Finals? No thanks! I'd rather play in the sand!

Hello hello!
This last week has been an interesting one to say the least. I had to say good-bye/see you later to two of my roommates, my Norwegian friends on campus, the kangaroos and koalas, and tonight to another one of my friends from my study abroad group. Now, I don't leave for Minnesota until Monday morning but the good-byes just keep on rolling in. Anyone know how to make it stop?

Alright so the update for the week! Here we go!
On Monday, my friends Jacqueline, Jeff, Brenna, Emily and I went Scuba diving out at Wavebreak Island. It was about a 15 minute boat ride from Main Beach Marina. It was so much fun! However, since everything I do always comes with some sort of disaster attached to it my scuba experience was a little more interesting than most. To start off the day my friend Jacqueline and I decided that we didn't want to wear matching color flippers so we traded and each of us wore a pink one and a white one. When we got out to the Island my first pair of goggles broke, then we when we were doing the scuba exercises I wasn't in deep enough water and kept on falling everywhere (even fell into a tree, yup I'm talented), and my masked filled with water so I couldn't see. My instructor was also Korean and I could not understand anything she said so she started using sign language. Yup, that was a fail too because I'm illiterate when it comes to sign language. While she was working with the other people in my group I joined another instructor and Emily, Brenna, and Jacqueline. This instructor was Asian, but I could understand her a little better. I eventually got through the exercises and we all began with the dive. As we were crawling along the ocean bottom I began to float up. Now, you would think with all the scuba gear and a 10 lbs weight belt around your waist that you would sink to the bottom. Nope, not in my case. I was still floating. So, while we are crawling along the floor the Korean instructor was pushing me to the bottom so I would stop floating. Later on I started having problems with my ears and I was passed off to an Australian instructor and her and I cruised around the diving area until my ears started acting up again. Then once everyone else was done scuba diving we got a chance to snorkel. This was less problem filled and got to see the fish a little bit more. I got to see some of the fish that were in Finding Nemo, and a bunch of other kinds, including a shark (not a great white or anything massive like that though)!

Hermit Crab

The Marina

 On Tuesday was my Norwegian friends going away party even though they didn't leave until Saturday. I'm going to miss these ladies a lot as they have made my time in Australia more memorable, and hopefully will one day make it out to Norway to see them again!

Sigrid, Elise, Me, Susanne, Frida, and Heidi

TV1 ladies! Frida (aka Elvis), Elise, Mel, Susanne, Birgette, and Heidi

 Also on Tuesday night Ruth, Lacey and I said goodbye to our roommate Natalee.

On Wednesday night some girls from my Study Abroad group rented a puppy from a puppy pet store in Surfer's Paradise (it didn't cost anything as they don't want to leave the puppies in the store over night and they want to socialize them). They got a pugalier (a pug croassed with a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. He didn't have a name when they picked him up so the girls named him Burleigh. He was adorable and a great reason for  a study break!

Burleigh sleeping

He loved to snuggle

He also loved to play

This week I also finished up the last of my souvenir shopping. It feels so good to be done! However, I am a smart one and got my little brother and little sister the same t-shirt only in different colors. So, Tony and Ashley if you are reading this.... SURPRISE! You two got matching shirts! Just kidding! I got one of you a new shirt so you won't have to have matching shirts. I also picked up come Australian wine and beer for my parents (well the beer is for me too because it is DELICIOUS! Shout out to Burleigh Brewing!)

Wine and beer! Nothing better!

 On Thursday I took my sport coaching final and then came home to help Ruth and Lacey with the big clean of our apartment. Our apartment looked like it first did when we moved in in September, it was very bittersweet.

On Friday after my wine studies final I went to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary with my friend Laura to say goodbye to the Kangaroos and Koalas. I'm going to miss being able to go there and see the animals.

Sleepy Koala.

 Later that night, since it was Lacey's last night in Australia, we went out to eat at Max Brenners. Max Brenners is an extremely delicious chocolate restaurant. It was soooooo good!

My chocolate souffle!

