Ice Cream, Emily's House, and Orientation Jitters

          I had to wake up early because check out was at 10 am. We had to clean the place up a bit, take out the trash and pack all of our things before we left. We put all of our stuff in Josh’s car and checked out. Josh was a little bit worried because there was supposed to only be 4 people in the condo thing, but there were 6 of us. We just didn’t walk through the lobby. Haha. After we were all checked out and Josh parked his car, we went to eat breakfast at this pancake place. It was really good and I got a stack of pancakes with ice cream on them! Can I repeat; Ice cream on them!! It was really good! Josh said that it was kind of a regular thing around here. I had never heard of it but I love it. I was unsure about it at first and the guy behind the counter looked at me weird when I said “So, its like real ice cream?” Haha. It was still too rainy to go see the sand sculptures, so we just decided we would head back to Brisbane. Josh dropped us off at the train station. We thanked him and everything. It was a really great time and it was a great first time in the Gold Coast, despite the weather.

 We were a little bit worried that we might miss the train, but we luckily got there right on time. I was so tired, so I took a nap on the train. I think all of us did at some point on the journey home. Emily stayed on the train when we got back to South Bank. She was going to ride it back to Toowong, closer to where she lives. I changed into some comfy clothes and took a long nap. It felt so good. There was some kind of welcome thing going on on campus, but we didn’t go. I woke up to Mandy asking if I wanted to go with them to get food and go see Emily’s house. Mandy and Kyron had gone somewhere. I got ready and we headed downstairs. We saw Tazzy and invited her to go with us to Subway. She came and we got subs. I got this seafood sensation. I don’t know if I have ever seen that at our Subway. It was one of the $7 foot longs and had crab and stuff on it. It was really good. I only ate one haft, because the other could be a meal for another day. Tazzy left us and we went to Toowong on the Ferry. Emily met us at the ferry stop and walked us to her house. She showed us everything in her front yard and in her 

backyard. Haha. The story around that is that when she moved in, she kept being like there’s a shopping center in my front yard, or there’s a gym in my backyard. And we were like, dang, everything’s either in your front yard or backyard! Haha. Pretty funny though. There really was a lot of stuff around where she lives. Her house is very nice and cute. She lives with some older people, but that is going to be the case with most share houses.  We saw a spider hanging from a tree in the backyard. It was nighttime and kind of scary. Emily got her spray and Kyron sprayed it. It fell and we think it was dying. One of Emily’s roommates was like “Don’t kill it. That’s my friend. It kills all the insects.” Oops. We went and hung out in Emily’s room. It was nice too. Emily showed us the video of a Magpie, a type of bird here, which went into their house. She calls it their pet. It just walked in and let them feed it. I can’t wait to have a place of my own. I know it will come soon. I’ve been looking at all these places, but nothing has really been right. Kyron told me about a place in Auchenflower, which isn’t too far away, that he called and looks promising. We are going to see it after all of the orientation stuff the next day. We took the ferry back to Urbanest and there was a bunch of people hanging out outside, as always. It was cool because we met a guy form Saudi Arabia, another person from Brisbane, and some others. On the way back up to the room, Kyron went to Aaron’s room, and I went to change and stuff. I met Kyron and Aaron in Aaron’s room. We talked and hung out. I learned that Aaron would have to go to the Kelvin Grove campus the next day for his orientation too. That is where mine is. I have never been to that campus. I have only been to the Gardens Point Campus. I will be having some classes at both, so I have to get used to both of them. Aaron is going for Education and I

 am going for Creative Industries. Those are both like courses here. It means the same thing as major does back home. Advertising kind of fits into Creative industries. That is where journalism and stuff is here. Aaron and I are going to ride the shuttle bus over to Kelvin Grove in the morning. We left Aaron’s room, because we had to be up early the next day, and we went back to Kyron’s apartment. I went right to sleep because orientation would come early in the morning.

