Update!

I haven't been posting much recently because I've been so busy with Uni but here is a quick update of what I've been up to! Last week I had midterms in two classes and some assignments to do, so far I've done really well on most of them which is a relief after my first assignments in University! I'm now going into the second half of the trimester and trying to get some work out of the way so I don't need to be cramming it all in over Christmas break. I've been going out with girls from school and my housemates which has been nice and last weekend Tim and I went to the Eminem concert in Sydney! I've always wanted to see him live and he did not dissapoint. It's been so rainy these past few weeks, apparently the coldest and wettest in 50 years! I've been complaining about how cold it is but next week I'm heading home for the holidays and I will remember what cold really is. Can't wait to see everyone! Happy holidays x x

Christmas tree in Sydney

Patzy, Hanna and I studying

Me and Hanna out in Surry Hills

My new digs

Here are a few pictures of my apartment I'm living in now. It's in Randwick which is the next town over from Tim, about half an hour to the city and 45 mins-an hour to school. I'm right near the beach, about a ten minute walk and there's a bus stop right outside my door. I'm living with a guy named Matt and a girl named Rachel, both students as well and both Australian. They're really nice and we all get along well, so far so good!

My shelves, complete with advent calendar - thanks mom!

I got an app on my phone to take panoramic pics so heres my whole room! (you can click on the picture so see it bigger)

The living room

The rest of the living room and kitchen

The view from my balcony! (that little bit of blue to the left is my ocean view ;-) )

Camping at Little Beach

This past weekend I went camping with Tim and a group of his friends from work. There were 16 of us altogether and the campsite was really small so we pretty much had it all to ourselves. It's called Little Beach (fitting name!) and its about an hour and a half north of Sydney. Tim, me and his friend Vicky went up on the Friday night after they finished work and then the rest joined Saturday morning/afternoon. The weather forecast said it would be cloudy and rainy all weekend but we had awesome weather, sunny all day and only cloudy at night or in the morning. We all had pretty bad burns after Saturday (I know, boo frickin hoo right?) but luckily I brought aloe vera cream.I finally went swimming in the ocean for the first time since I've been back. It's still pretty cold but felt good after being in the sun all day. We saw a lot of wildlife while we were there too. There were tons of birds, including kookaburras, a porcupine (the Australian version, pretty much looks the same though), snakes and bugs (ew!) and a whale on the last day! For those who didn't know I am deathly afraid of whales so I wasn't too pumped to see it but I can appreciate that everyone else was. The kookaburras were so aggressive! They swooped down and took a piece of steak right off someones plate!! And while we were packing up I noticed a massive spider on Vicky's bag and as we screamed, obviously, a kookaburra swooped down again and ate the spider!! So crazy. It was nice to get out of the city for a bit and we all had a really good time and met some new people! Here are some shots from the trip.

Vicky bbqing Friday night

Little Beach

In case you don't know what a kookaburra is, scary things!

A few of our tents and basically the whole campsite





Melbourne Cup

On the first Tuesday every November Australia has the Melbourne Cup which is a big horse race down in Melbourne but there's races all around the country that day. It's basically a public holiday or a half day but luckily I didn't have classes anyway! Everyone gets really dressed up - high heels, fancy dresses and fascinators, and head down to the races or a pub to watch. Me and Tim and his friend Mick from work went down to the race track near us in Randwick to watch races there and place bets on the Melbourne cup. It is crazy how much gambling there is in Australia, every pub has a back room to place bets on anything and everything so as you can imagine it was a huge day for betting on Tuesday! There was a French horse, Americain, who was the favourite to win so I put $20 on him and of course... he lost! I never have much luck with these things. I wanted to get a fascinator (after the royal wedding I've been dying for an excuse to wear one) but they were sold out everywhere! Unless you wanted to pay $100+ which I did not, so I got a little flower headband and tried to fit in with the socialites. It was a lot of fun and a beautiful day, then afterwards we crashed a media party with free drinks and dancing! Oh! And, I have officially moved into my new apartment! Will post pics once I'm all set up :-)

Randwick Race Course

A lovely lady (?) at the after party

Nicola and I, her boyfriend works with Tim

Jazz in the Vines

This past weekend Tim and I went up to Hunter Valley to go to a jazz music festival called Jazz in the Vines. I'm not that into jazz but it ended up being a lot of fun and the music was really good! It was supposed to be cloudy and rainy all weekend but Saturday, the day of the festival, was really warm and the sun ended up coming out at the end of the day. We met up with a bunch of people from Tim's work who I'd known when I was here last time and all set up blankets and chairs and drank wine and listened to music! Afterwards we went to an Irish pub down the road then headed back to our hotel.

