Fraser Island-Too Much Sand

Greetings everyone! (or just me depending on if anyone is still reading this...)

so as per usual I have neglected my little bloggywog in search of fun and due to lack of internet so there are mucho updates to get out. Last I left this bad boy I was heading to Hervey Bay/Fraser Island for a 2 night/3 day sand island adventure. And it was just that! We arrived in Hervey Bay at 7 am with little sleep under our belt but managed to rally and get excited for Fraser. We went to the hostel and were briefed all about the island through this absolutely hysterical video that the Australian Government has made...there were at least 5 minutes of the video devoted to dingoes and not leaving your children unattended. "The dingo at my baby!" just kept replaying in my head. We were put into a group with 4 Irish girls-Shelley, Carol, Clare and Trish, a Swiss German-Tomas, and a Swiss-French boy, Killian. The girls were absolutely hysterical and we bonded instantly, the boys had a bit of a time coming out of their shells but once they did our little team was made. We packed up the car and we were off on the ferry to Fraser! The larger group consisted of 4 cars, so about 28 people all together were on this trip which made for good times. There were these 2 Canadian boys that stuck out right away as they HAD to be the center of attention anywhere they were. One was this huge 6'3" firefighter named Jeff (he comes into play soon), the other was this little sprite named Mike. Claire and I affectionately referred to them as Big Canada and Little Canada. I hope they never heard us say it...

Fraser Island is basically just a giant pile of sand with lots of forest, and even more sand. All of the roads are really just tracks in the sand so it is off roading heaven. We went to Lake Wabby the first day which was surrounded by a huge sand dune so the thing to do was run or jump down the dunes into the water. I chose to watch as my accident-proneness and lack of travel insurance would surely have ended in disaster. Claire and I did get into a sand fight like any mature 23 year olds would do which was quite entertaining. I'd like to say I won, but that would be a lie. After Lake Wabby it was off to set up camp along the beach, along with several other cars. I think there must have been close to 75 people in our campsite and we all ended up converging and having this huge party on our tarp that was hysterical. The London boys that we had met in Mission Beach (see the photos...they are priceless) and then run into again at Airlie Beach, showed up at the campsite so that was a fun surprise. Drinking games were abound but we learned that they are not very practical to play with 30 people trying to sit in a circle. The night ended with all of us running around in the waves on the beach and attempting to do cartwheels.

While at Lake Wabby, Big Canada told me that he was a firefighter and also dresses up as Smokey the Bear and goes around to elementary schools educating the wee kiddos about fire safety. As Smokey was one of my childhood icons (Thank you McCall Ranger Station) I was all to eager to hear all about dressing like a massive bear and dancing around. I think he mistook my interest in the fact that I was talking to a mascot as interest in him. So later he invited me to go down to the beach for a walk and an herbal refreshment and I said yes thinking nothing of it. Best decision I've ever made, because I got the best pickup line I've ever heard. We were just sitting on the beach talking, and he leans towards me and says "come give Smokey a kiss". (seriously, I should be telling you this story in person because text just does not do it justice, but I cant not share it). I kid you not, I could not stop laughing and had to eventually get up and leave because I couldn't control myself. Smokey did not get a kiss, but will forever live on with that story. So boys, next time you think it's a good idea to refer to yourself in third person as your alter ego, just don't do it. It will end in tears. Of the girl you are trying to pick up.

The next day we woke up with the sun which was far too early and headed to Indian Head which is this big look out towards the top of the island. You could see for miles when you hiked up and we saw sharks and stingrays out in the water which was pretty amazing. Then we went to this little creek and splashed around in the water before setting up camp again. We had to set up camp early because of the tide and driving on the beach, so we decided to do what anyone else would do while stranded on the beach and not able to drive-drink. Fast forward to 7:30 pm and Jen passed out under the car. After one round of drinking games I was so exhausted that I just quietly rested my head and before I knew it, I was out. Apparently people tried to wake me up and I wouldn't budge so they just played drinking games over me. Fantastic. At one point Sean did get me up and told me some BS story about how they had switched islands on me and I was all alone with these giant frogs. I was still half asleep so I wandered out to the beach to see these giant toads before I realized where I was and that I did know everyone there. I tried to be social but was still dead so I crawled into a tent and admitted defeat.

The last day we woke up and headed to McKenzie Lake which is a perched lake-which basically means that if you dug down to the bottom and cleared all of the leaves, the lake would disappear. The result is this incredibly cool blue lake that has white sand that can polish jewelry and clean teeth. We played around that before getting in the car and heading back towards the ferry. We had to stop and fill air into the tires of the car and ended up getting into this huge water fight. This was a bad idea for 2 reasons. 1) Queensland is in a severe drought that we didn't know about and we were just throwing jugs of water at each other. 2) while trying to fill up my water jug I was hit from behind with water and immediately turned my head to run away, and immediately ran my nose into a metal pipe. Thankfully it wasn't severely injured but I had a huge welt on my nose for the rest of the day. It amazes me sometimes how accident prone I am.

