It's the last week in Townsville and I cannot believe that I have been here living in Australia for 6 whole months! It's been the adventure of the life time and it's not over yet, we still have an island hopping adventure on the Fiji Islands to go to for a week!
It's something to look forward to to get me through all the goodbyes, me and my aussie roommate can't even look at each other without getting sad I'm going to miss her and our chats about corn and pits and her jar of gummies and really good back massages, she was awesome and I can only hope to get to see her again.
It's Finals time and I haven't had much time to do anything else other than study study study and try and comprehend that these finals will be worth 60% of my grade! After taking the first one I didn't think they were too bad, Im glad that I was so interested in all the material that it was easy to study. And it didn't hurt that studying involved pizza and strongbows with the girls :)
Updates to come as the last days linger on...
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Monday, December 12, 2011
Tattoo's
here was our mental state at this current time on our last morning, good morning Australia we want a lasting memory of our travels, we are a little sunburn hung over and itchy, BUT whats a better idea then getting a tattoo in Australia to remember all of our crazy wild times down unda! So thats what we did! we marched right into a tattoo parlor on the beach made appointments and me and Steph got tats! :)
Last night in Airlie Beach
After showering at least twice and buying anti itch lotion we got to our room and met the 4 englishmen we would be rooming with for the night, and they were quite the bunch. A couple of us decided we wanted to hit up the town one last time and headed to the bars with the english gentleman and got drinks at Magnums bar, then found a safari bar to go to the bathroom. At this place the name was true, it was covered in animal print,and fake trees and animals all over, there was even and elephant! Even the bathroom was jungle themed there were lions on the toilets! We drank and danced there for a little while before heading back to magnums,when one of the english guys thought he lost his photocopy of his passport, reason he only had a photocopy as an id was because he lost his drivers license AND his passport! So he couldn't get into any other bar so we headed back to our hostel. We noticed one of the girls in our group was getting friendly with one of the english boys, and tried to peel her away but she wan't having any of that, they went off together and we headed back to our room, which was also the english chaps room as well... Well long story short, little did we know that they were crazy one got naked and was running around the room screaming another tried getting into bed with out bed bug covered miserable roommate who was trying to sleep and another spilled ramen noodles all over our floor. moral of the story don't mess with a girls who is covered with bed bug bites and is exhausted and miserable at 3:00 AM...We did not get much sleep, and to top it off our friend who left with the other British man didn't return until morning, because this is a PG blog the details of her story of events from the previous evening have been omitted purely for her shame...I will add however we did end up finding her missing underwear that morning before checking out of the hostel. At this point in the trip we were all very ready to get back to Townsville and SHOWER! we headed to the check out when I realize I couldn't find my room key anywhere, still to this day I have no idea where it ended up, had to pay 25.00$ fee to replace it. We were off newly tatted and bitten to our greyhound back to the 'Ville when on the beach we passed camels!? At this point in the trip we were no longer surprised by anything laughed snapped pictures and off we went. I think I spelt the whole 6 hour ride!
Don't let the bed bugs bite...
After an amazing day of sun sand and surf, it was time to board the boat and head to the famous Whitehaven beach. Throughout the day some of us were feeling quite itchy, thinking they were just nasty mozie bites (mosquitos) we went on our way, however we found out that sure enough our boat had BED BUGS! Awesome.... And we still had one more night to spend aboard the inferno bug ridden boat, thank God the views were spectacular. We spent another night drinking and playing card games and getting to know the people on the boat with us who came from all over, people from aussie, the states, Ireland, England, and Scotland. As we sailed to our next destination we took in the views and listened to a cool Australian band that the captain, Rick, liked. As the sun set we could see the beautiful white beach from the distance and were so looking forward to setting foot on the famous beach, but we had the night and the bed bugs to get through first, needless to say we didn't sleep much.
Going on day three without showering we all were pretty grimy. We headed up top for a final view of the sunrise on the Whitsunday's, to discover that there was a mission to finish all the alcohol on board and we apparently had almost succeeded, looked to be two goon bags left and the irish kid was making sure those weren't going to waste as he cracked open a bag and started to drink... it was about 630 AM. after eating we changed into our damp suits and headed to the beach, with a warning of how fine the sand was that if one grain got into a camera, watch, phone it would be ruined, so needless to say only one of us brought a camera. The beach was outstanding the sand was so soft it almost didn't feel real! The crew was right, the sand stuck to EVERYTHING (pretty sure there is still some embedded in my towel from the trip). It was pretty early so it was a little chilly, but we laid out and soaked up the early morning rays before having to head back to the bed bug infested boat and home to the hostel. At this point all of us were itching and were starting to show signs of the attack, my right leg was peppered with tiny red horribly itchy bumps. We learned that if you itched these they would scar, and after my stint with foliculitis right before the trip I wasn't about to take any chances, so I powered through the itch. One girl was covered she even had bites on her face! Even after she slept completely bundled up. After the morning on the world famous beach it was time to head home for the end of the voyage at sea, we were sad and excited to shower! We threw up the sail and coasted all the way back to the port, where we docked and unloaded and said bye to our new friends, and rushed to the pharmacy to get anti itch and to check into our hostel for showers! It was just an after thought that the ship would be sponsoring us dinner at a little pub down the road.