On Sunday, Tim and I and another couple, Dean and Katie, rented some bikes and rode around to the different wineries in the region. Hunter Valley is a big wine area (specializing in Semillions and Shiraz, yup I paid attention!) so there were tons of places to go and you didn't have to go very far which was good because it started to rain halfway through the day! We went to about six wineries, and got stuck in one during a big storm. I can think of worse places to be holed up in! Afterwards we grabbed some dinner at the first winery we went to then rode home a little bit unsteadily (Yes mom and dad, of course I fell off!).  The area was gorgeous though and I definitely want to go back for more time!

Out our back door at the hotel

First Week of College

First week finished and the verdict is... good! For anyone who didn't know I'm studing advertising at APM College of Business and Communication in North Sydney. My subjects this term are advertising, marketing, public relations and management principles and practices. So far my favourite classes are advertising and marketing (thankfully!), I really like the teachers in both classes and the projects look like they'll be interesting. Public relations was a little intimidating because it's my biggest class and we had to do a group presentation on the first day! But, hopefully I'll like it better with more time. Management principles and practices is okay, so far most of it just seems common knowledge (a good manager listens, organises etc.). Oh yeah, I will be deducted marks if I spell "organise" or "realise" with a Z so excuse that. I have a quiz next week and some projects due later in the month so jumping right into it. It's been a while since I've been in school but so far I'm enjoying it, small classes and interesting teachers. The school is really new so all nice classrooms and new technology plus I get to see the Opera House on my way to school every day! I'm the only person who looks every time but I still think it's cool! I guess its like the CN Tower for us though. Well, I will keep you all posted on how it goes! X

Oh and for anyone who wants to check it out here's a link to my school: http://www.apm.edu.au/

(I have to remember not to call it school, Tim reminds me every time I say it instead of college because they call elementary and high school just school so people think I'm a lot younger!)

Back Down Under

Hi Everyone!

Well, I'm back in Sydney safe and sound! It feels great to be back but obviously I'm missing everyone at home. The weather's been pretty good since I got here, a little cold and rainy at first but now its sunny and mid 20s. I had orientation for college on Friday which went well, I have four courses each trimester. This trimester I have Understanding Advertising, Understanding Marketing, Understanding Personal Relations and Management Principles and Practices. I'm actually really excited to start, probably the first time I've been excited for school since my first day in kindergarden! I have a week off before classes start so I've just been hanging out a bit and getting over the jet lag. I will keep you all posted on how classes go and for now here are some beach shots I've taken since I got here! X

Palm Beach - About an hour North of Sydney, where "Home and Away" is filmed, an Australian show I've become obsessed with

Coogee Beach, just down the road from where I'm staying

Coogee Beach again

Fiji

Tim and I went to Fiji for my second last week here. It was so amazing! It started out a little rough, when we landed it was pouring rain, torrential downpour! We waited for our hotel transfer but it never came after an hour so we got a taxi, the roads were brutal, just basically dirt roads so we were bumping along the whole way. The hotel we booked was completely away from anything else and nowhere near the beach, surprising since it's called "The Beachside Resort". When we got there we realized we were the only people staying there! It was deserted, and not the nicest place so we asked to use their internet and booked another hotel closer in. We were at the first hotel for about an hour. Luckily the second one was a lot nicer and the next day the sun came out. We were staying in Nadi (pronounced Nandi) which is on mainland Fiji so we did day trips out to the surrounding islands. The first day we did a sailing trip on a boat called Seaspray which has apparently became famous on an Australian tv show about it. We went to Modriki first, which is the island Cast Away was filmed on, it's complely uninhabited. We snorkelled there for about an hour then went back on the boat for lunch, then onto Yanuya which has a small village on it and a boarding school! It was really cool and we saw a traditional ceremony where two men from our group had to drink cava which is made from a root, they use it for medicine sometimes because it numbs your mouth a bit. We watched the ceremony then we all got to try the cava, kind of tasted like muddy water but it did kind of numb my mouth! After that we sailed back to another island to catch the boat back to Port Denarau where the marina is.

Seaspray

Modriki Island

School on Yanuya Island

On Yanuya with Modriki in the background

Sunset on the way back

On the next day we went out a little further to Mololo Island which was well worth it. We kayaked out to a tiny island you could cross in ten steps then did some snorkelling and sun bathing. On our last day we went to the closest island, South Sea Island, because we had a flight at 6 pm so we had to be back in time.Both days were awesome and it literally looked like we were in a postcard. Paradise!

The ferry that took us around every day

Mololo Island



On South Sea Island



Last Day of Work

For the last Friday of every month my boss takes everyone out for drinks and dinner at a bar down the road from our work on his tab. By conincidence this also happened to be my last day at work! We all got dressed up and went down for drinks for my farewell, my boss also said some nice things for my goodbye and they all signed a big card for me, it was very sweet. I will definitely miss everyone I worked with, I actually really liked the job even though what we actually did wasn`t too exciting. Hopefully I can keep in touch with everyone once I`m back home.