In Australia "Holiday" is like USA's "Spring break", but in Australia they have 2 weeks and in the US you usually only have a week. Most people know this but US doesn't have that much holiday time compared to most other countries. ANYWAY for my spring break of two week my whole family came to visit me down under!
What went on:
Parents arrived and we stayed in Sydney for 5 days, then my brother made the 22 hour trek to Australia we met him in the airport and then headed to the south island of New Zealand, we were there for 5 days, then came back to Sydney with the whole family for 3 nights!
My parents and I ventured around the City, the first two days were spent at the two famous beaches of Bondi, and Manly because it was the hottest weather. The next day we went on a 10k hike on the waters edge by manly with amazing sights! That night we went out to Macquarie for my parents to see my place and meet my roommates! My german roommate made us curry! The Last day we spent in the botanical gardens by the harbour, saw the opera house and just hung in the city!
The whole family in New Zealand was amazing. We stayed in Queenstown, NZ at the most stunning hotel room that I have ever been in. Best part: was just being in Queenstown, the town had hiking, biking, a gondola, luge course, & lots of bars and places to eat. Worst part- not being able to go skydiving :(. We tried for two days straight. when sky diving it has to be almost perfect weather, little to no clouds and sunshine! Which our whole trip the weather was the exact opposite, sadly. We would get peaks of sunshine here and there but nothing to make a 4 hour trip to go skydiving worth while.
One of our day trips in New Zealand included going to Milford sound. When I first saw a brochure about it I thought that it was literally a sound but when really its just like a big inlet from the ocean. There are massive mountains on each side that accompany the inlet. Water falls were at various points in the mountains. At one of the tallest waterfalls the boat went right up close to it and even went underneath it!
Back in SYDNEY with the fam was boring.... JK it was pretty cool... JK it was AWESOME we got to do the bridge climb, meet up with my moms friend from HS that moved to Australia, got to go to the anzac parade and festivities, the famous taronga zoo and see roos and kolas.
BRIDGE CLIMB- was really awesome I got to see the city I've been living by from the past 2 months with a new perspective. I'm not going to lie it was scary at one part when climbing above traffic and then lower than that was water.. but once you go on the real arch of the bridge it was fine because you couldn't see though the actual bridge. It was just my mom, brother and I. My dad was a bit too scared but I think he could have! We got to do pictures at the bottom and at the top. We also got to take a video which we ... well I chose to do a shout out to my one and only wonderful boyfriend RANDAL. It was either that or calling my dad a wussy for not being up there with us. On the trip with us there was about 15 other people with included a women which I would say was in her late 70's or 80's which had a little problem at the top and we thought we were going to have a medical emergency, but everything ended up all right. I wouldn't really pay money to do it again, but it was a one in a life time opportunity to climb such an amazing bridge and to look over the city and opera house. I'm so grateful that I had my mom and brother to do this with me.
ANZAC DAY- Anzac day is a day to remember those from Australia and New Zealand that have died in all the wars but mostly in Gallipoli were 8,587 Australian lives were lost. We got back the day before ANZAC day and got to wake up early and go to one of the parades which was really fun to see in a different country. To see how much pride they have from their military, navy, and all others that help our in armed forces. My dad kept commenting on how we would never have this much pride or people at a parade for a thing such as memorial day. We also got to celebrate by seeing a game that is only legal on ANZAC day called two-up. Two- up is a betting game in which two quarters are used and you with many others are in a circle surrounding the two quarters. You hold up how much money you want to bet in your hand and you find someone with the same amount of money who you want to go "against". Who ever takes heads takes the money and holds on to it. If both quarters land on tails then the all the money is given to the other person if its both heads then the person keeps the money. If one is heads and other tails then its a re-draw. Aussies get REALLY into this game. It was a really fun atmosphere to see. Also on ANZAC day there is drinking and lots of it people come out old and young to celebrate.
TARONGA ZOO- The most amazing zoo I've ever been to by far. We saw elephants, tigers, monkeys, sea lions, kolas, kangaroos, pelicans and much more. My favourite was defiantly the pelicans. I like to refer everything I see in Sydney to the movie nemo so really... I got to see a character from the movie! We also got there around feeding time. They would throw fish up in the air and they would catch it in the mouths.... yeah pretty cool. We took the ferry over from Sydney so you could the city from various points within the zoo which was cool too. We also got to take a gondola over the zoo! It was a pretty busy day at the zoo but the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day!