Back in Hervey Bay we met some funny Aussies from Byron Bay area that taught us this hysterical drinking game that involves "putting on goggles" (making goggle shapes with your hands and holding them up to your face) and chicken noises. I'm definitely bringing that one back to the states. Our next stop was supposed to be Noosa, but it ended up being Brisbane due to poor bus planning on our part. More on that later..I have to go attempt to pack now.

Until next time...

Jen

Maroon me on the Whitsundays please

I am sitting in an Airlie Beach internet cafe right now and they just finished the playing the Jesse McCartney album and have now switched it over to Jewel. Add it to my list of reasons why I love Australia and all of it's glory. We just got off the Whitsundays yesterday which can really not be properly described on this blog. Buuuut before I get ahead of myself, let's review the past few days. Lots has happened.

Between the time of getting off the ferry from Magnetic Island and jumping on the greyhound we had about 45 minutes to grab food. Which you would think would be enough time to get to McDonalds and back, right? Well, if you are like us, you thought wrong. We asked a nice man who was either very turned around or just wanted to mess with us how close it was and he said like 2 blocks away. Add a zero onto the end of that number and thats how close it was. 20 blocks away. We found this out the hard way, and also arrived right about feeding time for the kiddies so it was like a Twilight convention with Big Macs. Kill me. Cut to Sean and I dead out sprinting through the streets of Townsville with McDonalds bags in hand and you can understand why people were pointing and laughing. We did however make it to the bus just in time to realize that our driver was the crankiest old man ever and we had to not only sneak the food onto the bus but sneak taking bites while the old man wasn't wheezing about switching seats. Seriously it was like being back in elementary school all over again. Claire also snuck a popsicle onto the bus after we stopped at the grossest pit stop ever and she had to literally shove it between the seats so old man river wouldn't kick her off the bus for having it. I laughed so hard I cried when I saw the look on her face and subsequent panic at realizing he was walking towards us while she had a mouth full of ice cream. Things I wish I had on videotape...

We got into Airlie Beach and took a nice overextended stroll to find our hostel. The town is really cute with lots of fun shops, restaurants and bars. Though the ratio of live music to people who actually like it is very out of whack. On the bright side, the ratio of mullets to normal hair cuts is like 2:1 so I have spent probably 60% of my time laughing and pointing out said hair dos to anyone that wants to see. Which is alot, in case you were wondering. Our first hostel came complete with no working lights and no sheets so that was just great. Really classy establisment. We grabbed some dinner in town then came back and made friends with a group of English boys who were playing drinking games on the patio. We played several rounds of a variation of the game Zoo that had all of us dying laughing. Then it was out to Mama Africas where I went for something different and alternated my time between spotting every mullet in the room and dancing like an idiot. The night ended as every night should-at McDonalds discussing the different pronunciations that Americans and English have for the same word. I think we got stuck on "yoghurt" for at least 10 minutes. This was clearly more fun than going to sleep so we didnt hit the non-existent sheets til 4 am and had to be up at 7. Smooth move.

The Whitsundays were just....so many things. I think we set the tone for the trip the night before and that only continued. We were late getting into town and registering with the boat so we had to do that in the morning and the woman behind the counter seriously would not stop talking. Then we ran across town to the marina to get the boat and of course purchased 3 giant boxes of goon on the way. You can imagine the looks we got from our fellow passengers when we rolled up looking like hell with as much booze and you can carry at 10 am. We quickly realized we were in the minority what with bringing booze and liking to have fun. We met two really fun girls from Canada- Mariel and Meghan- the only other two who got the BYOB memo. The rest of the boat was mostly couples with a few randoms and then this funny old Italian family that we were all skeptical about but actually ended up making the trip. There were 3 little old Italian ladies who just hung out in bikinis all day..and one who was such a diva. She pursed her lips and every bikini she had was adorned with either sequins or jewels of some sort. So funny. The first day out we sailed to Hook Island and did some snorkeling complete with stinger suits (think full body lycra) and then some actual sailing in the afternoon. We parked the boat and had dinner and then played games with the crew at night. A fair amount of time was also spent looking up- with no light pollution you could see thousands of stars. I think we were all awed into silence for a least a half an hour just looking up at all the constellations. Claire, Sean and I were supposed to camp on the island but we finagled a spot to sleep on the boat instead-in the sail. Yes seriously, we all cocooned up in the sail and after some moving around it was actually quite comfortable. Illegal too I'm sure, but quite the experience none the less.

