From Desert to Mountains…

Sadly, things are starting to wrap up here on the GC (gold coast). Classes are over, all my big trips have been successfully completed, and I have little more than a week and a half left on campus. I finished two of my classes for which I had big papers due last week, and now I only have two exams a week apart from each other. Some of my friends are ready to leave and excited to go back home, while others of us are dreading returning to reality and leaving this fantasy world of fun and adventure. I was dreading this so much, in fact, that I decided to extend my stay over Christmas and New Years much to the dismay of my parents and sisters, who sort of jokingly threatened to disown me. I will be returning state side January 4^th after travelling around with my boyfriend once exams are finished.  While I love love love my family and I’m excited to see my friends back home and at school, I’m just not ready to leave yet. It’s been the best few months of my life, and I selfishly want to keep indulging in this blissful happiness for as long as possible.

            Anyways, what I really want to talk about in this blog are my past two adventures. I spent four days with a tour group through Australia’s Outback, which consists of rocks, desert, rocks, desert, and more desert. Following that trip, I spent 5 days roadtripping around New Zealand’s South Island, which wasn’t nearly enough. Both trips, although so different, were so much fun! The Outback was hot, dry, infested with flies, and consisted of nothing but bush for miles and miles. New Zealand was cool, fall-like weather, with spectacular scenery and the most beautiful mountains I’ve ever seen. The Outback was an organized group tour, where as New Zealand we were completely on our own. I learned so much from both trips and I had a chance to reflect on myself and my time here, and how much I’ve grown.

            I’ll start with the Outback trip. Here’s a fun fact about the Outback: only 10% of Australia’s visitors actually make it out there. Reasons why: it is further away, flights are a bit more expensive, it has a dry, harsh climate, its not tropical, why would you go all the way out there to see a bunch of rocks and shrubbery when there is a beautiful beach 5 miles away. These were the sorts of comments I was getting when I was trying to find a companion for this off the beaten track trip. Fortunately, I found my friend Cam, who’s very similar to me in that we both don’t like cities, we both like to travel and explore, and we both wanted to see a different part of Australia and learn a bit more about Aboriginal culture. Afterwards, we both agreed that this was our most significant and meaningful trip – and that is what the other 90% is missing out on. I’m so glad I went, and honestly I don’t think you can truly say you’ve been to Australia until you’ve gone to the Outback. The ‘bush’ as I’ve learned from my Australian literature class and now after experiencing it myself, is what defines Australia. It is where the term ‘mateship’ comes from, where Aboriginal ‘Dreaming’ began, and where history takes the form of spirituality.

I will discuss spirituality in a bit, but as far as history goes, the Outback is Australia’s oldest history. Parts of the Outback, also called the Red Centre because of the redness of the sand, actually contain some of the oldest rocks in the world. There is a section of these rocks which used to be underwater that have imprinted stomatalitie fossils, arguably the earliest evidence of existing life forms. For this reason, the location of this site has not been disclosed to the public, as researchers are still investigating, but it has been a recent and exciting discovery. The Outback is also the centre of Aboriginal culture and identity, and thus understanding and respecting their culture is crucial to the ‘Australian experience’, in my eyes, at least. I think it is always important to learn about a country’s indigenous population, because, after all, they were the first people there. This trip inspired me to learn more about Native Americans, as there are many parallels between the two and especially the way they were treated by white settlers. Both Native Americans and Aboriginals had a spiritual relationship to the land, and an appreciation and respect for their ancestors before them and the world currently around them.

Aboriginal Dreaming, or Dreamtime, is the aboriginal story of creation and how the world began. In the dreaming world, earth was flat, dark, and lifeless. One day, the Aboriginal ancestor beings, who were asleep below the earth’s surface, broke through the crust, bringing force and sun and light with them. These ancestor spirits created the landscape, the water holes, the animals, the bush, the mountains, the rivers, and their own descendants. Aboriginal people believe these spirits still exist in the forms of special rocks, trees, or some part of the landscape, which makes these sites ‘sacred’ or ‘secret’. Secret sites are designated only to those who have gained the power of knowledge, for in Aboriginal culture knowledge is earned, not given. They are places of ceremonial importance or burial places. ‘Sacred’ sites are also used for ceremonies and contain special powers, such as producing food. Again, Aboriginal people emphasize their important spiritual relationship with the land through their ancestors and their motto “we don’t own the land, the land owns us”. 

This brings us to Uluru, also called Ayer’s Rock, which is the biggest rock in the world. It takes about 3 ½ hours to walk around (I know this from experience) and 50 people have died trying to climb it since they opened it to the public in the 1980’s. That being said, Aboriginal people discourage climbing the rock, as it goes against their tradition and culture. Uluru is a site of cultural significance and embodies ancestral spirits. Even as a simple tourist, I could understand how aboriginals believe it to be spiritual – it provides shade, water, and refuge from the dry, hot, endless bush landscape. Some people find it silly to fly to the middle of nowhere to see a big old rock. I found it to be spiritually significant and one of the greatest wonders of the world I’ve ever seen. And no, I’m not exaggerating.

