Week 6: Battle of the Bands and Mt Keira

So its week 6... wow! Monday night we watched Monsters University in the basement of KB, such a great movie! Oh it wound back the years.

Tuesday was a bit of a non-event with essay work and a massive shop in Woolworths.

Wednesday came around and we headed off for another field trip with the coasts modules. We headed down to Hill 60, which has three beaches of scientific importance… I think. Then the evening was glassy’s no pants party (and by that I mean no trousers!). Another epic night with the KB crowd with only a few bumps and scrapes, darn train station handrail.

On Thursday I headed down to the Band Competition at Uni Bar with my international buddy. The bands were so great and I seriously need to get some of their CD’s!

Battle of the bands with my international buddy!

Friday I smashed my essay and finished it 5 days early, boom! Then headed down to Leisure Coast/Farmers Market… my favourite shop fo sho! So I should be set for food for a long time. In the evening I headed up to my international buddies house in Sydney for a house party, we got such good dominoes and played some great games! Her house was insane… massive tv’s, sofas everywhere and to top it off a swimming pool :O !

Sydney House Party :)

Saturday I headed back to the Gong via an awesome roll shop in Sutherland! In the afternoon we played a bit of frisbee in the courtyard and gave up after we managed to get it stuck on the roof... we eventually got it down!

Saving the frisbee!

 Mount Keira was the goal for Sunday morning, an early 9am start (for a sunday) we headed up there on foot and made it in about 1h45, with only a minor unintentional detour. On our way we bumped into two Kookaburras, which were pretty awesome! The view at the top was brilliant! Definitely one of my favourite views. They say a picture is worth a thousand words...

Ive also started going swimming regularly at the UOW URAC pool which is so awesome its outdoor and heated! Its so great going for a swim after lectures and it not being freezing!

And some pics from a couple of weeks ago.

Underwater pic from the beach

Photo-bombed by all black supporters! 

Week 5: Rugby and Beachiness

So first things first I am thankfully all better now :).

This week has been quite work focussed, I have finished my 2,500 word essay for GIS in for next week and have now started my 2,500 word essay for coasts... man I hate essays. Give me a GIS prac or numbers to do any day!

Other than that I went out with the Global Buddies Society, we went out for a Mexican which was YUM! and pretty cheap so bonus :). We also had a cheeky tequila shot (oh the memories! for those of you who were there, hosepipe, 3 storey building, you know the night!) I ended up having three nights of fajitas/taco's as I made a big batch for the night before's dinner.

Before fajitas...

Easting fajitas with How I Met Your Mother on :)

Thursday night consisted of a trip to Wollies and a looong wait for a bus but having full cupboards was definitely worth it! Friday so far has been pretty chilled after finishing my essay. I am planning on going to a free fitness thing that KB are putting on and then I believe I am invited to a bbq. So thats my evening sorted :). Heading up to Sydney tomorrow to go and watch the rugby, we have two rows of six booked behind each other... im sooo looking forward to seeing the Hakka! :). Who knows what else we will get up to in Sydney...

So its sunday night at the end of my fifth week... fifth week... fifth week.. in Australia.. I cannot believe its been five weeks that insane. Time sure flies.

Right then friday night was another decent evening of chilling with some bevvies but I took it easy as I knew I had a big day on Saturday.

Friday night with the Aussi's :) great fun and great bunch of people!

Soo saturday we headed up to Sydney, we got the train up, by the way the trains here are EPIC. Double deckers with seats that you can switch directions by moving the backs of them... SO COOL. So Sydney, we headed to a pretty massive Market (similar to camden) which had loads of touristy stuff and I saw a few things that i'll definitely have to go back and get at some point. We headed off to Darling Harbour which was pretty cool before grabbing some food in a pub (with a few beers) and headed off to the ANZ stadium! The stadium was pretty darn massive! It must be an 85,000 seater and was filled to 70,000 with Aussi and All Balck fans.

In my Aussi jacket at the ANZ stadium!

Unsurprisingly the All Blacks won, but even so it was a great evening, quite a tame atmosphere in the stadium if im being honest. But a masterclass from the All Blacks was great to watch  and explaining the rules to my international friends was great fun. I didnt realise that Rugby is not as much of an international sport as I had thought.