 After Max Brenners we all went to the park by the beach and then down to the beach one last time. This was also very bittersweet. Here are some shots from the park and the beach.

Roomies!

That's all for now.
Later Gators!
<3 Melissa

Why are people leaving?! This is not ok.

Hi all!
Alright so this is not an update of what I did this week as that will be later in the week and because I should be studying for my wine studies final right now, but I need to get something off my mind. So, this week one of my roommates, Natalee, left and it really hit home that I will be leaving here on Monday. Yes, Monday. This is depressing! Granted some people left before her and it wasn't a huge deal because I still had a week before I had to leave, but the morning she left something just wasn't right. Now my roommate Lacey leaves early on Saturday morning and Ruth and I are going to see her off to her airport shuttle. I am anticipating being an absolute mess when Lacey leaves. No idea why, but I am going to be. The tears will most likely be flowing. This is literally insane. I have known that this day was going to come really really fast, but I never thought it would be this fast. It is very bitter sweet. I am ready to come home and see all my friends and family, but I don't want to leave the place I called home the past 4 months. It is surreal. I am most likely going to be a complete mess when I come home because of the culture shock, and right now it feels like I'm coming home for Christmas and then coming back here, but instead I'll be going back to Augie. Now I love Augie, don't get me wrong, but Bond has been my home Uni for the last 4 months. The adjustment is going to be very difficult (and I'm not just talking weather change difficult). Ugh. I don't want to leave!

We did a heavy duty cleaning of our apartment today and it looked like what it did when we all moved in here. I wanted to cry. This is not OK.

Tomorrow night before Lacey takes off for home, Rut,h Lacey, and I are making pizza and watching movies and then getting Max Brenners and eating it on the beach and then coming back to the apartment to watch more movies before sending Lacey off. Its going to be fun but very sad at the same time.

All in all I leave on Monday. These past four months have been incredible and I am going to cherish the memories forever! For everyone back home be ready for a picture/my parent's wine party when I get home. I have lots of pictures to share! Anyway, I have to get back to studying for my wine studies final. Ha! Never thought I would ever wish finals week was longer.

See you soon!
Later Gators
<3 Melissa

Study week... wait who studies?

This past week was the official second to last week in the beautiful land of Australia. It is also study week at Bond Uni. Yup, study week. Now, I can personally say I did not study, unless if studying comes in the form of studying price tags because I did a lot of shopping. Anyway, so this past week the weather was cold, rainy, and a little on the icky side, so soaking up the sun was not an option. However, Steffan, Jacqueline, Lacey, and I managed to get some frisbee in earlier in the week.

The Jellyfish we found on the beach

playing frisbee-ball with a palm leaf

Jacqueline and the giant palm leaf

Lately everyone in my apartment has been in the Christmas spirit (hence our wonderful Christmas decorations) and this past week Jacqueline, Lacey, and I made Christmas cookies! However, our frosting didn't really turn out the greatest, but it still worked. By the end of cookie decorating we were all rolling on the floor laughing from some of the things said while decorating the cookies. It made for some very good entertainment :) Later that night we had people over in our room to watch Santa Claus 3 to keep the Christmas spirit going.

As you could probably imagine when it isn't sunny there really is not much to do around here. I mean you can only watch so many TV shows and movies before you get sick of it all. However, they do play 7th Heaven re-runs here and that is one show everyone in the apartment can't get sick of. In order to keep ourselves busy during the crappy weather week Brenna, Lacey, Jacqueline, and I took a trip to the Harbor Town shopping center. There are so many outlets here it was kind of like going to the Medford Outlets. One of the highlights of this trip was seeing Santa drive around in a decked out golf cart.
 

 This week was also the TEAN Bond University farewell dinner. Honestly, I cannot believe that part of the semester has come and passed. It feels like just yesterday everyone was moving into their apartments here in the Gold Coast, and now in 1 week we all pack up to head our separate ways. It is very bitter sweet. Here are a few pictures from the dinner.

Roomies <3

So delicious!!!

