300 at the casino, so I didn't feel so bad!!) We all headed into the game and had a blast. The teams that played were the Richmond Tigers and the Brisbane Lions. It ended up being a really intense game. And the boys won money at the game-you can place bets at the stadium about who will score first, win overall, get most points, etc.

After that we headed to the casino at the Crown Hotel. This place was beyond amazing! The hotel part was huge and gorgeous, it was super surreal. As we were walking in us girls were talking about how this would be the most amazing place to get married, and just as we said that a bride and groom were walking down the grand staircase. It was super cute, and we were VERY jealous haha. The casino part was unbelievable. It was one of the first times I have ever been in a casino, but I still have yet gamble there. Maybe next time....

We were at the casino for like an hour then we headed to our 2nd AFL game of the weekend. Mark got our tickets early and we got to sit in a huge suite area. He works there part time and got us amazing tickets. There was even a dress code to sit where we sat!! His boss told us to order what ever drinks/food we wanted and he would cover the tab. By the ended of the night our tab between the four of us (David/Jason/Alex did not come to this game with us) was easily over $500. His boss kept coming up and asking if we needed anything else. Hahaha we kept joking about how we better enjoy this lifestyle because it is not something we will ever see again. After the game we headed out for a night on the town-heaps fun like always.

Sunday we spent the day roaming about the city. I absolutely love Melbourne. It's small town vibe blew me away, if I was ever to live in a big city Melbourne would easily be it. The small cafes and stores were super captivating. We never wanted to leave....

We came back home on Monday. Already we are trying to plan were we can go next. This weekend I think I will probably just hang out in Newcastle, it will be the first time in over 2 months that I will stay here for a weekend. Next weekend we are talking about taking the train up to the Gold Coast-it is only like a $60 train ride. The Gold Coast is suppose to be one of the most beautiful places in Australia. We'll see if we actually make it up there. New Zealand is also on the top of our to-do list....

I hate that I feel like I am running out of time here. But I am. I have less than 45 days here. Ick! I hate that. I hate that so much. Don't get me wrong-I am anxious to see everyone at home. However I am unbelievbly sad to have to be leaving all my amazing friends. Everyone that I have met here is so chill and fun to be around. It is going to be super hard saying good-bye and not knowing when we can hang out again...I don't like that one bit.

I am trying my very hardest to be so grateful for my time here and not dwell on having to go home. I mean-look at how blessed I have been to have had the opportunity to come here. I need to be optimistic and appreciate my time I have had here and the time I have left instead of being sad about leaving. Don't worry-I am definitely taking this experience to the fullest and not missing out on any opporunities that have come my way while living in Australia. It still is going to be terribly sad to leave though.....

Well I better get scooting-I think we are heading to Stockton Beach today to climb the sand dunes. I know I know, what about classes? Well my classes today were canceled so I am taking fullest advantage of that situation and taking a mini-roadtrip :)

I hope that all the moms had a fantastic Mother's Day!!!!

I miss everyone heaps. Love lots!

Stac

More of Melbourne :)

Gotta love the Gators! The kid who we stayed with in Melbourne studied abroad at UF last year. Adriana and him kept in touch and then he took us under his wing when we came to visit. We stayed with his family and him and they spoiled us rotten! His mom even served us breakfast in bed-no joke!!!!!!

Where the Australian Open takes place-heaps neat!

Melbourne is easily one of my favorite cities ever. It is large but it has such a relaxing atmosphere that you can hardly tell you are in a big city. We felt super safe walking around and everything was gorgeous!!!!! We definitely fell in love with this city....

So at our 2nd footy game of the day we were spoiled some more. It turned out that Mark, the guy we were staying with, worked at the stadium, thus we got free drinks and food the WHOLE game. It was crazy! We racked up over a $600 tab between the four of us that his boss covered-I know I am so spoiled!!! But I am super grateful for everything if thats any better :)

Betsy and I goofing off at the train station "Woot woot, trains comin"

Melbourne Photos

Somehow we ended up getting FREE footy tickets! We were super excited!!!!

The boys (David, Jason, Mark, Alex) chilling at the footy game!

My new obsession-I loved watching the footy games. Yes games- we ended up going to 2 that day, neither of which we had to pay for :)

D.U.D. inside joke :)

Betsy, Ads and I goofing off while shopping...

Jackie's 21st

Andrea, Adriana and myself before heading to Jackie's surprise party.

Easily my favorite fellas

The gals chilling with Jerod.

The birthday girl (Jackie) and the host (Michelle) :)

Ads and I goofing off-we were heaps excited that the boys' hoodies we borrowed matched our dresses :)

Michelle threw Jackie a super fun surprise party. Jackie had no clue! After hanging out at their place for awhile we headed to the bars for a night full of dancing. Such a fun night!!

Blue Mountains

The group I went to the Blue Mountains with- Charlie, Adriana, Betsy, and Drew. We had a blast!!!!

The SkyRide that took us between the mountains, the view was incredible!

The "3 Sisters" is one of the most famous tourist attractions in the Blue Mountains, it is based off an Aboriginal story.

Leura Cascades-probably one of my favorite places in the Blue Mountains

Heaps of Barbies...yes this needs an explanation-so Bets and I went to this old toy museum/mansion. We were quite skeptical going there, we weren't sure how many toys there would be. The mansion was FULL of toys from as far back as 1912! Like heaps and heaps of toys, every single room was filled with antique toys, it was so fun to see them all. We kept on saying how much our parents and grandparents would love it even more than we did. It was really cool to see, especially the Barbies (earliest ones were 1940s) and the old train sets. We had a blast there, it was one of those places were you could look around in there for hours and still not see everything! Aw it was so neat.....

As for the Blue Mountains-I was in awe as to how amazing they were. So pretty! The best part is they were only a short (5 hours) train ride away, and it was pretty cheap to get there. We had a blast walking around the small town and seeing all the sites. Hopefully we will make it back there again to do some more hiking if we have time. As for everything else-the pictures do not do justice as to how amazing they are! Heaps gorgeous!