The next day we set off for Whitehaven Beach which I am going to ahead and say is one of the most beautiful places on earth. I'm sure everyone has seen pictures-white sand beaches, crystal clear water, vivid blue sky. Absolutely unreal. We took about 9000 pictures there and not one does the spot justice. It really is just incredible. I got to use the underwater capabilities on my new camera which was quite fun and we ended up with some really fun pictures! Poor Meghan tried to do a handstand and dislocated her shoulder so she had to get off the boat that afternoon to get it taken care of! But she's ok now, she was such a trooper she didn't even complain once. After getting her taken care of we went snorkelling and sailing some more before doing dinner and drinks again. We played games down in the cabin and the Italians were just fascinated. They kept trying to figure out how we were playing and what was going on, it was so cute. One of the grandmas took a liking to Sean and kept stealing his nose. Like your grandma probably did to you when you were five. So funny. We decided to venture onto the island to the only bar for a drink and it was a bit of a shitshow of University students so that didn't last long. Getting back to the boat, our Host, Rachel fell into the water! And we had just had a conversation about how we were both deathly afraid of the ocean at night...thankfully her cigarettes stayed dry so she was happy. Back into the sail we went, until Sean tried to climb out later and snapped one of the sides. Ooops. But it ended up being ok (fixable) and we got to steal someone's bed so that actually worked out for the better. Leave it to us to break something on the boat. The next morning we headed home and yup, the power steering went out. So we had to jump on this little dingy to get in from outside of the marina. Definitely a fantastic trip-I know I'm not describing it that well and it's probably one of those "had to be there" things, but really so much fun.

We got back to Airlie and decided to go swimming at the local watering hole and on the way over I ran into Tristan and his girlriend LeAnn! Small world, Tristan and I worked together at Blue Hour and we knew each other was coming but to just randomly run into him was so funny! We went swimming and then tried to do internet stuff but my computer has been rather rude lately so that ended up with me fuming mad about not getting any pictures up. It was definitely one of those "I'm turning into my mother" moments. Love you Mom! Then it was goon time. After the boats get back its a tradition to get a table with the crew at one of the bars and get drinks and have fun. We saw our English friends too so that was great fun, and then in another small world story I saw Andrew Aaberg! Just sitting a table away from me! He's here working for a year and I had no idea (we went to SCU together) so we caught up for a while which was really nice! Then one way or another we all ended up back at Mama Africas on the dance floor. On our way there I saw a couple making out heavily on the ground (like sitting up..in an alley....classy) and the guy was wearing neon yellow underwear. So I dared Claire to go give him an atomic wedgie. She did. I cried. It was fantastic. We danced till the wee hours of the night and then took a little walk down the bay and saw the town by night. Again, very pretty.

Today it's been internet galore! And now we have an overnight bus that leaves at 6 pm and gets into Hervey Bay at 7 am and then it's time for Frasier Island! I'm mentally preparing myself for being covered head to toe in sand. I can't wait.

Until then...love and miss you all!!!

Jen

Coming Down South

Soooo this post was written a few days ago and when I went to post it my computer decided that the internet did not exist anymore. Fantastic. So it's a bit old, but you still get the idea...

Hello everyone! And welcome to my blog. I hope you enjoy it. Anywho, where did we leave off? Mission Beach. Right. So, we were feeling a bit stressed about trying to make it all the way down the coast in a matter of weeks and decided to kind of switch up the trip a bit and extend some spots and cut out everything below Brisbane. I know, I know, but sacrifices must be made and I’ll just do it next trip. So, we stayed in Mission Beach an extra night. Don’t let the name fool you, there is not much more than a beach there. Literally-we ate at a gas station/car garage/mini mart/restaurant which was surprisingly delicious, though awkward, for obvious reasons. The day was spent on the beach laying in the sun and thinking in my head “this is actually happening. I am actually here” Over and over again. Really, it blows my mind when I stop and think of where I am, what I’m doing, and most importantly, what I would be doing if I were home in Portland. That night the hostel put on an “In Bad Taste” party, which translates to everyone wear the most ridiculous thing you can find in the dress up bins- I ended up in a lovely dance leotard complete with sequins and built-in choker. I should mention this was probably made for a 7 year old. We then went to the only bar in town and danced around like idiots for the better part of 4 hours. I did not win the dance competition, but did get an A for effort. So that’s something…

The next day we were up and off to Townsville-mistake #1. Townsville is a shabby, run down, military base town that has not much to offer besides a little kids water playground. Which was awesome but we didn’t get a chance to play in. We did run into a girl named Stephanie that we had known from our hostel in Sydney so she joined us for the night which we spent sleeping in our dirty hostel. So Townsville..cross it off the list.

