Realizations

So while I've been living the lazy life in Australia I have found that my life was not how I once saw it. I've come to realize the people who mean the most to me and the people who I thought were close to me were only there as long as I was. I found that my true friends stayed in contact with me throughout my adventure and wanted to know about what was happening. Going on this trip helped solidify friendships and reinforce the strong bonds I already had at home. I realized that my family means a lot to me and that they are the best party of me, they kept me strong when I am not.

This trip I found that people are the same all over the world. They can be generous, self-less, fun and engaging. I also found that people can be elitist, self-serving and oblivious. I was shocked to learn that some Australian's are so very similar to the "ugly American" that they too can be ridiculous about their homeland and a little elitist. However, there are others that are so sweet and generous about sharing their home with me and the knowledge that have learned about Australia. My trips across Australia have given me an insight to my life and made me re-evaluate what is important to me. I really do just want to be happy and enjoy my life. I am going to reach for things that I never thought were possible, because the worst thing that could happen is that I would fail.

Australia meant freedom to me when I left, now it means knowledge about my self. Australia has been a life altering event and I thank everyone for their support and love. What I'm looking forward to when I get home is:

My parents and my good friends!

A great Mexican dinner

Driving again, though I'm going to be a bit confused which side to drive on.

Walmart and how cheap it is.

Taco Bell...yum

Going out with friends

Bed, Bath & Beyond and my friends there.

My animals, especially Nikki my over protective and entirely lovable Rottweiler.

MSU and how amazingly smooth they function.

And of course the USA, I have seen flaws but I love it all the same

Next I'll be off to New Zealand! Look for an exciting up date there!

Royal Randwick Horse Races!

And after classes were over on Friday I was off to the horse races with everyone! About a couple of days before the races they went to half price which made them only 12 bucks so almost everyone went. Every one got dressed up and ate breakfast then we were off to catch a ferry to Sydney. From there we caught a bus to the Randwick stadium where the horse races are held. The stadium is gorgeous and very vibrant. So were the people every one was dressed up and all the women had hair pieces or hats on. It was quite a spectacle.

The races go on all day long and we got there shortly after the third race. After each race everyone goes and sits back down so for the fourth race we were in the front row at about 25 meters out from the finish line which is a very exciting place to be.

During the 4th race I was standing next to a woman who knew one of the jockeys. She yelled his name and got his attention after the race (which he won) she made $200 off of the one race. It turned out she went to school with him. It was interesting to meet someone who knew a jockey.

We watched a couple of races and by the 5th everyone was about to try their luck at betting. I bet ten dollars with 4 other girls and we went in on one horse to place. It was really exciting to yell for a horse you really hoped to win. Unfortunately, our horse cam in 4th instead of 3rd so we lost our money but it was a great time. For the 7th race multiple people were going in on horses and I decided to bet by myself and I put 5 dollars on two different horses. Neither of them placed or won, but one came in 4th again. So I called it quits with the betting and watched the 8th race which was a sprint and really fun to watch.

After the 8th race most of us left and got a bus back to the wharf . Ashley, Alex and I decided to take picture with the Sydney Harbour Bridge and The Sydney Opera House the pictures were amazing and I am so thankful that Ashley talked me in to taking them as I was all dressed up and they look amazing. Then we grabbed some Hungry Jacks aka (Burger King) and caught a ferry back to Manly. The rest of my night was quiet and I enjoyed the rest of my weekend before the chaos of finals started.

Week 11 of Classes = suck

So the last week of classes all of the work I have done for my Journal Article had to be done. It was a 3,000 word document in the body alone. In all the document ended up being 15 pages long and I finished the final touches the last day. It was on Human Resources and the Employee voice. It basically looked at typical human resources practices and examined how they could be changed for the better to incorporate employees in decisions made in companies and its benefits. Now I just have to wait and hope that I get a good grade on it!

The teacher that I had for English was a wonderful teacher. Her name was Valarie McMorran and she was a very inspiring teacher. She reminded me of teachers from home and it was a joy to go to her class every week. Another teacher I absolutely loved was John Powers my facilities management teacher, he was very through and I learned a lot from his class. If I could bring this teacher back to the states with me I would! Now I have to focus on his final in a couple of days.

I Got My Hair Done at The Hilton

So Friday April, 16th finally arrived and five of us girls who in the first week here purchased a voucher to get our hair done at The Hilton finally did! We took the ferry into Sydney and then Ashley and I got dinner at Subway on the way to get our hair done.