I’ll give you a brief rundown of our tour. Cam and I flew in to Ayer’s rock airport (very tiny), greeted by hot, dense air and lots of flies. We were picked up by our tour guide, who was called ‘Doc’ and met the rest of our tour group. The 15 other tour members consisted of foreign couples, European backpackers, and a few Australian study abroad students such as ourselves. Doc is one of the most interesting characters I’ve ever met. He had us ‘get to know each other’ by answering a variety of questions, the most important being ‘when was your last kiss?’ Just wait till I tell you about his favourite games to play in the car and his ‘Emu Dance’ at the bar on our last night. I love this guy. Anyway, he took us to Kata Juta, where we hiked the ‘valley of the winds’ despite warnings against extreme heat. We then went to Uluru to watch the sunset. Another cool feature of Uluru is that it changes colours – as the sun got lower and lower, the rock got more and more red to the point that it was almost purple. It was pretty cool to observe. We then headed back to our campsite and had dinner, after which Doc showed us how to use our ‘swags’. Swag bags, our sleeping accommodation, are THE BEST INVENTION EVER!!! So much better than a hot stuffy tent, swag bags allow you to comfortably sleep on the ground and enjoy the beautiful night sky. They contain a mattress, which you put your sleeping bag on top and then zip all the way up. It’s like a sleeping bag for your sleeping bag. Definitely my favourite part of the trip. I’ve never ever seen such beautiful, numerous, amazing stars and it was the clearest sky I will ever see. The cool thing about the Outback is that there is literally NOTHING for miles and miles and miles – not even a gas station. People don’t live there, which is why to go out there you need to experience it via one of these tour groups so you don’t die. Doc warned us about the dingos, snakes, and drunk people that would be tramping through our campsite, so I snuggled up close next to Cam and stayed awake for hours, loving every moment of the sky and seeing tons of shooting stars.

We were rudely awakened at 3:50 am the next morning by Doc’s singing, because apparently this was normal for him. We watched the sunrise at Uluru, followed by a 10k base walk around it, where Doc told us aboriginal stories and pointed out places of ceremonial sites along the way. We then drove 5 hours, literally seeing no other car and nothing along the way, until we got to King’s Canyon. Doc told us a bit about the Canyon’s history and we set up camp close by. Another night of stargazing and some added lightening/thunder effects and we were woken again at a ridiculous hour to hike up ‘heart attack hill’ and do a 6k hike through King’s Canyon. This was also one of my favourite parts of the trip – it was so so so beautiful and looked like another planet. Mars, to be exact. The redness of everything and the way circular mounds were formed from wind and erosion gave it non earth-like features. It was different than anything I’ve ever seen. The closest thing would probably be the Grand Canyon, although without the river and water, and more red and bush-like. It was really really awesome. Anyways, then we drove another 5 hours to Alice Springs, the closest thing to a town in the Outback. Along the way we played a game sort of like mad libs where you fill things in on a sheet of paper and it was determined that Doc and I were going to get married and run an Emu farm together. Once at Alice Springs, we saw wallabies and got to feed them! We also made plans to meet up with Doc and the rest of our tour group after we put our things down in the hostel and showered.

That night at the bar was so much fun. I talked a lot with the European backpackers on our tour who had done and seen and experienced so much on their travels. In Europe, people are encouraged to take a year off and travel, and most of them do it on their own. Less and less people do this in America these days, and it made me realize that I need to take a year off and travel, even if its just me. People always say they are going to travel but its not going to happen unless you make it happen, and there’s so much I want to do and see and explore. Doc bought us all drinks and did an Emu Dance, which consisted of running around the bar with his hands on his head. If you have ever seen a grown middle age man do this, you would agree with me that it’s quite a sight and had us in hysterics for a while. After a disturbing, sketchy night at the hostel (I won’t go into details) we left for the airport the next morning. Such a great trip and I’m very glad I went. It was interesting to see something so different from the beautiful beaches along Australia’s east coast. Not that I’m complaining about the beaches at all, I just like to experience new things.

Cam and I were back at the airport 72 hours later with two of our other friends for our New Zealand roadtrip adventure! I’ll keep this brief because this blog post is getting so long. We descended into Christchurch with a spectacular backdrop of mountains the distance. As we picked up our car and started driving out of the city to Franz Joseph Glacier, about 5 hours away, I was stunned by the greenery and beauty of mountains all around us. So wonderful. Pictures or words don’t do it justice. It made me happy to be somewhere so green and pretty, and I think roadtripping around was the best way to see parts of the South Island. I definitely want to go back, especially for ski season! We didn’t have enough time there. Some fun facts about driving in New Zealand: #1 The roads are windy and there are often sharp, 90 degree turns down a mountain. #2 There is no straight shot from point A to B, often you have to go completely out of the way down and around. #3 There are not actually very many roads. This makes it hard to get lost. #4 There are also not very many people. We saw more sheep than humans. #5 When a map has a dot with the name of a town on it, this is not, in fact, a town where you can get food and gas. The ‘town’ consists of 3 abandoned buildings. Why this was even on the map, I do not know. #6 Roadtripping is way more fun when you stop to take pictures and frolic through picturesque meadows. #7 New Zealand drivers are comparable to New York/New Jersey drivers. Enough said.

Anyways, despite minor road mishaps, we made it to Franz Joseph Glacier that night. The next morning, also Thanksgiving Day, we hiked through the glacier, which was a really cool experience. We wore ‘crampons’, which attached to the bottom of our boots to make walking on the glaciers more secure. We slid down glacier tunnels and squeezed through narrow gaps. Fun but exhausting! We then got in the car again to drive to Queenstown, by far my favourite place since coming here. It was the one place I felt an overwhelming desire to return to and could see myself living for a while. IT’S SO AWESOME!!! Whoever is reading this, you have to go there. It’s beautiful and it’s also known as the ‘adventure capital of the world’. There are a ridiculous amount of things to do outdoors for all seasons. We only spent one night and day there and our adrenaline activity failed, but I loved it!!! We were supposed to go bungee jumping off the Nevis Bungee Jump, the second highest in the world. However, there were ‘extreme gale force winds’ the strongest they had seen in 3 years, so it was shut down the only day we could do it. Talk about signs from above. I was a little more than relieved at this, having seen the cable car suspended in mid -air that I would have been jumping off and the 143 meters over rocks and a rushing river I was supposed to plummet a LONG free fall of 8.5 seconds to. A bit too scary for me, I think, but I do want to go back and do the bridge jump at a modest 50 meters. Anyways, this gave us the chance to explore Queenstown more and wonder around the shops. Such a cool town. Like Burlington, Vermont, which I also love, but better and more homely.

