I think I should probably start writing in this blog more often, considering I have a lot of free time now that my one test is over for the semester. I only have two papers and a little presentation left for the entire semester. One of my classes is practically over with. I think that's funny because St. Cloud isn't even done with school yet and I started months after them :) I am definitely living the dream here.

I've actually been getting homesick lately. I think i'm hitting that point where i'm ready to get back to reality and see my friends and family. It's so hard being away for four months. I just keep thinking that everyone is back home moving on with their lives, having a good time, and i'm missing out on that. But i'm still so happy to be here in Australia. I know i'm lucky to have had this opportunity. It's just a hard feeling to describe. I'm getting excited for our last big trip to Fiji at the end of this whole experience. It will be a perfect ending with some amazing people. I have my days with being homesick, other days I don't even want to go home or hardly think of it.

Today we went to the LISMORE SQUARE where we ALWAYS go... It's the only shopping mall anywhere near us. We decided to go on a little shopping spree. I ended up buying a sweet jacket (which I already have a perfect outfit in mind for it) some fleece pants for my next camping adventure, and a flower headband. I would say that I got some pretty good deals on all of that, but it felt like I blew a lot of money. I just don't keep track anymore so I don't get disappointed with my finances.

On Saturday it's "Race Day" here. I guess it's a huge deal here in Lismore, everyone from the uni gets all dressed up, wears huge hats, and drinks a ton in the morning and then goes to these horse races all day. It should be a great time, everyone has been talking about it for months so i'm excited to see how it is!

Talk to you later!

I had my first test and presentation today. I haven't had a test for five months so studying was quite the challenge for me. And to top it off, I studied pretty much everything that wasn't on the test. I am hoping that I was a good guesser, but by the looks of it, it didn't go that well!

This past weekend I went to Byron Bay again with the girls to celebrate my roommate Amy's 20th birthday! It was a great time. To start off the weekend right, we did something amazingly crazy. I have always wanted to do this and I am so glad I got the opportunity and the courage to actually do it.

I WENT SKYDIVING! From 14,000 feet in the air!
It was the most amazing experience ever. I'm so happy I did it, and I would definitely jump out of a plane again!!

Here are some pictures from my adventure...



I was watching Amy jump out of the plane first... I was so excited, I wasn't even a bit nervous until this next stage...



Actually getting out of the plane. My instructor was sitting on the edge of the plane, and I was hanging out of the plane...I think I was thinking why the heck am I doing this?



Getting ready to "fall" out...



And I'm out of the plane! Most amazing feeling ever.

G'day. Things are going great here! It's finally starting to hit me how fast time has actually gone by since i've been here in Australia. I only have a month and a half left here. I'm actually really sad about it. It's grown to be my second home and i'm going to really miss it. Going home will be bittersweet. That is, if I make it home! I do have a stop over in Honolulu... So we'll see what I decide when I get there :)

Lately there hasn't been a whole lot going on here in Lismore. Wait, there never is. We recently just had another theme night at the Unibar on campus. It was a cartoon character/movie/tv show theme party for some girls birthdays. A couple friends and I decided to go as the three blind mice. That was pretty entertaining. We drew whiskers and a black nose on our face and everything! It was a pretty good time. Definitely a good laugh!



Other than that I've actually had to do some homework. I know, it's quite the shock! I also have my first exam next week in Outdoor Education. I have gone 5 whole months without taking any quizzes or tests, so this should be interesting. Hopefully I can find the motivation to study and do decent. After all, I only need to pass everything. Thanks St. Cloud for only having the pass/fail option for this study abroad.. It really makes me try hard in school. Not.

Australia has definitely been the break that I needed from life back home. School, work, and all other things get way to stressful, and it's been great getting away from that for a couple months. I am actually excited to get back to work and have an income! It's sad watching your money disappear so quickly here.