After feeling clean and not so itchy, we headed for free pizza and beer with our shipmates and the captain Rick! who says quote, "I do this job for the ladies", what a guy! That night we decided the next day to get tattoos! thats right tattoos!!!
Sunday, December 11, 2011
The Habbi
We board the boat and go over the safety precautions as we undock, and go over where we will be going and what we will be doing. We then get to go to our 'rooms' ha ha. So the five of us are spread across the hull of the boat in a five person bed/bench thing on like a vinyl plastic cushion, oh and did i mention that it was at least 500 degrees down there! and there were two bathrooms for like 20 people and no shower...for three days... We sailed off through the beautiful waters of the harbor and out to sea, we met some of the people on the boat, which I'm pretty sure were the Kardashian sisters. They were really nice and offered us beers from the 3 cases they brought with them, they were also from the states on vacation. Their room was two private suits with private bathrooms....They were LOADED.
As the sun was setting we got dinner and of course, girls were served first! The food was cooked right on the boat and was super yummy! Then us and the loaded group from Cali sat at the table and drank and played cards until around midnight then decided to call it a night and head down to our 'room'. We didn't realize that the rest of the boat would precede to stay up all night and drink and play music. We read for a little because we couldn't fall asleep due to the combination of screaming drunks and sweating our brains out below deck. We finally got some shut eye to be woken up by the breakfast bell at the lovely hour of 7am, We were probably the only sober ones at breakfast and got seconds cause of it! Very yummy! By that time we had almost arrived at our first destination where we would get to go snorkeling and meet 'Elvis' a giant Murray Wrase that enjoyed cheese.
After our snorkeling adventure, where i got to pet Elvis and see some amazing coral, that was at the very end of the great Barrier Reef.
The next stop for the day was to a little private island where we were taxied to the island and dropped off to explore, this trip wasn't without studying, we determined the island wasn't stable because there was no shrubbery, and it was made of coral rubble and forams, thank you Coral Reef Geomorphology! We explored the island turning over rocks and picking out shells. We flipped over one rock to find this crazy shell with red tentacles flapping around and the largest brittle i have ever seen battling it out for space under the rock, naturally i touched the brittle star. Didn't touch the flailing red tentacle thing because it was probably poisoness. We proceeded to watch this battle for the next ten minutes, then flipped the rock back over and sunbathed for the rest of the time we had on the island. Our little water taxi came and picked us up and brought us back to our boat where we drank and ate dinner and watched the amazing sunset.
As the sun was setting we got dinner and of course, girls were served first! The food was cooked right on the boat and was super yummy! Then us and the loaded group from Cali sat at the table and drank and played cards until around midnight then decided to call it a night and head down to our 'room'. We didn't realize that the rest of the boat would precede to stay up all night and drink and play music. We read for a little because we couldn't fall asleep due to the combination of screaming drunks and sweating our brains out below deck. We finally got some shut eye to be woken up by the breakfast bell at the lovely hour of 7am, We were probably the only sober ones at breakfast and got seconds cause of it! Very yummy! By that time we had almost arrived at our first destination where we would get to go snorkeling and meet 'Elvis' a giant Murray Wrase that enjoyed cheese.
After our snorkeling adventure, where i got to pet Elvis and see some amazing coral, that was at the very end of the great Barrier Reef.
The next stop for the day was to a little private island where we were taxied to the island and dropped off to explore, this trip wasn't without studying, we determined the island wasn't stable because there was no shrubbery, and it was made of coral rubble and forams, thank you Coral Reef Geomorphology! We explored the island turning over rocks and picking out shells. We flipped over one rock to find this crazy shell with red tentacles flapping around and the largest brittle i have ever seen battling it out for space under the rock, naturally i touched the brittle star. Didn't touch the flailing red tentacle thing because it was probably poisoness. We proceeded to watch this battle for the next ten minutes, then flipped the rock back over and sunbathed for the rest of the time we had on the island. Our little water taxi came and picked us up and brought us back to our boat where we drank and ate dinner and watched the amazing sunset.
Friday, December 9, 2011
Whitsunday Islands
So for the Swat Vacc studying week what better way to study than to hop on a bus for 4 hours south to Arelie Beach. To go on a three day cruise to the amazing islands of the Whitsunday's! To one of the most famous beaches in the world, voted nicest beach in 2006, Whitehaven Beach. Of course this trip wasn't shy of adventure, critters, and camels!?