We then drove a few more hours to Milford Sound, one of the most incredibly beautiful places I’ve ever seen. We did a cruise, which was nice and relaxing (although cold) and got the chance to see spectacular waterfalls up close and even wild seals and penguins! So awesome!!! Then we drove to Lake Takepo to stay the night en route back to Christchurch. We did a nice little loop around a small part of the south island, but it was enough for me to get the motivation to come back and explore more. New Zealand is an amazing, beautiful country and I will definitely be returning in the future. I have unfinished business with that bungee jump.

Sorry this has been so long and congrats if you are still reading! You made it. I’ll try and update once more before the end of the semester.

Cheers,

Emily

City versus Country

November is a bit of a crazy month for me with travelling and schoolwork, which is why I haven’t updated much and probably won’t get the chance to very often. The beginning of November/end of October started of with our 4-day trip to Tassie (Tasmania). I arrived in Launceston on Thursday with a group of my friends. We were on our own for the following day/night, as we were meeting up with Arcadia (my program provider) who had an organized itinerary for us the rest of the weekend. Launceston is Tassie’s second biggest “city”, if you could even call it that. The weather was crisp and cool, making us all nostalgic for fall weather back home. After checking into our hostel, we wandered around until we found a supermarket, where we bought pasta, bread and wine to cook back at the hostel for a big family-style dinner. It was nice and homely, and again I had one of those moments where I realized how wonderfully and truly happy I was.

On Friday morning I went cable hang-gliding with two of my friends from our group! After skydiving, this was less exciting but still pretty cool as I flew down the zip line, looking down at a gorge. We then hiked up to Cataract Gorge, which was absolutely stunning. Friday afternoon we met up with the rest of the Arcadia group, consisting of two staff members and a few American students studying at other Australian Universities. We exchanged information about where we were from and where we had been, and it was interesting to hear about other people’s study abroad experiences. We were then transported to Cradle Mountain, Tasmania’s main attraction and absolutely beautiful national park far out into the country. We passed sheep farms and saw fewer and fewer cars along the way. We had no cell phone service. We stayed in cabins close to the mountain, where we had comfortable bunk beds and we had to boil water and then refrigerate it overnight.

We spent the next two days backpacking in Cradle Mountain National Park. Google it. It’s as beautiful, if not more, than it looks. The pictures I took couldn’t capture its glory. It was great hiking – pretty steep at some parts, and at one point we were climbing along the face of the mountain, which was pretty tricky. Still, it was an amazing experience and I literally felt like I was tramping through something out of Lord of the Rings. Close to the summit of the mountain, we started seeing mounds of snow and obviously stopped to have a snowball fight. It was the one and only time I’ll see snow here. We saw wallabies and all sorts of other fuzzy animals, although no Tasmanian devils. The birds, too, were pretty spectacular with the sounds they made. They can be quite aggressive, however – one swooped down to steal my friend Kristina’s sandwich! Overall, it was a really fun and I felt exhausted but happy and refreshed after hiking in the backcountry wilderness of Tassie.

            I spent this past weekend in Sydney, where I was visiting my Uncle, his partner Ghila, and my almost now two-year old baby cousin, Bas. It was great to be with family again and have fine dining out and drink wine that didn’t come out of a box. I also got to do some solo exploring around Sydney harbour, which was actually really nice and I found that I enjoyed going at my own pace. I was back in the hustle and bustle of a major city, and I found that I hadn’t missed it at all. Needing a break away from city life, I was determined to study abroad somewhere less urban – and after visiting Sydney I knew I was right in making that choice. Don’t get me wrong, Sydney is such an amazing city and anyone who has the chance to go there should definitely visit. It’s just that personally, I’m less of a city person than I thought I was, which I discovered after my first semester of college in DC. Cities are fun for me to visit, but ideally I want to settle somewhere outside of a city and closer to the mountains, like Burlington, Vermont or Denver, Colorado. The Gold Coast, actually, is pretty ideal: it’s very spread out, so it doesn’t have a very urban feel to it, and its located on the beach (thus how it gets its name) and beautiful mountain ranges are about a half hour away. While I had a good time in Sydney, I was happy to get back to campus and prepare for my next two trips, both outdoorsy and adventure themed. On Thursday morning (2:30 am!!!) my friend Cam and I leave for our outback trip to Ayer’s Rock, which I’m really looking forward to. We return Sunday and are on campus for two more days, and then we leave next Wednesday with two of our other friends to go roadtripping in a campervan across New Zealand’s South Island! So naturally I’m pretty excited. Life just continues to be awesome. 

Conquering Fears

“Someday I hope you get the chance to live like you were dying” – Tim McGraw

Before reading this blog entry, I highly recommended you type “Live like you were dying” by the above artist into YouTube and listen to this song, as it sort of captures my motto here in Australia and certainly this past weekend’s activities.

As some of you may know, I’m absolutely terrified of heights. I don’t like driving over bridges, standing on roofs, looking down off a high building, ect., so naturally I decided skydiving was a good idea. It’s number one on my Australia bucket list, and everything is opposite here so it made sense to me that I should face whatever I was afraid of. I was set on booking skydiving, and when a few of my friends were interested I jumped (pun!) at the chance to go this past Saturday.