                                                                                                      Until next time,

                                                                                                                       

                                                                                                                                                  QueensLandon

Gold Coast Kind of Weekend

          I woke up around like 7:30 am because we were meeting Emily and Mandy downstairs at 8:30. I still had to finish packing and get ready too. I checked my email and everything. I got some bad news. I 

didn’t get the PC position in Preston. I didn’t even get an RM offer for any building. That made me really sad. I started to wonder what I did wrong and everything. I feel like I was really involved, energetic, and professional enough for the position. The email said that if someone pulls out, I might get an offer down the road. There is a very slim chance there though. It just wasn’t in the plans for me. I know that there is a reason though. There’s a reason for me not getting the position. I maybe won’t know or find out right now, but I might see the reason later on. Allison has been looking at apartments around Columbia, like Stadium suites and stuff. I’m really glad though that I can stay with her and our other friends. I’m excited about that too! Its very bitter sweet though, because I could have saved so much money and been more involved as well. I need to get in touch with Allison. I didn’t want to let that ruin my day, so I just went on and got ready. Kyron woke up and got ready too. We went with Mandy and Emily to get breakfast. It took us a while but the place we found was really good. It was really inexpensive as well. I got this thing called an apple scroll. It

 was like a cinnamon roll, but huge and had apples in it. It was cheap too! We left for the train station, which is right beside the bus station at South Bank. The train we needed to take was there and leaving. We had to run to go catch it. We caught it though. It was a train straight to the Gold Coast. The ride there was fun. We all talked and there was even Wi-Fi in the carriage we were in. I, of course, didn’t bring my phone or my computer or anything to connect to Internet. All I had was my camera and my crappy phone. The train was a little bumpy though and I got a little bit trippy with my carsickness feelings. I remember I used to get sick all the time when I was little. We saw a bunch of rural places on the way. There were even cows and horses and stuff! The ride didn’t take long though. It only took like an hour to get to the Gold Coast. Everyone’s ride there was free except mine because I hadn’t used 

mine 9 times yet this week. L Once you use your Go Card 9 times, the rest that week are free. But, it was only like 5 dollars to get there, so still it wasn’t that bad. Josh met us at the train station and took us to the hotel. He had actually won the free stay there as some kind of prize. That’s pretty cool. The weather outside was not though. And by not cool, I don’t mean was hot, I mean was still rainy and nasty. It was trying to clear up though. We could see Surfer’s Paradise in the distance. It was such a beautiful skyline with all of the buildings. That is where a sand sculpture competition was going on. It looked like it was supposed to be like one of the competitions you see on TLC or something. We really wanted to go see them, but the weather just seemed too nasty. We met Josh’s friends Anthony and Marina, who were

 staying there too. They are both Aussie and really nice. The weather clear up for a bit and we changed into our bathing suits. We went and ate at a place called Nando’s. I didn’t eat anything because I wasn’t that hungry, but I was really thirsty, so I drank water there. That is a cool thing about everywhere. Almost everywhere has self-serve water. It is like a big glass bottle filled with water and you can just bring it to your table. After lunch, we walked to the beach, which was right there, and swam in the ocean. The water was so beautiful and turquoise! It was so clear. The waves were kind of rough, but I didn’t think the current was as bad as Myrtle Beach or anything. The others seemed to think so. There were rocks along a peninsula that was ticking out near

where we were swimming and the waves were crashing up against them. It was really nice. There were also a lot of people surfing on the other side of the peninsula. We threw the Rugby ball in the ocean. They call AFL here, which is Australian Football League. We saw some fish in the ocean swimming past us. I don’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. I do know that I think I saw a big jellyfish in one of the waves. That was a little worrisome, but it could have just been my imagination. The small jellyfish are the ones that you have to be scared of. They said that those aren’t really in our area here and are more up the coast too. We got out of the rough waves and went back to the hotel swimming pool. It was fun taking pictures with Emily’s underwater camera and chilling and talking in the Jacuzzi. 

