Byron Bay

This past week was my mid-semester break. Don't know why they call it mid-semester break because it's not really in the middle of the semester, but oh well. Anyway, I went to Byron Bay for the week and had a great time! Byron Bay is this chill little beach hippie town, 2 hours south of Brisbane in New South Wales. The beaches there are super sweet, with the clearest water I've ever seen, plus it's super warm, the sand it soft and clean, and there are actually waves as well!

I took an express bus down there with my friend PJ and we stayed at the Middle Reef Beach House, which was pretty much just 2 houses converted into a hostel. We met some really neat people and enjoyed talking and playing cards with them in the evenings.

During the first two days we just relaxed on the main beach. The weather was perfect and I really felt like I was enjoying authentic Australia. The third day it rained, but we passed the time browsing around the town, which is full of cute little boutique shops, cafes, used book stores, and lots of natural/herbal/healing places. It cleared up later in the day so we hiked to the lighthouse, which is near the most easterly point in Australia. The view from above was spectacular! On the way back down we went swimming at Wategos beach around dusk and it felt so good! Day 4 was a bit overcast as well, but we went surfing in the morning which was so much fun! We caught lots of small waves and had a blast!

Other highlights included getting stung by a blue bottle jellyfish type thingy, eating gelato every day and the best BLT with avocado sandwich ever! I sound like a fatty now...:)

Anyone who loves the beach and food and quirky towns would love Byron!

Easter In Oz

He Has Risen!

While I know that Easter is so much more than festivities and food, to be honest it was hard to be away from my family and friends during a holiday. I guess it was just hard knowing what everyone was doing at home and I just didn't want to miss out. But, I did have a good weekend here and the great thing about Easter is that I can celebrate the resurrection anywhere...Praise the Lord!

Friday I went to a Good Friday service with some friends from Emmanuel. People from the church that I have been attending met in the park and it was a really nice day. Someone led worship, different people read scripture, and the pastor spoke about the significance of the cross. Saturday I went to this thing called Easterfest. It is a 3 day music festival where a bunch of different Christian bands play. I got to see some neat local singer/songwriters, as well as the Newboys, which were awesome! It was fun to meet and get to know some more people from UQ, most of whom are involved in Impact, the Christian group here on campus. On Sunday I went to church and then just hung out at Emmanuel for the afternoon. My friend Allie and I made cupcakes and cookies later that day which was fun. We put food coloring in the frosting so it reminded me of decorating cookies at home. Oh and my hall did a little "Secret Easter Bunny" and gave each other little treats which were super yummy :)

Noosa

This past weekend I traveled to Noosa, Australia with my friend PJ. Noosa is this little beach town about 2 hours north of Brisbane. It is apart of the Sunshine Coast and boy did the sun shine! The weather was perfect! I ended up getting really sick while we were there which was a bummer, but I still enjoyed hiking in the national park and relaxing on the sand. There was a surfing contest going on as well, so we got to see some pretty impressive tandem long boarding where these super buff guys lift these tiny girls into the air and try to do cool ticks before falling off.

Noosa in general is just a really chill surf town full of lots of cute cafes and boutique shops. Everyone just walks around in their swimsuits and gets super tan. I wouldn't mind living there...it's kinda expensive though, so that's the only downside. Oh and the waves are small too. I guess every place has its pros and cons.

Emmanuel Blue

My college, (as in where I live), is a very spirited college. Last week all the colleges competed in the annual Swim Carnival, aka swim meet. Emmanuel's color is blue and so we all dressed in blue and painted ourselves in order to support our swimmers. The procession over to the pool was honestly just as big and exciting as the actual swim meet. We have a pipe band and they led the procession and along the way we sang songs and chants and all that good stuff. Our girls ended up smoking the competition and winning 7 of the 8 races, while our boys...let's just say our boys didn't do so well. Anyway, it was really fun getting all into and having pride for my college. The group picture includes all the girls in my hall, the 2 blonds in the next picture are Claire and Amber, the guy is Patrick/PJ, and the other girls are Ellie and Kate. Ellie was one of our pro swimmers.

City Botanical Gardens

After visiting the koala sanctuary, I went to the botanical gardens in Brisbane. The City Botanical Gardens is a very big open park located right in the middle of the city along the river. It is full of cool trees, large open grassy areas, and lots of trails that wind through the park. People were playing boche ball, throwing frisbees, kicking a soccer ball around and just strolling through the park on their bikes. It seems like the perfect place to have a picnic and just chill out and relax for an afternoon.

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

On Saturday I visited the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and got to interact with koalas, kangaroos, emus, dingoes, crocodiles, and a some other very interesting animals. Lone Pine is the world's largest koala sanctuary with about 150 koalas. All the koalas are named too! When I saw my first koala I seriously thought it looked fake! When I first felt a koala it felt fake too! They are so cute though!

Anyway, it was pretty interesting learning about koalas. Baby koalas are called joeys just like baby kangaroos are. There is a 34 day gestation period and then the baby koala is pretty much born underdeveloped and is about the size of a quarter. It then crawls up to this little pouch in the mother koala and spends the next 6 months fully developing. Pretty crazy! Koalas eat eucalyptus leaves all day long and then sleep when they aren't eating. Sweet life! The reason koalas are so sleepy is that eucalyptus leaves are really hard to digest and they don't provide much energy.

Besides the koalas, I got to feed and pet kangaroos that were just chilling out and jumping around in this huge open field. They eat right out of your hand! Pretty cool as well! Did you know that kangaroos can't jump backwards?