Matt, our orientation leader, came for a surprise visit!

That about wraps it up for this weeks update. Sorry it is not more interesting.
Only one week left in the OZ and I'm going to soak up as much sun as possible :)
Later Gators!
<3 Melissa

2 weeks left in paradise. For real?

Whoa! I feel like it has been forever since I have updated this thing. Well it has only been 2 weeks, but those 2 weeks have flown by so fast! So, here is what I have been up to for the last two weeks! (Sorry there is going to be a lot of pictures!)

My station during BUFTA- VTR Operator

The interview set

The Princeton room all set up for the awards ceremony

The back of our crew shirts

Elise and I

The BUFTA Crew

BUFTA is Bond University's Film and Television Awards show. It is held once a year at Bond and one lucky (I mean very lucky) high school student is awarded a full ride scholarship to pursue a degree in film and television. This award is valued at over $90,000. So this awards show is a serious matter (not to mention it is also the final for TV 1). Anyway, BUFTA was on November 25th and for the week leading up to it the crew and I had some very long and late night rehearsing. I ran the VTR operator (the machine, Geevs, that plays the video clips of the constants music videos, movies, etc) for the show. Now, it would be a lie to say BUFTA went off without any glitches. From my jobs point of view I seriously wanted to throw Geevs out the window because it would not cooperate. For the week of rehearsals I probably reloaded the VTR channels about 15 or 20 times and there were about 60 things that had to be reloaded each time. My favorite time to reload it was while the pre-show was streaming live across the internet. Fun times. But really, BUFTA went really really well. We had a few technical difficulties, as with and show, but our TV 1 teacher said they were unnoticeable. It was a lot of fun to work with everyone on this project! And for not being an TV and film major we totally rocked it!

Of course after BUFTA was over everyone went out and partied. We just pulled off a huge awards show and we deserved to celebrate. The initial plan was to head on down to Surfers for the night, but since it is Schoolies (more on this later) and no one wanted to pay for a cab, we just hung around campus. Everyone pretty much ended up going their separate ways and I headed home because the next morning was rock climbing and abseiling in Brisbane!

Ok so the schoolies. Schoolies are year 12 students who just graduated. In Australia the students graduate in November and December right before summer, so it is the same season wise, but different time wise from the states. Surfers Paradise is infested with Schoolies. They are everywhere! And they are all really annoying. I had a run in with some particularly bad schoolies one night after BUFTA rehearsal. My friend Jackie and I got off the bus and were walking back to the Meriton and this group of Schoolies come up to us and start asking about Uni and about the States, and then they start touching our faces. Obviously personal space is non existent. Anyway, they were super annoying and Uni students are ready for them to leave Surfers.

Brisbane Skyline

Rock climbing

Abseiling

My friend Heidi abseiling

So the morning after BUFTA was the big rock climbing and abseiling adventure at Kangaroo Point in Brisbane. I had only gotten about 2 hours of sleep before and was functioning quite well surprisingly. That morning my friends Jacqueline, Orthelande, and I, woke up early and caught the 5:40 bus to campus. We were there by 6am and decided it was a good time to take picture in front of the fountain sine we had 45 minutes before we met with everyone to go to Brisbane. We did that and then ventured down to the lake and see the black swans that hang around campus. They are so beautiful!

After wasting time we finally boarded the bus to Brisbane. When we arrived at Kangaroo point everyone was split into two groups, one to go abseiling and the other to go rock climbing. I went rock climbing first. We all went to the bottom of the rocks, changed into rock climbing shoes, which look funny and are a little on the uncomfortable side, and got lessons on how to rock climb. We were then split into smaller groups in front of the rock climbing ropes. My group went on the medium-hard climb and we struggled. We only made it about half way up the rocks, but it was still a lot of fun. After that the larger groups switched and we went abseiling. Abseiling is by far scarier than sky diving because you are all harnessed up and then have to go over the edge and walk down the rocks. However, only going over the edge is the scary part because you don't know if the rope is going to snap, or if you are going to just fly down the rocks. It was also a lot of fun! At the end of the day there was a bbq. During the bbq I got pooped on by a bird. We were all just sitting at a picnic table and a bird just poops. It was not the ideal way to end the day but no big deal haha! After that we all headed back to Bond. That night I was going to take a nap for a couple hours and then get up and eat supper. Well my short nap starting at 7pm turned into getting up at 10 am the next morning. Best long nap ever!