They call it a spa. After getting out and changing into dry clothes, we went shopping around the shopping center. There was this place called a Dollar Tree, but everything wasn’t a dollar. They did have some cute souvenirs there. We went to eat dinner at this place that was kind of like a beach club thing. We had to sign in and everything. The food was good. I had wedges. There is a large distinction between their potatoes here. Fries are like skinny and like at McDonalds. Chips are like what we would call French fries. And then wedges are bigger chunks of potatoes. They had to keep correcting us calling what they call chips, fries. There was a horse race on television that everyone was watching. Apparently this one horse was very good and popular. After we got done, we went back to the house and just hung out. Anthony’s girlfriend Marina had left so it was just the 4 Americans and the 2 Aussies. We played the game spoons, which got eventful and just chilled out for the night. It was a really great time and some amazing views to beat. We went to bed pretty late. Once again I was on the couch, but I’m kind of used to it and it wasn’t even that bad. I had to set an alarm, because check out time was at 10 o’clock in the morning. 

                                                                                                      Until next time,

                                                                                                                       

                                                                                                                                                  QueensLandon

Late Bus, Drug House, and Sausages

          I woke up and got ready because I am seeing a house at 3:30 pm. Kyron left to go to the mall with Aaron. Have I already told you about how we call him A-ayron? When we first met him, we watched this video on YouTube about a black teacher who was substituting and saying kids names 

wrong. When he said Aaron he pronounced it weirdly, with both A’s and then ron. Haha. So Kyron started calling him that and it has kind of just stuck. Kyron said he would try to come back to see house with me at 3:30 when he got done. I called all of the places that I saw that I liked and that were really nice and the right price, but none of them were available! L I still haven’t heard back about PC/RM. I hope I hear about that soon and I hope its good news. I was on Facebook when I got a message from Josh, who studied abroad at USC last semester and we met. He said that he wanted us to come down to the Gold Coast with him, because he had a hotel condo place for the weekend and some of his friends bailed on him last minute. Heck yeah! Gold Coast is where Cody Simpson is from. Haha. By the way. Mandy and I wanted to leave that night so that we could have the whole weekend, but we would be cutting it close. Mandy went with me to see the house. It was raining and cruddy outside. We were late because the bus was like ten minutes late. I thought the public transportation was so reliable? I guess sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t. Haha. But that’s just my luck. When we got to the house, the agent had already left but the door was open and the people there said we could go look at the room. There was a creepy kind of old guy siting on the couch that said he was getting evicted because he was one week behind on rent. Kind of weird. But there was a guy cleaning the room that I was supposed to look at. He lived in the room and was moving out. He told us a lot of stuff and answered my questions. He told us some bad stuff too about the place, like how there was a drug dealer who used to live there and how he could always smell drugs and stuff. That’s kind of scary. But of all of the ones I looked at, I could maybe live in that one. The price was definitely right, but there just wasn’t Internet. He said that that would have to be hooked up again or something. Mandy and I left and rode the bus to Queen Street Mall. It was a pretty long ride from where we were to the mall and it only cost 70 cents! That was pretty exciting. I got money out of my ANZ account so that I could have money while in Gold Coast. I still haven’t gotten my debit card, even after calling. I think it might be because Kyron’s name is on this room and they just aren’t putting it in his box. I don’t know, but I really need that. I still had some American money in my wallet, which is useless here, so I exchanged the rest of that. Once again, I lost money by having to do that. Ugh. Me and Mandy went to Pie Face again. They are everywhere. One didn’t have a lot to choose from, so we went to the other one around the corner, still in Queen

 Street Mall, and they had more of a selection. We “topped up” our Go Cards. Which is the card that you use to get on the bus and stuff. You load money on it and use it. When you put more money on it, they call it “topping up”. When you get on the bus, you have to “tap on”, which means to touch your card on the little scanner thingy, and when you get off you have to “tap off”. We rode the bus back to Urbanest. We were going to try and still make it to the Gold Coast that night, but we felt too rushed and Kyron would have to leave the next day. Then Josh would have to pick people up from the train station twice. So, we would just leave in the morning. Kyron was out with some coworkers that night. Emily came over to Urbanest, because they were having free dinner there. They had sausages and bread. That is a big thing here too. They said because it’s cheaper than buying hot dogs. I don’t know. 