Friday night, I promised myself I wouldn’t drink too much for the obvious reason that I was going to be jumping 9,000 ft out of a plane the next morning. Of course I proceeded to get rather drunk, wake up the next morning, still drunk, and thought “Shit I’m jumping out of a plane today”.  At that point in time, I thought this was really funny until about halfway through our bus ride, where my laughter slowly turned to dread and a sense of doom (and the onset of a hangover), and then once we arrived at Byron Bay Skydiving, Australia’s #1 skydiving company, I felt an overwhelming sense of anxiety and fear. We walked into their little office, filled with videos and pictures of people free falling in midair, and I felt the first wave of reality hit. I panicked; I said, “Nope, not doing this” and turned around to leave, but my friend Campbell grabbed me and dragged me back, saying, “Yes, you are”.

For the next three hours while we waited for our turn (after we signed forms waiving our life away), we watched people “falling from the sky”, as my friend Angie said. They were too high to see at first, miniscule dots in the air, and then all of a sudden you would see brightly colored parachutes swirling and twisting in the air. “That’s gonna be me”, I thought, and the fear was beyond anything I’ve ever felt before. I thought about my life and how happy I was, and the fact that this was the craziest thing I have ever done.

Soon enough, we were up and after a brief training session on what we were supposed to do when we jumped and landed, we were hustled onto the plane. We did a tandem skydive, meaning you are attached to someone else and they release the parachute, but you were supposed to lean back and stick your hips out to form a “banana” shape to make it easier for them. My partner for this, whose name I don’t remember so we’ll just call him Josh, was a jaunty, upbeat middle age guy. Upon introducing ourselves I promptly confessed that I was scared out of my mind. As we climbed the plane, my whole body started to shake and Josh hugged me and gave me a motivational speech and said phrases of encouragement.

Once the plane took off however, I felt a sort of calm, in a way. Everything was out of my hands, I was no longer in control of anything, of my life, and ironically I have never felt more free. There’s something peaceful about being aware that there’s absolutely nothing you can do anymore, which sounds strange, I realize, but that’s the best way I can describe it. Josh may have sensed this from the look on my face because he said, “that’s right love, let go”. And I did, partially because this man was in charge of my life and I had no choice but to listen to him, but also because I really felt detached from everything – I was no longer grounded (literally), in other words.

The view was incredible. As we climbed higher and higher, I looked out onto beautiful golden beaches and bright blue ocean and a backdrop of forest green mountains in the distance. Absolutely amazing. And then, before I knew it, they were opening the chute to release us. My friend Kristina was going first, I was going second. I watched her partner scoot her up to the very edge of the plane, her whole body was outside the plane with her legs curled under – and then all of a sudden they fell forward and she disappeared into the sky. And in that moment – that was when my stomach jumped to my throat and my heart started pounding so hard I thought it was going to explode. I’ve truly never been more afraid in my entire life, but before I even had time to think, Josh was pushing me forward.

“Deep breaths, deep breaths and SMILE! This is going to be fun”, Josh said, as he thrusted me out of the plane and my whole body was hanging in midair while he sat on the very edge. I wasn’t aware of anything at that time except intense panic, although my friend Dean said I had a look of “pure terror and absolute fear” on my face. Before I could react, Josh rocked us forward and we fell into the sky. The next few seconds were a blur – we tumbled, flipped in the air and fell forward, through clouds, and I remember screaming but not hearing anything, as the wind overpowered any sound. But then we were hovering midair, still free falling (the parachute hadn’t been released at this point) but I felt motionless. I’m telling you, it was the most insane feeling – just free falling in the sky but not really feeling like you were falling.  I couldn’t even see the ground at this point, just pure blue sky and crazy winds. I got a tap on the shoulders from Josh, meaning I could let go of my harness and spread my arms out wide. When I did this, I no longer felt any sense of fear and I really truly felt free, alive. If this is the closest thing to flying, it was the most amazing thing I’ve ever experienced.

Supposedly we were free falling for 25 seconds, but it felt a lot less than that, or maybe longer, all sense of time was lost. Then I felt the pull and tug upward, as Josh released the parachute. At this point, he started to loosen me from him a little to make it more comfortable as we had been tightly bound to each other. So tightly, in fact, it felt like the buckles were going to pop off. I forgot that he had warned me he was going to loosen me, however, and as I felt him undoing buckles I panicked and screamed “DON’T LET GO OF ME!!!!” I caught my breath when I remembered what he was doing, and we laughed about it and made conversation as we floated downwards. All my anxiety was gone at this point and I was overcome with the view – Josh pointed out the names of the mountains in the distance, the highest one being Mount Warning, which Ben and I camped at later that night and hiked to the summit the following morning. Mount Warning is the highest peak of eastern Australia, and the first part of this side of the world to receive sunlight. Josh pointed down to whales in the ocean below us, which were flipping over on their sides and spewing water into the air. I couldn’t believe it – we were thousands of feet above the ground and yet I was loving every second. “Welcome to my office”, Josh said, gesturing to the beautiful, amazing scenery and incredible view. I will never ever forget that feeling of complete bliss and appreciation for the wonderful world around me.

After at least a few minutes, if not longer, we got closer and closer to the ground, and I could make out cars and houses that still looked like small toys from the distance. As we approached the landing, Josh told me to bring my legs up and stretched them out. Suddenly we were coming down fast and before I knew it, I was on the ground again. At this point, I jumped up to hug Josh and thank him profusely for bringing me back alive. Kristina and I high fived our survival and watched the rest of our friends descent. For the next few hours, we were all high on life – recounting our experience over and over again and feeling euphoric at our success.