We caught a ferry to Magnetic Island the next day which is about 20 minutes off the coast of Townsville. It’s beautiful-the water is that aqua that everyone loves in the pictures, there are trees galore and a bunch of funny little animals called rock wallabies that hop about and I swear were the inspiration for parkour. It reminds me quite a bit of McCall actually-there are these rocks that jut out into the water and are begging to be jumped off of, but there are also jellyfish in the water waiting to kill me so I had to control myself. Our hostel here was a funny place called Magnums that plays terrible music videos (which is a common theme among bars and hostels here in Oz) and they charge you to rent pillows. We had the bright idea to try mixing skittles and vodka- mistake #2. Some Welsh guys on our Great Barrier Reef boat had told us it tasted "sooooo good" and we believed them. The end result wasn’t terrible but definitely not something I would do all the time. We then had the unusual pleasure of attending the local Toad Races. Yes, they are exactly how they sound. It’s a local get-together that involved about 50 chairs circled around the “toad race” which was essentially a giant circle. An old local would auction off toads, which was y him making up stories about how fast all the toads were and then manhandling them about the ring to the highest bidder. We of course found it really fun to yell out obscene bids (my favorite was "my first born baby"-screw monetary values) and get beaten out, but some of these toads went for upwards of $100. The local scene was beyond entertaining and we got some fabulous shots of the spectators-think Eastern Oregon if you can. I did however win a pen for knowing the second smallest state of the US at trivia time between rounds (Delaware. I guessed.) After enough toad abuse for one evening we decided to see what else Magnetic Island had to offer-that led us to X Base-another hostel on the island. Where naturally I danced around like an idiot for another three hours with Claire and tried to make friends. There is just something about awesomely bad 90’s music complete with music videos that my body just cannot stand still.

Im slowly starting to pick up on people’s accents the more I meet new people, but still cannot understand half of what they are saying, if that makes sense. I can tell the person is Irish, but could not tell you anything about a 5 minute conversation we had. I’ve gotten really good at the “smile and nod” policy of pretending to know what’s being said but really singing bad music in my head.

Yesterday we made like real tourists and rented a funny little car that looks like a go-kart and drove around the island. That took about 20 minutes of actual driving. We drove down to one beach and went swimming, then hopped back into the car and off to another beach to swim. It was like musical beaches. But it was really, really fantastic and we got to see a lot of the island that we wouldn’t have otherwise been able to. I even drove! Granted that lasted for about 2 minutes of my brain trying to figure out a 4-gear stick shift on the wrong side of me, and driving on the wrong side of the road before it just shut down and I turned the wheel over to Sean and Claire for the remainder of the trip. But at least I tried, and no one was harmed. The island is really beautiful and definitely worth the ferry trip out here. Last night we went to X Base again because it literally is the only place on the island to go out, and it was considerably less crowded, but still fun. We took it somewhat easy since we have the Whitsundays coming up and have to be on our A game for that.

Today we are catching a ferry, then a greyhound bus to make it down to Airlie Beach where we take off for the Whitsundays tomorrow. I am so excited that I can’t convey it properly on this blog-Whitsundays are what I have been looking forward to the most of this trip. So, I’m quite excited that the time for it has finally arrived! God I sound like a little fat kid in a cake shop.

Until then..

Love you all.

Jen

Le East Coast

Greetings! I realized I haven’t written in a while besides my little blurb yesterday so this may be a bit long…sorry! Last I left off I was in Melbourne and going to Trivia Night. Anddddd my team won!! I would like to think that my correct answer to the last question (what does poly in latin mean? Many) was the deciding factor but we were way ahead before that…either way, go team! I spent my last day in Melbourne getting things squared away and walking around South Melbourne, then went on a pub crawl that night. I met a ton of people I wish I had found earlier and spent a good part of the night talking to this really fun Canadian girl named Joy. My wake up time of 4:45 came far too early but thankfully I slept the whole time from Melbourne to Cairns. I met Claire and Sean in the airport at Cairns and also a sweet girl from Iowa named Anna who I had met in Melbourne. We went to our hostel and spent the first day just walking around Cairns-it’s a funky little town that reminded me quite a bit of Kauai with the palm trees, beach shops and shoeless people.