But, it was like big sausages and you put it on white bread and put ketchup or whatever on it. I didn’t eat any of it because I am still trying to not eat red meat. It is really hard though. I don’t know how much longer I can go, because options are kind of limited. We hung out with all the people from Urbanest and stuff. Mandy calls them the “Urbanest Family”. Haha. These people will probably be the ones that I remember forever. I met some new people that night. I met a girl from New Jersey named Carly. She is Lilo, or Tazzy’s roommate. I also met this guy from Ireland named Mark, and some more Aussies. We all just sat around and chatted about the night before and all the fun that went down the night before. I started to get tired and wanted to go to bed, but I didn’t have the card to get up to the room. Kyron still had it. I had to wait on Kyron to get back. But, I thought someone might open the door if I knocked. So I went upstairs and knocked and Kyron’s new apartment mate opened the door. Thank God. I went to sleep after packing for the trip in the morning. We were just going to leave for the Gold Coast in the morning. 

                                                                                                      Until next time,

                                                                                                                       

                                                                                                                                                  QueensLandon

Hungry Jacks, and Internationals Out On the Town

          So, the house that I looked at definitely didn’t work out. I got an email saying that they were sorry, but that property was already taken, most likely by Rosannah. Oh well. You can only try. I searched a little more for houses and went to see another place that I had set up an inspection with the

 day before. It is in a suburb called Annerly, not too too far away from the school. Mandy came with me and we rode the bus to the place. We had a little bit of trouble finding it and I thought I was going to be really late, but with some help from Google Maps, we finally found our way there. The man was kind of friendly, but not very sociable. He showed me the room and it was okay. The house was kind of dirty too. I feel like people here just don’t care about stuff. The house was soooooo hot, because there wasn’t any air conditioning or anything. I was sweating so much. Gross. The washer for your clothes was downstairs under the house, like in the dirt and really gross. You even had to pay to do it! All in all, I don’t think that was the one. It was the right price, but not the right fit. We thanked the man and started our way back. We stopped and ate at Hungry Jacks before we got on the bus. Hungry Jacks is the exact same thing as burger king in the states. That’s so funny. The only thing is, it isn’t as economical. You don’t even get fries and a drink included. That’s extra! But it was the first place that I had seen with a soda dispenser for refills. That’s a plus. Most places don’t give you free refills. Crazy! We rode back to South Bank and Urbanest. I looked for more houses and found some really cool looking studio apartments. They included like the kitchen and everything! It was just the right price too. I called a bunch of places and left them messages. I hope they call me back. Kyron got back from work and we hung out with some of his roommates and talked for a while. They were having some kind of 

speed dating thing downstairs here. It was like a “get to know each other” type thing though. One of Kyron’s apartment mates, Josh, who works at Urbanest, was helping run it. We never went though. Mandy texted us and said that they were going out into the city to a club. We heard a lot of people were going. Me and Kyron went downstairs with our Aussie friend Aaron from the Gold Coast. He was hanging out with his roommate who is from Virginia. There were also some girls from Canada and a girl from Arizona. They were going out too. So me and Kyron got ready and went downstairs to where everyone was hanging out. Everyone was chilling everywhere and having fun. We left, shortly after going downstairs, with our big group of people. We walked all the way there. We probably should have taken a bus, but someone decided it would be a good idea to walk there. The girl from Arizona even had heels on, bless her heart. We finally got there and IT WAS SO MUCH FUN! We were dancing everywhere and it was amazing! Me and the girl from Tasmania, Lilo, had a circle at one point and were dancing in the middle and everyone was cheering. Haha. It was great. After a long night of dancing, I was sweating so much and just ready to go to bed. We walked all the way back to Urbanest. It felt like it took forever. We got split up from the rest of the group, with half going one way and half going another. Emily, who was staying with Mandy because the buses don’t run that late and she couldn’t just walk back to where she lives in Toowong, had to wait on Mandy and their group to get back, so we waited with her. We went upstairs and I crashed. It had been a long day, but so much fun!

                                                                                                      Until next time,

                                                                                                                       

                                                                                                                                                  QueensLandon