I will never ever forget skydiving. It was the most incredible thing I have ever done, and the best experience of my life. For anybody who is thinking about it, I strongly recommend it. There’s nothing like a little adrenaline rush and risking your life to make you really really appreciate being alive.

The rest of the weekend was also heaps of fun. I met up with Ben and we camped at the base of Mount Warning, as I said above. It was wonderful to be in the woods and hear nothing but birds and insects and all the sounds of the wild. We made a campfire and looked at the stars and I felt peaceful and calm and truly truly happy with my life. The next morning we hiked the 8K up to the summit, which was a pretty steep incline and at the end you literally had to rock climb, using a chain they had added for support. It was pretty tough but the view was worth it – absolutely beautiful, and even crazier was the fact that I had seen it from thousands of feet above ground the day before. Also at top of the mountain, people were gathered around a Python snake, all curled up. I jumped, frightened, this being my first time seeing a Python, or certainly in the wild, at least. For Ben however, this was more of less a regular thing, and on the way back down he pointed out another one right off the side of the trail. This one was awake, however, and I freaked out, running down the trail at full sprint, which Ben pointed out wouldn’t save me anyway. He told me not to worry though, because apparently pythons don’t go after humans but like to squeeze and suffocate other animals. I decided I didn’t like snakes.

Overall it was a fulfilling, action packed weekend, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I realize that I never updated about my Whitsunday Islands sailing adventure, so I would like to talk about that real fast. I know this post is getting pretty long but hang with me for a bit longer. The Whitsunday trip was a blast – we arrived Thursday afternoon in Ariel beach, a typical beach town with lots of seaside bars and not a whole lot else. We spent a night in a backpackers, which was my first experience with a hostel. It was quite pleasant – the rooms were big and there were a few bunk beds in each, with hammocks and a swimming pool outside. Not bad. That night we also bar hopped and found some pretty sweet outdoor bars with live music. The next morning we made our way to the docks, where we met up with Wings 3, the boat company where we would be spending the next 3 days and 2 nights. Our boat consisted of 25 people, including me and my five friends, the 3 crew members, and a bunch of international couples who were travelling around. We made friends with an Irish couple who told me I made the right choice by studying abroad here rather than Ireland because of the gorgeous weather.

The Whitsundays are comprised of 70 different islands, all uninhabited, located on the very southern part of the Great Barrier Reef. Over the next 3 days, we sailed around to different islands and anchored the boat at various bays. We put on wetsuits and snorkelled a few times, all right on the reef, which was really really cool. I saw all sorts of coral and schools of fish and swam close to sea turtles! We took hikes along the beautiful, pure silicon beaches. I’ve never seen sand so purely white and water so light blue. Back on the boat, we would hang around the hot tub and have a drink or two, while being fed some of the best food I’ve had here. They took really good care of us. We watched sunsets, and for those of us who don’t do well with sleeping and motion, we got to see some sunrises too. It was a really fun trip and a wonderful experience – the Whitsundays is probably the most beautiful place I’ve ever been to, and for anybody who is travelling to Australia I recommend doing a boat tour around it. I chose that over Cairns, the other Great Barrier Reef destination, because it was less touristy and more beautiful and I don’t regret it.

This weekend the adventures continue! We are going to Tasmania (or Tassie, as Aussies call it), the hiking aka “bushwalking” destination of the world! I’m really excited, it’s supposed to have some spectacular scenery. We will be doing a bunch of hikes as well as a 3-hour zipline through a rainforest, along with other activities.

I really, really love my life.

Cheers,

Emily

Welcome to the good life

I've been here a bit over a month now. Crazy. On the one hand, I feel like I’ve been here forever. I’ve more or less settled into a sort of routine here, as much as I can be with all the traveling I’m doing. It is also speeding by rather fast, which scares me because I never want to leave. I’m in this paradise where I’m so happy all the time and life is too good, and I don’t want to go back. However, one of the most important things I’ve learned with this study abroad experience is to really, fully live in the moment – not to look too far forward or back, but just appreciate the present and the now.

And I really do feel, truly, like I’m living. Back home at school (George Washington aka GW) I go through the daily motions in some sort of sleep deprived zombie state, constantly stressed, always tired. I get maybe 3 to 5 hours of sleep a night, I take sleeping pills, wake up really groggy and stumble through the day. I spend most nights at the library and I study constantly. I don’t always eat well, I can’t exercise everyday. I stress and worry about grades and the future to no end, and at times get really overwhelmed.

Here at Bond, life couldn’t be more different. I haven’t been stressed at all, not once. Even when my wallet got stolen, I sort of just went through the process of filing a police report and going to various banks to get cards back. It didn’t upset me though, the way I would have freaked out at home – and that made things a lot easier. It’s got to be this atmosphere – you don’t see anyone stressed, really, ever. I mean, how can you be, when the beach is 30 minutes walk away, there’s a pool and hot tub outside your room, and the weather is beautiful and people are friendly? Nope, the motto here is “no worries”, and I gotta say, I’m loving it. I prefer this kind of lifestyle.  

School isn’t particularly stressful either, at least not yet, but so far things have been pretty manageable. I haven’t spent any time in the library yet, for one thing. Nor have I bought a book – conveniently a lot of my friends are in my classes so we take turns checking them out of the library or split the cost. It’s much more affordable, and my priorities are not really about the books anyway, lets be honest. However, we are on a trimester system here, which means that the work is piling up pretty fast. It’s the end of week 4, and we have 12 weeks and then 2 weeks of exams, so I’m already 1/3 of the way through. Unlike classes back home, there are usually two forms of assignments per class, rather than various assignments spread out. My lit classes for example, are an essay and a final test and my other classes are a midterm and final. That’s it. So it’s more pressure to do well, but less work in between, which is nice. Overall way less work than what I’m used to.