We headed to the bus station with our luggage and books on our desk back at college, ready to go off to a nice beach vacation!
We get to Arelie and check into our hostel, Magnums, which is know for the crazy parties, of course we'd only be staying there for two nights the night before our boat leaves and the night after our boat gets back. We get our keys and head to our room, where we find that it's a ten person room which means that we are certainly not the only people in the room sharing the single bathroom... in fact there are two girls from England and a guy from Scotland with a very heavy scottish accent, and someone else that we never ended up meeting. We claimed the remaining beds and headed out to explore the beach town. We shopped around at all the little surf shops around and got yummy sandwiches at Subway and went and plopped down on our little slice of heaven and tanned and read and took tips in the ocean. It was such a beautiful day and the water was the most amazing blue color! We walked al around the town when it started to get dark and found a Dominos! Who would have thought!? and got some pizzas and went back to the hostel and ate on some picnic tables outside under the stars and the warmth of the night. Then it was time to get ready for bed and our early wake up to get to our boat! The Habbi!!
it was around 3am, no lie, when the English chicks decided to have a screaming party right outside of our room...i have never met two girls that could be so loud! they weren't just yelling they were screaming at the top of their lungs! just when we thought that it was over they brought some dudes into the room and proceeded to rock two of the girls i was with to sleep... oh yea did i mention we were in bunk beds... After getting around 2 hours of sleep we woke up pretty grumpy, but very excited to get out of the hostel and to our boat! We ate some brekky and packed up, handed in our keys, and walked off to our boat, well tried to find it anyway got pretty lost and had to ask a few people where to go!
Finally making it to the dock worried our boat was going to sail off without us we sat down next to some people, who were already drinking, little did we know this would be the theme of our little three day trip at sea. We felt pretty unprepared as more people arrived with cases upon cases of beer and bags of goon. We finally boarded the boat with all the booze, thought the boat might sink, as the captain let us know this is the most alcohol he's ever sent aboard the boat and that we were going to have a pretty gnarly three days, and he would be surprised if it got consumed in entirety.
We headed to the bus station with our luggage and books on our desk back at college, ready to go off to a nice beach vacation!
We get to Arelie and check into our hostel, Magnums, which is know for the crazy parties, of course we'd only be staying there for two nights the night before our boat leaves and the night after our boat gets back. We get our keys and head to our room, where we find that it's a ten person room which means that we are certainly not the only people in the room sharing the single bathroom... in fact there are two girls from England and a guy from Scotland with a very heavy scottish accent, and someone else that we never ended up meeting. We claimed the remaining beds and headed out to explore the beach town. We shopped around at all the little surf shops around and got yummy sandwiches at Subway and went and plopped down on our little slice of heaven and tanned and read and took tips in the ocean. It was such a beautiful day and the water was the most amazing blue color! We walked al around the town when it started to get dark and found a Dominos! Who would have thought!? and got some pizzas and went back to the hostel and ate on some picnic tables outside under the stars and the warmth of the night. Then it was time to get ready for bed and our early wake up to get to our boat! The Habbi!!
it was around 3am, no lie, when the English chicks decided to have a screaming party right outside of our room...i have never met two girls that could be so loud! they weren't just yelling they were screaming at the top of their lungs! just when we thought that it was over they brought some dudes into the room and proceeded to rock two of the girls i was with to sleep... oh yea did i mention we were in bunk beds... After getting around 2 hours of sleep we woke up pretty grumpy, but very excited to get out of the hostel and to our boat! We ate some brekky and packed up, handed in our keys, and walked off to our boat, well tried to find it anyway got pretty lost and had to ask a few people where to go!
Finally making it to the dock worried our boat was going to sail off without us we sat down next to some people, who were already drinking, little did we know this would be the theme of our little three day trip at sea. We felt pretty unprepared as more people arrived with cases upon cases of beer and bags of goon. We finally boarded the boat with all the booze, thought the boat might sink, as the captain let us know this is the most alcohol he's ever sent aboard the boat and that we were going to have a pretty gnarly three days, and he would be surprised if it got consumed in entirety.
Monday, December 5, 2011
kookaburra sits in the old gum tree..
Today as i was peacefully studying outside in the tropical rainforest that was campus sipping on a delicious iced latte, where might I add they use ice cream instead of ice to make it cold! im minding my own business reading about corals when a thud lands on the railing next to me. eyeing the table scraps from the table next to me is a kookaburra! what's funny about them is that they are huge birds with a piercing beak, but really really small feet! I took some pictures and he went on to nipple until shooed away, i guess they are a way cooler version of the pigeon. They also make the craziest call I have ever heard, unlike anything you can imagine, google kookaburra calls!
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