Blogs from Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 7

I am officially done with class here at the Uni! Woo hoo! I am still waiting for about five assignment marks to make their way back to me, but I am so past caring. I am one day away from my best friend’s birthday (Ashley), one week away from my two final exams, and 10 days away from home. Wow the time is flying! When I last left off, we were partying it up in Buderim. This past week brought with nothing to exciting…except for Misha’s awesome birthday party at Laser Zone! About 20 of us rallied together and went to play three rounds of laser tag, it was so much fun! The girls absolutely trounced the boys in rounds two and three, and we all got beat by a family of six in the first ... read more

After a really enjoyable spell in Byron Bay we were hoping for a repeat of happy times in Surfers Paradise which we had heard good things about. However, after arriving and walking along the main strip of town we decided that Surfer's was probably not for us. The street was littered with sky-scrapers each vying for their own perfect view of the beach. The population consisted of pretty much all tourists, attracted like moths to the bright lights. The second morning we got to really explore and whilst there was plenty to offer in terms of shopping, bars and colourful happenings it didn't have any sort of culture to back it up. The beach was enormous and at intervals the lifesavers were situated ready to rescue stranded tourists from the severe currents. It wasn't really surfing ... read more

So we ended up staying at their girls place in the city for the rest of the weekend and next weekend. It was great to be able to shower and go pee and wash your hands whenever we wanted and use a fridge for food, finally we were able to get some CHEESE!!!! The entire week we spent looking for jobs, we had a few interviews and found a few jobs in the city. Byron found a job being a pedi-cab or rickshaw driver - haha! And I got a job with GreenPeace, which I had to turn down because we could not afford to live in the city and living out of our van in Brisbane didn’t seem like a great idea. So we headed up the Sunshine Coast to a town called Mooloolaba -- ... read more

I’ll be quite honest with you. I had low expectations for my birthday. It started out sadly, as I woke up at 10 a.m. alone with no phone call from my parents (virtually impossible). I waffled around for a good half hour, but then got a phone call from Ashley, who proceeded to sing “Happy Birthday” to me in Spanish. After that, I got on Skype and “opened” my birthday present from Kory. He got me a horseback ride through the bush and onto the beach in Noosa with Ashley! It was probably one of the best gifts I’ve ever received. Shortly after that, I got another phone call from the front desk, telling me that I had MORE flowers! Pete, Amanda, Jake, Heidi, and Royce (my siblings, sibling-in-law, and sibling-in-law to be) had sent me ... read more

Sydney is by far my favourite place in Australia (aside from the beach about 10 minutes from my apartment). After a four hour flight from Cairns, we arrived in Sydney in the afternoon to be met by weather that is reminiscent of a Minnesota autumn. The leaves are just starting to fall from the trees there, and you sometimes bake in the heat and other times need a sweatshirt. Wednesday, March 31st On our first afternoon in Sydney, we met all of our hostel-mates. One of the girls was from Germany, another from…Switzerland maybe? And the last was from Canada. We also had a boy roommate and he was German as well. Canada only stayed one night as she was on her way home the next day, so we had a European boy named Hugo take ... read more