Thursday we went out on a boat on the Great Barrier Reef. It was incredible-I got my first taste for scuba diving and am officially hooked. I got to see a shark on my 2nd dive and pet this giant fish that would just hang out near the back of the boat. The Reef is about an hour’s drive offshore so it was incredible to just be in the middle of the ocean but have waves breaking all around us. It was a smaller group and all of the staff were super friendly and helpful and we met up with them later that night at this funny bar called Rhino Bar back in Cairns. We made the mistake of playing Claire’s drinking games back in the hostel before going out and were all rather toasty by the time we got to the bar and it all just went downhill from here. The highlight of the night was daring Claire to go dance with a 65 year old man who was sporting a sparkly top hat and mullet (obviously) for the price of a jagerbomb. She didn’t even hesitate. I think laughed so hard I was crying for a good 10 minutes much to the confusion of everyone around me.

Friday we groggily got up and went on a Jungle Tour! Wheeeeeee. That’s my fake excitement. Due to the previous night’s activities and complete lack of sleep (bed at 3, wake up at 5:45?) we were the least enthusiastic people on this tour. Not to mention our guide would have read the phone book out loud just to hear his own voice…and had terrible, terrible jokes. Either way, we got to go to an Animal Sanctuary and walk amongst wallabies and kangaroos-which was pretty surreal, hangover or not. Then off to the jungle for a little hike and river cruise where we saw 3 crocodiles! We all rallied to the best of our ability but everyone was in bed by 9 pm that night. We stayed at PK’s Jungle Village in Cape Tribulation, which is population 10. Really, PK’s was the center of town and it consisted of this hostel that is an old converted summer camp, a pharmacy and a small convenience store. That’s. It. So none of us felt bad crashing early…got up the next morning and walked down along the beach which was lovely. Then up to a swimming hole where we played on a rope swing and trudged upstream against rocks in search of crawfish, where there were none. After about 1:30 we were done being jungle kids and took to the goon. We were with 2 Canadian surgeons who had coincidentally been on our Reef cruise, Jungle Tour and booked into the same room at PK’s with us. They claimed they could drink anyone under the table-we proved them wrong in literally 20 minutes. The hilarity that ensued will most likely not be funny to anyone who wasn’t there, but we were dying. We had to catch a bus out of PK’s at 4:30 to get to Port Douglas—we spent the last hour in the pool, throwing me over the volleyball net, challenging an old man to play volleyball, and with the boys hitting on every girl that walked by. Solid day I would say. We got to Port Douglas and into yet another hostel, grabbed dinner and again were in bed early. Today we wandered around Port Douglas during the day—it’s a really cool resort-ish type town, reminds me of Palm Springs a lot. Then it was onto a bus to get to Cairns, grab some food, then onto the Greyhound to come down to Mission Beach. I’m sitting in the hostel right now on my laptop and just got asked if I was playing World of Warcraft. Fantastic. There is however a big pool that keeps calling my name, and you know how I hate to disappoint…Hope everyone is doing well, miss you all, I’ll write again soon!

Jen

Super Quick Bloggywog Update

K so I have 5 minutes left on this crap computer outside of a pizza joint in Port Douglas..I only go for the classy places, obviously. I am alive contrary to popular belief and my lack of super cool aussie cell phone service...I made it to Cairns, scuba dived (dove?) on the Great Barrier Reef and saw a shark, made it to Cape Tribulation and destroyed not 1 but 2 Canadian surgeons with day drinking games and am now in Port D with Claire and Sean Kesterson. I have an obscene amount of stories, some blog worthy and some not (sorry Mom..) but just wanted to write a quick hello and wish everyone in the States a late Turkey day. I will write again soon..I know you are all on pins and needles waiting for my next update. Right? RIGHT. Don't pretend like my updates don't make you feel better about yourselves as I am the awkward travelling American..PS I just said "ok" to my computer when it told me my time was almost up. Sweet Jesus. ok everyone..miss you lots. Hope you are all doing well and not too hungover from Turkey Day..for you foreigners, its a holiday we celebrate in the States. About getting along with the Native Americans (on a side note but similar-someone asked if I was Aboriginal American the other night....mmmm no, we don't have that...) before we totally screwed them over. Anywho, time is really up now...will write again soon.

Jen

Melbourne

Ok, so I've been in Melbourne for almost a week now and at first wasn't a huge fan, but it's definitely growing on me. That initial dislike may be because it has been overcast or a full blown rainstorm since I got here. I tried to explain to the weather that this was in fact part of the reason that I left Oregon, but that didn't work. My hostel is a a bit of an odd place-small rooms with only 4 beds, but very impersonal in the sense that it's much harder to meet people than it was at the hostel in Sydney.

The first day I couldn't check in until wayyy after arriving so I wandered around the city somewhat lost and out if it since I'd gotten up so early for my flight. I also made the poor decision to carry my laptop with me since I didn't want to leave it in the unsecure storage and immediately regretted that decision as my laptop weighs about as much as a fat baby after 2 hours of walking. Got back to the hostel and met my roommates- Julie from Belgium, Sharonda from Hong Kong, and Swan from Malaysia.