This weekend we are going to Byron Bay for the night to celebrate my roommate Amy's 20th birthday! It's always exciting celebrating people's birthdays here, or I should say it's always an adventure. I'm doing something this weekend that I would never ever do if I were back home in the states.. But it's a surprise for now! :)

Fraser Island Adventure

Hello~ I thought I should probably start updating my blog some more while i'm here. Last week was Easter break. We got an entire week off from classes and we got to go to Fraser Island for our free trip. Obviously it wasn't free because we paid for it in our costs to come to Australia, but we'll pretend it was free to stay happy. :)

The first day we were all so excited to get out of Lismore and enjoy a week long vacation on the beach! It was roughly a 5 1/2 hour bus ride to the town next to the island. Then the fun wasn't over quite yet. We had to take an hour long ferry ride just to get to Fraser Island. We were all to excited to get there that it didn't bother us to much.





Once we got to the island, we were greeted with a little train like car that took us to the reception part of the resort. At first, we all thought this is where we were staying for the week, and it was absolutely gorgeous. It had a huge pool, hot tub, restaurants, everything! But turns out it was just our meeting spot. The places we were staying at were up the hill that they call "Heart attack hill". Great name huh! We stayed in some cabin like dorms, with four people in each room, which weren't all that bad besides the fact that lizards were running around everywhere.

By the way, this island was impossible not to get a bug bite.

Anyways, the first day of our adventure started at 8:00am. We had an awesome tour guide named Karl, and made it really fun. He picked us up in a huge bus type car that used to be used in the military so you can imagine what it was like. When we first started driving off it was a pretty smooth ride. Once we hit the foot deep sand roads, it was another story. Fraser Island is the world's largest sand island. This bus ride was indescribable. It would almost tip every five minutes on the sand paths, and you would be bouncing out of your seat the entire bus ride. We had to be on this thing for at least a couple hours a day.



After thinking we were all going to be sitting on the beach all week getting a nice tan, we were told that we were going to take a 45 minute walk to a freshwater lake. It felt like forever just getting there because the paths were strictly made of sand, which made it difficult to walk. We got to the lake and all you could see was sand. It was a large sand dune that stopped and dropped off into the lake. It was very gorgeous. The lake was freezing cold, but it was good to finally see a lake and it reminded me of Minnesota.






The lakes just kept getting better and better! After the first one, we went to another freshwater lake. This next one was super blue crystal clear water, with light sandy beaches.





Finally, Lake Mackenzie was the last lake we went to, and it was by far my favorite one. It had the lightest colored water, and white beaches. It seemed like an ocean and it was crazy that it was freshwater. Our tour guide Karl said that the water would soften your hair and if you rubbed the sand on your skin it would make it smoother. It would even clean your jewelry. I don't know if I noticed that, but still it's neat!






Sometime in between all the lakes, we got the opportunity to take an airplane ride over the entire island. It was one of those little planes and I have always wanted to ride on one, so I thought that Fraser would be the perfect place to do so! It was really gorgeous views, and we could see how many sand dunes there really were on the island.








Also while in Fraser, every night was our time to do whatever we wanted. We started a couple of the nights off by watching the sunset in the bay. It was amazing!









Another interesting place that we went to was the champagne pools. They were water holes that were made from the coffee rock, and the ocean fills the pools up all day. It was really cool until I saw a couple jelly fish floating around in them!

G'day! I'm loving every minute of being in Australia lately. It's been the most amazing weather and I couldn't ask for anything more! The other day, a couple of my friends and I headed to Byron Bay for the day to hang by the beach. That place will never get old, it's gorgeous every time we go there. The ocean water was like bath water. I think it was about 75 degrees! The waves were so big that day, we got to see heaps of surfers so that was really cool. Kirstin and I went to explore the beach some more and the rocks. We went at the perfect time because there were a batch of about ten dolphins swimming by the shore line. It was the first time seeing them, or any interesting animal in the ocean so far since i've been here. All I have basically seen is jellyfish, and they just get annoying!

Here are some pictures from the beach and rocks at Byron:


*The waves went in two different directions*



*The other side of the Byron beach*