Thankfully Sunday was a day of recovery from a tiring day in Sydney, we all headed down to the beach to play some touch (damn thats tiring in the sand) and frisbee. Some of us went for a "swim"/ splash. I'm hoping to get some cool pics from a waterproof camera we had :).

Check out some of the wildlife I've seen this week... Ok its not massive spiders or snakes but still pretty cool to see just around campus. I have updated my bucket list with some of the things that I have done, I still need ideas because its a pretty pathetic list at the moment!

Awesome parrot/birds on campus :)

A pretty cool buggy/mothy thing...

Week 4: A Quiet Week

Here are some pics from last week:

Panorama of Seven Mile Beach! 

Strongbow in a bottle?! Mind blown!

Upside down on the beach.

Free stuff from surfcamp!

At glassy with fellow internationals :)

So this week has been a pretty quiet week. After my surf trip I had a bit of work to catch up with, so Mon and Tues was spent doing that, with the international buddy meet and greet in the evening which was good fun :). Wednesday consisted of a fieldtrip to Werri Beach, right next to seven mile beach where I did my surf camp, and in the evening we went out to glassy which was great as ever. I even managed to not buy any drinks when I was out! Thursday daytime passed uneventfully and then I came down with some kind of bug which lasted til sunday evening. So that has been the first major low point so far. I went for a walk along the beach sunday afternoon which was lovely :) LIVING NEXT TO THE BEACH RULES! That was week 4 :). Time is flying by!
 

Week 3: Proper British Birthday Bants & Surf Camp

So where did I last leave you guys... that's it Carnival! So that afternoon was pretty darn awesome, we had a bouncy caslte, slip and slide and candy floss (i mean fairy floss ;) ). Of course as students the afternoon descended into a big cold water fight! That evening was another free BBQ... I can't believe how much free food I had last week, it was great :). The end of last week contained an EPIC house party over in North Gong... I'm learning so many 'party games' to bring home for next year!

On the food note, check out the 5kg Nutella I found at the farmers market :).

5kg Nutella for $58 (£40)

So Monday was the beginning of lectures and my first thought was, I am sooo young. I swear most of my course mates are 2+ years older than me! I guess its because the gap years are so popular over here. I guess I'll have to show what I've got despite being a youngen! Even so I have really enjoyed my classes so far... im doing GIS, Coasts and Water Management... which are modules that I'm really in to! My only concern is the GIS may be a bit hard as I don't have the full pre-requisite, but I guess I'll see how it goes and see how it goes. My contact hours are similar to UEA, but assessment throughout the year is intense compared to UEA. We usually have an exam and a bit of CW or two. Here, I have practical write-ups after every practical, essays, quizzes and then an exam at the end (at least the exam is only 40% of the module). If im enjoying the modules I don't think the assessment will bother me all that much.    

Birthday Shenanigans :) 

Wednesday came around pretty quickly... my 20th birthday :). It was a pretty quiet day, just chilling really but we went out to the Glasshouse in the evening which was really great, and I'm starting to learn all the Aussi songs... hey barbaruba and true blue! Definitely a unforgettable birthday :) and I have my present from the parents this weekend, a surf weekend :D, which I am really looking forward to! Thursday passed quietly and Friday so far has been at lectures and in the library. The plan is to start these essays early and get them out the way, we will see eh.

So that's it for now... I'll give you an update when I return from my Surf Weekend :).

So... SURF WEEKEND. We headed down to 7 mile beach via a double decker coach, how fancy! We stayed in a quaint resort, with cabins surrounding a covered area of tables and chair. We got 6 hours worth of lessons and we were all standing up by the end of the first 2 hours! Such great fun and it was nice to finally meet some more English people! Although its funny when I hear them speak because I think to myself wait that's normal! Here is a few snaps that Surf Camp took :).

Practicing

Some attempts were less than successful.

Other attempts were more successful!

1:22 me standing up on my board ;) 

Really fun weekend, so thank you to my parents for it as it was my birthday pressie. The week ahead looks quite studious, with 5 assignments due in August! So I'll be hitting the books hard to try and get them out of the way.

Wow that was week 3! How time flies when youre having fun. I should probably start looking at spring break ideas...

That's it for now DUUUUUDESSSS!