Julie and I clicked really well and have been walking around the city together. We got caught in a rainstorm at the Botanical Gardens and decided to give up and go see New Moon instead (all that I'm going to say about it is that it is a huge step up from the crap movie that was Twilight) and then went to the Fitzroy area the next day. It's this little boutique-ish area that just outside the CBD of Melbourne and it reminded me SO much of Portland, specifically Hawthorne area. So that was a bit trippy but cool to see another part of the city. We made friends with some English boys back at the hostel and ended up going out with them on Saturday night to this funny bar called PJ O'Briends. They played every typical American song you can think of and I impressed several old ladies with my rendition of Jessie's Girl. We were the youngest people around by about 10 years, which is how I'm constantly starting to feel here in Melbourne-its just a bit older of a crowd. And a bit hipster-ish (East Side of Portland again) which I can't decide if I like or not.

Sunday was by far my favorite day. Julie and I went to the Australian Center for the Movie Image (ACMI) which is this huge museum in the middle of town. There was this great exhibit called "screen worlds" that looks at the culture of the moving image, from video games to tv shows to special effects. It was incredibly interesting and I recognized some of the content from my film classes in Amsterdam so that was fun to have a link to something I had studied. There were two highlights of this exhibit:one being video games-I spent an hour playing Mario World (yes, on the original Nintendo) and Tetris on some ancient computer, and two: there was a whole section about Australian media culture, and Summer Hights High was featured! Yes, Ja'mie and Jonah are alive and well, they were even playing highlights of the show and apparently they have remixed "Naughty Girl" from MR. G's musical to play in clubs around Oz. If you have no idea what I'm talking about right now, do yourself a favor and stop reading this blog and go look up the show on youtube. I'll just go ahead and say you're welcome. Sunday night was the typical drink bad wine in the hostel and make fun of Americans night. I knew this time was coming and was surprised I had evaded it as long as I had, but the English boys gave me a raft of shit. One boy could not wrap his head around the idea that people in the US believe in aliens. Another just thought we were all idiots. On top of all of this, there is a huge map of the world on the wall, so I went to point out where Oregon was, and the biggest mark was Cape Disappointment in Washington. America, Fuck Yea.

Today I walked around the city and looked at tons of cool graffiti work that are in the alleys and laneways. Absolutely mindblowing that people can create these masterpieces with just some cans of paint. I took loads of pictures and will put them up once the wifi stops being moody.

It's trivia night tonight-my chance to show that Americans are not total idiots and have lots of brain space for useless knowledge. Can't wait to see how this goes..

Until next time-love and miss you all. Yes, you too Mom. Now that I know you're reading this...

Jen

Drunk Backpacker Bars=Awesome

Sooo lets see where I last left all of you...I had just navigated a trek around the beach and was heading out on the town, to one of the dirtiest bars I have ever encountered, Scubar. Get it? Scubar. I know, these Aussies really are clever. Anywho, it was a Monday so naturally the bar was overflowing with drunk kids from around the world. What else is everyone going to do on a Monday who's from out of town? The special of the night was a snakebite-beer and cider mixed with grenadine which turns the drink into a nice rosy color. Mix that with too little space and too many people and you come out covered in pink sticky liquid. Seriously, I could have licked myself drunk the next morning. I met some boys from the States, one who had gone to USD and knew a few SCU people so that was a nice small world story! The music was, for once, not crappy house but actual normal music you can dance to, so I danced for the better part of 3 hours, and did most of that by myself, jumping around the dance floor. Don't act like you're not impressed.

Tuesday was a bit rough with my dancing queen skills and hike combined-the legs were not feeling it to say the least. But I trudged onwards like any good tourist would. I went to the Aquarium and Wildlife World (again, not making this stuff up) at Darlin Harbour with a group of kids from the hostel. It was very fun and educational despite the fact that those two things are usually mutually exclusive. We got to wander in these halls that were under the water and see sharks swim over us-very trippy. I also got to see koalas and kangaroos but have still failed in my attempt to hold a koala or jump into a kangaroo's pouch...though I swear both will be accomplished before my return home. Tuesday night we went to an even seedier bar than Scubar called The Gaff. It took .2 seconds to get in the door before some creep-o Brazilian man told me he liked my hair. And guess what? He had the EXACT same haircut as me. He tried to molest me and I not so politely told him there was no way in hell I was making out with my hair twin. I did see him later in the night sucking face with someone else so I'm glad I had zero impact on his night/masculinity. We danced about the Gaff and then I spent some time talking with a very nice Aussie boy named James who had I had harassed the night before in my drunken stupor. We swapped stories about the US and Australia and the similarities and differences. He told me he kept hoping I would contradict the stereotypes he'd heard about the US (frat boys, Vegas, The South, etc.), but I was just confirming what he had already heard. The only stereotype I didn't confirm was that Americans are all fat and lazy. I took that as a compliment.