School-
Ok honestly time! My grades I have received back so far 45%, 60%, 62%, 72%... sooo not the best. I do have to get above a 50% in each class to pass.. So all my grades transfer over as credit or no credit. Let hope I get credit.. JK I will I am really going to buckle down after my brother leaves.. kinda. BUT listen to this when I was in class this friday my Big History Tutorial teacher which is from and went to college in the states, he said that if he got a 60% on his first paper he would be very happy with it. He explained to us the the first paper that teachers grade in a class are suppose to be a "punch" to the students, and then they grade easier from then on out.. lets hope this is true. Anywho grading is alot tougher here I feel if I turned any of those papers into Grand Valley I would have got a least a B..
I'm not only adjusting to being abroad and away from everything, but also trying to learn to study in a new environment also. && with that comes bad grades right??.. they will get better. My mom threaten me that I will have to pay all my classes in full if I fail... So i will not fail :)
CATCH-UP WITH SOME LOWELLIANS!
So theres this boy named Chase that I have been friends with since like middle school. He was in the same graduating class as me. Now he is also at Grand Valley getting his degree in business. So as it turns out his sister (Breanna) graduated from UofM last spring and right after not finding a job right out of school she headed to Melbourne, Australia with a year work visa last October! SO after Chase got done with exams at GV he came to visit his sister and they were in Sydney for a night that my brother and I were here too! So all four of us lowell Graduates were in Sydney Australia for a night! Pretty cool, two siblings, both us girls live in australia, Breanna graduated from UofM and my brother being at UofM at the moment and Chase and I both at Grand Valley. It was really cool to see and meet up with them! We got dinner on a roof top deck overlooking the opera house, it was a beautiful night!
MY BROTHERS STILL HERE
wait... what?? Yeah so my parents left last week saturday (& my moms still jet lagged parentally lol) my brother stayed with me for 4 days then traveled off to Hobart, in Tasmaina (an island off of australia) to do some hiking and exploring by himself. Now, just recently like and hour ago.. came back! He will be staying with me for another 4 days before departing back to the USA! We will be going on a party bus tonight, going to an AFL (super rugby) game tomorrow and hopefully surfing another day.. yeah I know doesnt sound like buckling down and studying.. but when is the next time I will be in Australia with my brother?! Anyway it will be a fun few days before he heads back and trys to find a job for the summer! Good luck CHAR CHAR.
List
-I would say about 70% of clubs/ bars have slot machines and places to gamble right inside of it. Its usually in a room off to the side, but I don't think you would find this a lot in america.
- M mature movies kids can watch them at 15 years old here
-Drinking age is 18
-To get into a casino in New Zealand you have to be 20... so i couldnt go in.. yet but its my birthday month!
- Toilets DO NOT flush the other way here.. they don't really flush any way.. a bunch of water just kinda gushes from every which way and wala its flushed
- Parents let there children run naked on beaches.. and its not a big deal. like lots of naked children
-there is like no free wifi here.. even in starbucks you have to purchase a drink to get a code and that code only lets you have wifi for 30 min... to say the least its very limited.
-My dad thinks the train stations are used as bomb shelters here lol
- Its been really nice weather here for there so called "winter" but ive heard ive just been lucky and it will get worse
- I want to go sailing before I leave
-I only have one final exam and I will be traveling for about 11 days before it... not sure yet tho.. alice springs? Broome? Western Australia?
- I AM OFFICIALLY COMING HOME JUNE 25th!!! get excited.
So a lot of people have asked me if I am an alcoholic over here.. honest to god NO. lol just think its legal over here for me to drink so I don't mind having pictures taken with me hold "OH NO" like a beer or something.. I am still planning to do "a day in the live of study abroad in sydney australia" and it will not ... well maybe it will include drinking but not obsessive amounts. My parents drank alot more over here than I did.. if thats any comparison..
Just wanted to write how grateful and thankful I am for having my parents here.. and brother. Not many parents would follow them half way around the world to visit where ever I chose to study abroad! But my above and beyond wonderful parents did, so thank you mom and dad for everything! I will always remember this once in a lifetime opportunity you took to come visit me while I was living in Australia! Thanks char for tagging along too!
LOVE YALL MISS YALL,
LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE
ally jo
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