Additionally, I have found that I prefer the way classes work here. Part of that might have to do with the fact that I’m in class a lot less, and I’m even earning more credits! WIN. Most classes are divided into two-hour lectures and an hour tutorial, so 3 hours total per class per week. I actually really love the tutorials, or tuts, as they call them here. They are small, group based discussion classes, which means that even if you are in a 30 or 40 person lecture class, you still get the one on one attention during your tut, which at most has 8 to 10 people. I haven’t had that kind of small class atmosphere since high school, and I forgot how much I love it. It means too that you get to discuss the material you learned in lecture, which helps me learn it a lot easier and become more engaged in it.

I also find that I am more alert in class, although after 2 hours I tend to zone out – but they usually give you a break. This is probably because I’m getting about 9 to 11 hours of sleep a night. It’s amazing. I’m not having trouble sleeping either – I brought sleeping pills with me but have yet to take them. I did a research project for one of my psych classes about how stress and sleep go hand in hand, lack of sleep causes stress and stress causes poor sleep quality – and being here is a true validation of that.

I’m also exercising quite regularly. I wear athletic shorts and a tee shirt to class most days, which I love. It’s refreshing to see other people doing this too, rather than the groups of sorority girls and frat boys wearing their letters. Granted, I’m in both a frat (honors) and a sorority (community service) and I wear letters too so I can’t really talk, but I enjoy the fact that Greek life is nonexistent here. I’m running a lot, almost every day, and then I’ll usually do some other work out in addition, whether that means beach volleyball or group fitness classes. The classes here are free, which is awesome, and so far I’ve done cycling and a strength class, after which I was sore for days but it felt so good. And I can really feel myself getting stronger too. I love feeling fit and in shape, not to mention that everyone here is fit and in shape, so you sort of stand out if you aren’t. Two of my friends and I signed up to play “social” beach volleyball every Wednesday, which is actually more competitive than social and kinda hard but great fun! Although I am again reminded why I don’t play contact sports, since my hand eye coordination is a bit off and I continue to aim towards hitting people rather than over the net…oops. 

The food isn’t bad either. I’m on a meal plan, which is quite new to me because at GW we don’t have such a thing and just have money on a card to use where you want, when you want. While this is certainly more convenient, I have to say I’ve enjoyed having a cafeteria, mainly because you can always find someone you know there. It’s nice to have meals together and it’s where everyone reconvenes after the day. There’s a community sort of feel to it, and I like it.

Similarly, Thursday nights are really big here. Everyone goes to this bar on campus, called Don’s, and then we all get on a bus to one of the local nightclubs in the area. Back home, I hate clubbing. You won’t find me in a club, ever. I refuse to go, and when I do, I am miserable the whole time and no fun to be around. Here, however, it’s a bit different. For one thing, the entire school is together practically, which makes it a lot more fun. The atmosphere too is a lot better – just overall a better experience. I’ve also been to a few different pubs/bars, which is more my scene, but I’ve generally had a much more fun going out – being legal probably adds to this too.

I’ve spent other week nights with one of my Australian friends, Ben, who picks me up and we’ll go for a driving lesson, or a walk on the beach or by the lake, or to dinner or something. He’s been teaching me how to drive stick shift, which I am SLOWLY getting the hang of – it’s much trickier than I expected, especially with the gear being on the left side and driving on the left side. Fortunately he’s very patient and does not panic when I stall his car or go on the right side…which has happened frequently. I’m getting more used to it, but boy do I have appreciation now for automatic cars.

Last weekend, Ben and I went camping at this hippie beach town called Byron Bay, which is a blast from the 60’s basically. There are hippie vans, colors everywhere, guys with dreadlocks playing guitar on the beach, Rastafarian hats. Wearing a suit or a fancy dress would make you stick out like a sore thumb – like that time I wore a bright orange dress to an emo concert (thanks tori). You get the sense too, that time sort of stops in Byron. People, if possible, are even more laid back – the first night we camped illegally (we didn’t know this at the time) and around 10 am when we were packing up, a guy came up to us and explained that it was private property. For a second I thought he might fine us or call the police, but all he said was “you should have left earlier”. Ben showed me around and we climbed up to a lighthouse, where the most easterly point of Australia’s mainland is located. It was a pretty sweet view – the lighthouse gave us a 360-degree view of the surrounding ocean, beach, and backdrop of mountains on one side. Absolutely beautiful, even for rainy weather. We also managed to see some whales! Ben brought his binoculars so we got to see a mom and baby whale (we guessed) swimming side by side, in full detail as they flipped over on their stomachs or flapped their tails. And oh my gosh the stars – so many, so amazing, so beautiful. I never get to see stars like that back in Jersey suburbs and in the city of DC. Ben and I made a campfire and just watched the sky for a few hours and it was incredible.