Wednesday was a day for planning and getting ready to leave Sydney! This super fun British girl, Claire, and I planned this huge 22 day trip on the East Coast. We are flying into Cairns, doing the Daintree Rainforest and Great Barrier Reef, then taking the Greyhound bus down the coast and doing the Whitsunday Islands, a canoe safari, and Fraser Island. Then on to Brisbane and back to Sydney. That should be insane and I am really, really excited about it! Wednesday was my last night so I had to pack up and say bye to everyone-it was really sad! I made some great friends over the short time that I was in Sydney but really am going to miss them and the city. Good thing I'll get a few days in December to see it again.

running out of internet---will write again soon!
xoxo,
Jen

Ohhh Sydney

So I've been frolicking around Sydney for about 4 days now, and must say that I really really like this city. It reminds me a lot of San Francisco, with a touch of Athens and Amsterdam in the mix. I suggest you check it out if you find the time. And now for stories...this may be a longer post, but bear with me here.

I tried to go out Thursday night and made it to the pre-funk in the hostel but didn't make it to the bars as I was falling asleep standing up. Oh well. There are alot of nice, fun, cool people here from all around the world and it's so nice to chat and hear about different perspectives and ideas and what not.Except that EVERYONE thinks im about 19. real sad. A smidgen of people I have met so far:

-an English boy who has a tattoo of jebus on the cross on his upper arm "because he likes it". Is he religious? No, but he's christian. WTF??

-Funny Irish girl who was drinking everyone under the table and claimed that some Irish person somewhere in time fell out of a boat and floated because they were so boozed up. So really, it's a precautionary measure for them to be drunk. Just in case they stumble onto and then off of a boat, right?

-The most obnoxious little kid from Canada. I can't think of who to compare him too, but he thinks he is much cooler, hotter, smarter, everything than he actually is. He bored me about his grey goose bottle breaking for about 10 minutes. And how great grey goose is. And bla bla bla about grey goose. i'm sticking to burnetts out of spite from now on.

On Friday I went through the Botanical Gardens and out to the Opera House and then up through the city with friends Chelsea and Fiona. The gardens were absolutely stunning with all of the colors and funny birds, and the Opera House was teeming with tourists. I really enjoyed walking around the city as well and felt a bit like I was in New York. Friday night I went to a BBQ hosted by two gentleman that I met on CouchSurfing, Rooban and Aaron. Two absolutely fantastic guys, they invited a bunch of friends and I brought Chelsea along and we played drinking games (won flip cup and by some absurdity I made the winning shot in beer pong!), ate, and talked. Everyone at the BBQ was really funny and outgoing and I had a great time!

On Saturday a bunch of us trekked to Tamarama Beach, which is just a few beaches down from Bondi. It was a beautiful sunny day and we enjoyed some goon (really crappy boxed wine-think Franzia) and waves and laughs. Saturday night is where it gets interesting. After some socializing at the hostel a group of us headed out in Kings Cross, which is notorious for the nightlife and definitely did not disappoint. There were people everywhere. It was awesome. The first bar we hit was pretty sketchy so we left and went to a place called The World Bar which was packed, had 3 levels and 4 dance floors....of sorts. After dancing about with Fiona for an hour we decided to explore the upper levels, found a mostly empty dance room and took advantage. I was midway through doing The Vanessa (all of you know it...shake your hand across your face 3 times, then chest pump as you slowly dip down) when a rather pudgy, desperately-in-need-of-braces kid approached me. The conversation went like this:

pudgy kid: Hi, I'm Curtis. What's your name?
me: Jen
Curtis: Are you American?
me: Yes
cue Curtis beelining to kiss me. Thank God I have lightning quick reflexes and dodged it. Apparently being American is synonymous for "yes lets make out" or being easy. Super. and the conversation continued...
Curtis: So, have you got a boyfriend then? Is that why you won't kiss me?
me: Yes. Yes I do have a boyfriend.
Curtis: Well, is he more attractive than me love?
me: Yes, my (imaginary) boyfriend is more attractive than you Curtis. Sorry.
Curtis: Is he really? I don't believe you.
me: He is. He's athletic and tall and would not like you trying to kiss me.
Curtis: Is he back in the States then? It doesn't count if he's back in the States.
me: He is, and it does.
Curtis: You know he's cheating on you back in the States.
me: No, he is not (yes I defended my imaginary boyfriend)
Curtis: Yes he is, C'mon, kiss me. You know he's cheating on you if you are here and he's there.
me: Curtis, let me ask you a question..would you cheat on me if you were my boyfriend?
Curtis: Never love. I'd never cheat on you.
me: Exactly. Goodbye.