Another amazing Australian sunset. Seriously could not get better than this!

Jupiters casino!

This past week was the last week of classes. I cannot believe how fast it has gone. On tuesday was my blind taste testing for my wine studies class. For this test we are given a glass of red wine and a glass of red wine and we have to use our senses to figure out what type of wine it is, the vintage, the color, the smells, the flavors, and what type of food we would pair with it. We were given 2 hours to complete the test. It went by really fast and I totally rocked it! The white wine I was stumped with for awhile because one part of the test was figuring out if the wine was oaked. The white wine didn't look oaked, it kind of smelled oaked, and it defiantly tasted like it had oak. This class really makes you get in touch with your senses. Now, we don't pass the class if we end up with the right type of wine. Instead we are graded on how we came to get the wine flavor. Each person spends an hour on each wine. It is crazy! I am glad it is over because it was insanely difficult, but at the same time a lot of fun.

On wednesday there was the Bond University International Students send off party. It really was not much of a party, but just a chance for the International kids to get free food and cheap merchandise. All in all it was a good time.

Roomies

 To celebrate the last day of classes Lacey and I went to The Cupcake Parlor and got cupcakes for us two and Ruth (Natalee is in the Whit Sundays). They were delicious!! The guy kept on asking us if we wanted vanilla cupcakes and we gave him the look like seriously dude? Vanilla? We want straight up chocolate!

Cupcakes to celebrate the last day of classes

We also decided to get into the Christmas spirit and decorate our apartment. Nothing says Christmas like chocolate calendars!

Our Christmas calendars filled with chocolate!

Our Australian Christmas tree.
Yup, our room looks like 1st graders decorated it.
But it is totally awesome!

That night Ruth, Lacey, and I, as well as a few of our friends went out to Waxy's for a few beers and then to East for free champagne and dancing. It was a lot of fun! Got to live up the last few weeks while we can.

Friday night was the BUFTA after party take 2 since everyone went their separate ways the week before. The plan was to do some pre-drinking at my place and then head on over to some the the clubs for dancing. However, that was not the case. Everyone was busy finishing up homework so a lot of people didn't come. My friends Heidi, Elise, Birgette, Susanne, Olivia, Jeff, Ryan, and Ryan's friend Brandon came over and we just hung out for awhile. Heidi, Elise, Birgette, and Susanne wanted to go get some dancing in so they left for the clubs out in Broadbeach. I told them that I would join them later since we were all hanging out on Jeff's balcony drinking and talking. Well, later turned into 2:30am and we never really made it to any clubs. Instead we went to McDonalds and got something to eat before heading back to the Meriton. The girls were tired and decided to catch a cab back to Bond. Jeff, Ryan and I were not tired so we just went and hung out. Now one of my goals of the night was to watch the sunrise at the beach. Jeff decided that he was to tired to come and watch the sunrise so at about 4:15 am Ryan and I headed on down to the beach to watch the sunrise. It was by far the most beautiful sunrises I have ever seen! It was gorgeous.

Nothing beats and Australian sunrise!

Ryan keeping the party going at the beach.

I cannot believe that tomorrow marks 2 weeks left in Australia. I seriously cannot believe how fast the past 4 months have gone. It is surreal! I am beginning to feel like I have not seen any of Australia, but in reality I've seen a lot and done a lot of things. It truly is insane how fast time flies! These next two weeks are going to go so fast and I don't really want to come home. I miss everyone but Australia is amazing! I'm very glad I have gotten this experience.

With these next two weeks is going to be a lot of adventure so keep reading!
Later Gators!
<3 Melissa