I’ve also explored the Gold Coast area and done some things locally, like going to the Curimbin Wildlife Sanctuary, where I learned that getting to hold a Koala and pet a Kangaroo is the best possible way to cure a hangover. Also, Koala’s are smelly but oh so so cute. All they do is sleep, eat, and hang in trees all day – pretty sweet life. Otherwise, there are numerous shopping areas and beach towns. The Gold Coast is technically a city, but it doesn’t have that urban feel to it at all – it’s more divided into different beach towns along the coast. You’ve got Surfer’s Paradise, where all the nightclubs are and it’s a bit tackier but has a lot more shops. Then Broadbeach, which is like Surfer’s but more upscale. Finally, you have my favorite – Burleigh Heads – which is more like a national park sort of, with trails along the beach and a lot of rocks to climb. I like that the Gold Coast is more spread out and Bond itself is located in its own area, which is nice because you still have access to everything via bus but its closed off too. It’s a nice break from being in DC, and I don’t miss it much to be honest. I needed a break away from the city.

I feel like I am being very critical of GW right now, and that’s not what I’m trying to do. I love love love my friends at school and miss them terribly. I love the things I’m involved in and the opportunities I’ve had. I may hate the bureaucracy of the school itself (ahem certain offices), but generally I’ve had a good experience there. The point I’m trying to make is that Bond is everything I wanted that GW isn’t – it’s been the break I needed desperately and so much more than that. And truly, I couldn’t be happier.

Now I’m off to a sailing adventure in the Whitsunday Islands! Welcome to the good life.

Cheers,

Emily

Sand boarding, Snorkeling, Surfing and Seakyaking at Straddie

This past weekend was, to say the least, heaps of fun! We went to North Stradbrook Island (Straddie, as Aussies call it) as our “free excursion” with Arcadia. Not only did they organize everything, including busing us there and back, arranging endlessly awesome activities, accommodation, food, ect. but I DIDN’T HAVE TO PAY ANYTHING!!! As I’m starting to book all my trips, this was really exciting. Also, once again, Arcadia outdid themselves and I continue to be impressed with them. 

We arrived via ferry on Friday afternoon (the bus too) just in time to catch a beautiful sunset. Straddie is absolutely gorgeous, which I say about a lot of places in this country, I realize, but somehow things keep getting even better. The weather also, thankfully, was wonderful. Straddie is the second largest sand island in the world and despite it becoming more inhabited in recent years, there are still only one or two main roads. The water is all shades of blue-green colors, the beaches are soft and hug the islands edge for miles on end, and the starts are innumerable.

That being said, we were promptly warned at dinner about some of the dangers of the island, including, but not limited to, eight out of ten of the most poisonous snakes in the world, the plentiful “sharky” waters, killer boxed “jellies” and a few other things that if you touched, “that’s it” for you. So naturally, that made us a wee bit nervous for the water related activities we were supposed to be doing that weekend, like surfing during sunrise (feeding time for sharkies) and snorkeling.

That night, we were also fortunate enough to have an aborigine guest speaker, Shane, who told us his story and gave me a lot of insight on indigenous culture. He spoke of his childhood, during which the aboriginal people were shunned and mistreated by the government, to say the least. His parents’ generation wasn’t allowed to attend school past 4^th grade to purposefully prevent further education, and he had to struggle to stay in high school. He spoke of how kids beat him up, how teachers tried to fail him, how they would do anything and everything to get him kicked out. He talked about the stolen generation, when aborigine children were separated from their parents and forced to grow up in foster homes, subject to domestic abuse and from that sprang alcohol and other drug related problems. He explained how his people gone from structured, ordered, and prosperous to violent, poor, and subject to a variety of social problems. He then went on to talk about parts of aborigine culture, including their spiritual beliefs, which I found really interesting. They have spiritual connections with their ancestors, animals, and various rituals and ceremonies. Overall, it was an incredibly moving story, and I feel very fortunate that he was so open to us and that I was able to listen and learn from him.

As stated in the title, we spent the weekend engaging in all sorts of fun activities. On Saturday, we went snorkeling (my first time!) and sea kayaking in the morning. Snorkeling was awesome!!! I saw all sorts of multicolored fish and swam besides schools of fish, and even saw a reef shark! (They were pretty small and apparently harmless…unless provoked, that is). I also held a sea cucumber, which was black and squishy all over, and something that people on the island consider a food category. During sea kayaking, we paddled through beautiful light blue waters.

Then we had lunch and had a lesson on boomerang throwing! I was not very successful but we learned that they really do come back to you…one of my friends almost got implanted in the face with his, only to catch it at the last second. We also got to paint our own, which ended up in me struggling to paint within the lines, typical of my kindergarten status artistic ability.  But everyone else had some beautiful boomerangs, decorated with aborigine symbols that held various meanings. Something interesting about indigenous artwork is that everything tells a story, which made me more appreciative of it and realize the hard work and time that went into it.

Later in the afternoon, we went on a stunning walk along the coast, again saw an amazing sunset, and passed out pretty early after watching an aborigine movie and making ANZAC (Australia New Zealand Army Corps) biscuits, which tasted like oatmeal cookies.

Sunday morning at the crack of dawn we went for our surfing lesson! AWESOME way to start the day, despite it being so early. I had a blast, and I’m going to attempt to surf as least a few more times while I’m here. I got up every time, which was pretty exciting, but had trouble staying up. I asked one of the surf instructors why I was having issues with this, and he responded that I needed to stop trying so hard and just relax. Once I eased up, I was a lot more successful and one of the only people who stayed out until the end. I’m addicted. IT WAS SO COOL! Granted, we were surfing baby waves, but once again it made me contemplate why I was in school when I could just be doing this everyday and getting paid for it, as our instructors seemed pretty content with their lives. It’s all about what makes you happy. At a previous surf shop, I saw the infamous slogan “do what you love, love what you do”. It seemed to fit pretty well. Then we went sand boarding, which was like snowboarding…except on a sand dune. It was pretty fun but simultaneously exhausting as you had to climb back up the dune each time, and that took a lot of energy out of me after surfing. We complained that they needed chairlifts. But it was fun to pick up speed as you went down, and as a very unsuccessful snowboarder (I spent most of the time on the ground) I found this to be much more enjoyable.