That was my cue to leave so I headed outside to meet up with some of the boys from the BBQ and ended the night at McDonalds with Fiona. Solid first real night out I would say.

Sunday we went back to the Botanical Gardens to have a little picnic and laze around. There were 2 weddings and some absolutely amazing people watching. I cannot stress enough how big mullets are here. We also had the bright idea to try to catch some of the birds (fail) but were highly entertained in the process. I had dinner back at the hostel with everyone then we went to a funny Irish bar where I spent the better of 2 hours dividing my time between figuring out if a very androgynous-looking person was either male or female (finally someone went up to her and started talking-definitely a girl) and watching a midge who was standing under the bar. I could not make this up if I tried.

We spent today walking from Bondi Beach to Coogee Beach-it's about an hour and a half trek along the coast but it was incredibly pretty. We spent the afternoon at Coogee Beach which was fantastic until a seagull pooped on my head and I had to run as fast as I could to get into the water to get it out. Awesome. I don't know how I am always the targets of birds but I'm going to start wearing hats more often. Now it's off to dinner and most likely drinks...still miss all of you! If anyone wants to come visit, feel free...

Miss all of you!
Jen

Finally Here!

Note to self (and others): Leaving the airport when you have 2 hours between landing and your next flight taking off, no matter the temptation (In N Out), especially when your first flight was late...not the greatest idea. But fun? Absolutely. My layover in LAX offered a perfect time to see Mr. Rob Healy and play quick catch up and stuff myself on In N Out. This was all going according to plan until the garage where we had parked to eat was locked and Rob had to sprint to Walgreens to get the store manager (who was busy doing work on a potential lady friend) to let the car out. Which ended up with me sprinting through the LAX airport at breakneck speed and arriving at the gate just in time to make it on board and now slightly sweaty with a 14.5 hour flight in front of me. totally worth it.

I slept through almost all of the flight so not much there.

I arrived to sun and fun in Sydney. After waiting in line to get through customs, then to get my bag, then to get out of baggage claim, I purchased a phone that makes my current one look like an iPhone (anyone who knows my phone understands the magnitude of that statement) and found my shuttle. On the way to the shuttle a nice, older, pot bellied man approached me dragging on his cigarette and asking how old I was. I said 23. He laughed. I frowned. He then said he was sorry there was such an age gap and that I was too young for him. Yup, that's right buddy, it's the age in this situation thats keeping us apart. Not your yellowing teeth or slight stench of BO mixed with sunscreen thats the problem...Go Australia.

MY hostel is nice little building in the Pott's Point area of Sydney, right by King's Cross which is known for it's nightlife. I met two very sweet girls upon arriving, Fiona from Belgium and Chelsea from San Diego, and after a quick shower and purchase of necessities we made our way to Bondi Beach. I spent the afternoon lounging in the sun, frolicking in the water and doing some of the best people watching I have done in a while. Mullets are a big thing here.

Now its off to shower, rest and get ready for the night...hope everyone is doing well back home and in their respective areas of the country, I miss you all!

Jen

Here Goes Nothing...

I figured I would give this little blog thing a try before I left on my adventure. I'm in the PDX Airport and since arriving here I have had some mumbling, odd looking man try to commandeer my bag in hopes of a tip (seriously he wanted to wheel the stupid thing 30 feet and got mad when I said I'd do it myself) and I really don't even know if he worked at the airport or not. I also was conned into signing up for a free credit card (joke's on them, no one wants to give me a credit card) with the bonus of a free flight anywhere in the US--so, who wants me come New Years? Any takers? I was compensated for my form filling out time with a nice head rest pillow and super cool alarm clock/calculator. I ride in style, duh. I think I paced up and down in front of the Rogue Brewery for a solid five minutes trying to decide whether I should start my travel experience off with a celebratory drink. I decided against it and am now not really sure why, perhaps my mind will change in LA. I did, however, purchase a "rip city" shirt so all of you Blazer fans-look for me on the Fans Around the World segment they do during Blazer games, I am going to win whatever it is that they give away for that. Just don't tell them I pre-planned this, it seems much cooler if they think I was just spontaneously in Australia with my Blazer love showing.

Ok planes about to take off....I promise these posts will get better once I actually have something about my trip to write about.

And yes, sadly, I miss you all already. I'm hoping that changes with Australian accents and summer in November.