Here are the 3 links to my pictures (if you're on facebook, they are ones that you have already seen!). Some of the pictures may be rated PG-13, just so you know :) http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2274389&l=36f5d&id=14817346 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2274222&l=c93cb&id=14817346 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2274189&l=22e88&id=14817346 Also, I forgot to add to my little culture entry that TimTams are the best cookies ever and everyone here is obsessed with them. They are chocolate covered chocolate cookies with chocolate cream stuff inside and they are delicious!!! They are also obsessed with Vegemite here, which smells terrible and I refuse to try :) ... read more

After traveling up and down the East Coast for 8 days, I'm finally back home in Sydney! For the next 4 days I will be staying in my program's housing, which is right by Bondi Beach and our high-rise apartment is surrounded by tons of cool pubs and a HUGE mall with tons of good restuarants. For the four days after that, I will be back at the amazing hotel where I spent orientation and get to meet some of the other kids going to Macquarie Uni with me. After that, I finally get to move in to my apartment on campus - no word on my roommates yet! Last night we got back into Sydney around 4pm, I spent a little bit of time online trying to catch up with the world, and then my ... read more

Hello Hello!! I just spent 6 dollars for 30 minutes of time on the internet, so I don't have much time to update. And just for all of you who have been bugging me, I will be putting up pictures next weekend, you will just have to wait! But don't worry, they are all amazing and beautiful and will be sure to make you insanely jealous of me :) Every day I keep reminding myself how incredibly lucky I am to be here. It is absolutely amazing and definitely a dream come true. I couldn't be happier. I was a mature traveler and got over the whole ticket mishap, a really nice car was waiting in Brisbane to take us to meet up with our group (3 other people were on the flight with me). So, ... read more

So tonight is our last night with our orientation group, which is really sad because I love this group of people. Everyone is having so much fun together, it's going to be sad to see people head off to Brisbane, Melbourne, and New Zealand. Anyways. I just spent 2.5 hours walking around Sydney by myself and got lost in this amazing underground mall!! I was in there FOREVER, and it was amazing, but pretty expensive. Found some cheap coats and a cute scarf though, so now I feel like I fit in a little better :) Some little details I left out from my last post: When we were in the Blue Mountains, they told is it was the 2nd coldest day of the year. Also, it was the first time they had snow in 6 ... read more

The only words that can describe how I feel right now are OHMYGOSH. I'm feeling crazy ecstatic, a little nervous, and extremely hopeful that this next year will be a life changing experience. For so long I have wanted to live and study abroad, and now that dream is coming true. Tomorrow. Wow. I arrive in Sydney on July 8th at 6am, which is sometime around noon on Monday here. I then immediately head to my 5 star hotel where I will be living for 5 days with other Americans for my program orientation. From there, I head on a 9 day East Coast trip (Brisbane, Cairns, Whitsunday Islands, Fraser Island) with my program. After that, I have 8 days before I can move into my University housing, so I will be spending the first 3 ... read more