Finally, we stopped at Brown Lake before heading home, which is believed by aborigines to have healing powers. The water was red, from tree oil, and got redder as you got deeper. The water’s substance was also different – it felt more soft, like lotion almost, when you rubbed it in between your fingers. It was very refreshing and relaxing. Then we were transported back on the ferry and bused back to Bond, where I unpacked and passed out after an action packed weekend.

This weekend more adventures to come! We are going to Byron Bay, a hippie surf beach town about an hour away, and we are in the process of booking SKYDIVING! Look for updates. I will also update about classes and school, but I’ll save that for another time. Hope this was somewhat enjoyable and not too boring to read.

Cheers,

Emily

This can't be real...

G'day mate! Greetings from down under. I finally gave in and decided to blog about my adventures here, but mostly to make you all jealous. For those of you who don't know, I'm currently studying abroad at Bond University, located on the beautiful Gold Coast, about an hour south of Brisbane. THIS PLACE IS AMAZING. I'm going to try to update this frequently and keep things interesting, as I don't want this to turn into something that puts you to sleep. I tend to get into a lot of unnecessary depth and detail when I write, so this will be good for me. Any advice, comments, questions, ect is greatly appreciated! 

It’s been 10 days since my parents dropped me off at the airport with some last minute advice "drink draft beer, not bottles" (my dad) and "DONT DRINK AT ALL" (mommy). I was anxious and impatient. A bit sad, maybe, to be leaving my family and friends at school. For the first time, I understood why people stay in one place their whole life. On my connecting flight to LAX where I met up with a group flight, I spent most of the time internally panicking. Everything that seemed exciting suddenly seemed scary. Why leave home and school, where I was happy, comfortable, and finally felt settled, to face a whole new country, people, culture, ect? And I mean, Australia is not that threatening. Well, some of their animals are. But generally it’s not that drastic of a change, so I was surprised at myself for having those doubts.

So far it’s been the best decision I've ever made. IM HAVING THE TIME OF MY LIFE here!!! I can't get enough. The beaches, the mountains, the atmosphere, the people, the weather - all so beautiful. And everyone is so incredibly nice and friendly. I'm not used to it, being from good old jersey and going to school in DC, where everyone is plugged in to their iphones and do their own thing. People here go out of their way to get to know you. While giving you directions, they will walk with you and talk to you. You make friends on the bus. When you ask someone how “footie” works, not only do they explain the game but they get excited when you catch on. Guys you give your number to text you the next day. One woman even offered to drive 10 of us to the beach. Its culture shock, and I'm loving every second.

I'll give you a brief summary of what I've been up to since getting here. At the airport I was greeted by Arcadia (my program provider) staff, two women who were absolutely hilarious and wonderful people. The first thing we did was stop at a national park, where we saw kangaroos in the wild!!! Well played, Arcadia. I’m now obsessed with them. We then got on a bus to Sorrento, a quiet, gorgeous beach town outside Melbourne, where we spent the first three days recovering from jet lag and going on night hikes/daytime walks around beautiful, rugged cliffs hovering at the ocean's edge. We then spent a day/night in Melbourne before flying to the Gold Coast, where we saw an AFL (Australian Football League) game and explored pubs in the area. 

We also had an introduction to Australian history and customs, where we learned that the Kangaroo and Emu on the Australian Coat of Arms were chosen because they are the only two animals that can’t move backwards. Thus they were symbolic of a nation moving forward, hence the title of this blog, as I am also moving forward in my life. Clever, right?

The next day we caught a flight to Brisbane and then were transported via bus to our new home! Bond is incredible. I can't believe this is a real campus. It circles around a pretty lake, fed by a canal (where sharks can apparently swim into) and the buildings are styled in a fancy, modern way. My room looks out onto the large outdoor pool and hot tub. The closest beach is 3-4 miles away, and there are many more close by. There are sand volleyball courts. There's a bar on campus. THIS CAN'T BE REAL. It feels like a dream, but I'm actually living here. Its paradise. I spent my week working out, going to the beach, BBQ's, going to outdoor shopping malls, going to clubs and other school sponsored alcoholic activities (I LOVE THAT I'M LEGAL HERE). It’s a really tough life ya know? We also got some logistic stuff done, like getting a phone/18+ card (the important things), and started to realize how expensive everything here is. The cheapest thing you can get is boxed wine (which they call goon). Literally, it’s cheaper than a cup of coffee or a bottle of shampoo. I'm going to go broke basically. Good thing I have some goon to get me through it.

Classes start next week, and I'm really excited about them. I'm taking a forensic psych class, a lit class, and two (hopefully) fun Australian studies classes. Oh, and I don't have class Thursday or Friday. 4 DAY WEEKEND EVERY WEEKEND! One of my friends has a 2-day week. Its seems ridiculous but I'm not complaining. Also, it will be good for traveling. 

I'm keeping a list of Aussie slang/sayings for your future reference in case I incorporate them into my vocabulary. What I've learned so far:

- heaps = really, a lot

- how ya going? = hey, whats up

- keen = cool, neat

- goon = boxed wine

- breakie = breakfast

- catch up = hang out

- thongs = flip flops

- G'day, no worries, cheers = common phrases

There's more that I can't remember right now but I'll keep adding to it. And sorry this is such a long blog post, I promise the other ones will be much shorter and condensed. To all my friends and family back home who are reading this, I love and miss you all.

Cheers for now,

Emily