We arrived and they took us in and started the process. The place was really nice, the chairs you sit in to have your hair washed were massaging chairs and had a thing on the back of the chair so that water would not go down your back. And we got all unlimited wine and champagne all night.Unfortunately I forgot to bring my voucher so I had to pay full price for the moment but I'm going in to the city on Monday to get my money back.

I didn't want to color my hair so I got a gloss treatment that makes your hair very glossy, soft and very healthy. Then I got a scalp massage and a hot oil treatment. Next they brought me back to my chair to have my hair cut. I just basically got a trim, and let the hair dresser do what ever he wanted as long as he kept my hair long. He did a great job and now all of my split ends are gone and my perm has come out again.

After everyones hair was done we went to a bar in The Hilton because we had a voucher for a free drink. Then we headed off to check out some of the more talked about clubs and bars in Sydney, went were in the Ivy briefly and The Establishment but only stayed at both for about 5 minutes. Finally, we made it to Jackson's on George where there were 4 bars and they have 5 dollar buds. First time having a Budweiser in 4 months and I have to say America makes great beer. Then we went upstairs to a club type bar, but there was only about 4 people in it so we talked to the bartender who was from Canada he was awesome and gave us a drink on the house. Later, We left, then waited and caught the last ferry to Manly, took a taxi home and went to bed. All in all it was a good night.

Back to the Grindstone

So after a great, relaxing vacation I came back to two group projects and a thousand words due for my Journal Article. I wasn't feeling to bad about these two projects as I already submitted my parts well before I left for Melbourne. Sadly this was not so for everyone. This resulted in two late night sessions of Ashley and I working on the paper and the project and preparing a power point as we had to submit or plan to take Mirvac, an Australian hotel chain to another country. We had to convince the GM of the Citigate hotel to choose our location. Unfortunately we did not win, but we did earn a Distinction on our presentation which is the equivalent of an A.

My other group project was for MGMT 116 where we had to do a condition report of a facility and do a presentation on the facility. We chose the Manly ferry. Well my group was made of two 18 year old boys and a girl from Vietnam, only one of the boys was very helpful and the other two sucked. I ended up being the only one working on the paper, making sure that it was ready to turn in and I also made the majority of the power point presentation. I just checked my grade and I earned a Distinction! So I'm doing very well in that class, even though my grades won't transfer back to my school, only the credits will.

When it came time to writing the paper that was due on Friday, I had a had time as I was exhausted mentally from writing so much of both of the papers due earlier. So I only wrote 500 words out of the thousand, but at least I made some progress.

That weekend I did absolutely nothing. I stayed in all weekend, read a book watched some t.v. online and enjoyed not having to do a ton of work. On Sunday I did have to start working on a paper that was due Wednesday but it was only about a thousand words.

So that concludes week 9 of school, only leaving 5 weeks of school left!

A Day in Melbourne

So we got in to Melbourne about 7:30, and we all showered and laid down for a while because we were exhausted from our trip. This night we stayed in and got some rest so that we could get up and enjoy the city the next day.

We woke up around 9:00 am and got ready for the day and headed to the Victoria Markets which are basically like the Sydney markets but cleaner and not a smelly. They had some really good deals and I picked up a few souvenirs here.

We dropped off our goods at our hostel and locked them up, then headed to the other side of the city to go to the Skydeck. Which has the highest observation tower in the Southern Hemisphere. We went there and we waited because with our tour we got a coupon for a free "Edge" Experience. This is where we got put in a glass cube about 9 feet square, and it slowly extends over the street below. We were told not to jump or else the glass would break. It was a bit terrifying because when your first motoring out there the glass is fogged and when your completely out of the building there are cracking noises and the glass turns clear.

We were at the Skydeck for a couple of hours and then we went to Federation Square to get some pictures in the daylight then caught the free tourist bus to go see Captain James Cooks house. It is a quaint little cottage that in the 1900's it was shipped to Australia so that an exhibit could be made of it. We spent about an hour there looking at the garden and hearing about the tragedy that was his life. Cpt. Cook was murdered by the indigenous Hawaiian people because they thought that he was a god.

Then we caught the tourist bus again and walked over to the Old Melbourne Gaol, but they were only open for another hour and it takes about 2 1/2 hours to go through the gaol so we decided to walk back to our hostel. once we got there we sat down for a bit and were supposed to get ready to spend a night on the town but we were really tired so we laid around a bit and finally we got ready to go out to dinner and to a bar.

We ate at a really cute Italian restaurant in Federation Square.I ate a fantastic caesar salad, and some of Ashley's pizza which was phenomenal after eating fast food for so long. After dinner we headed down the main street. And while we were walking we saw a carriage being drawn by horses with Bunny ears on. He pulled over right next to us so we stopped to get pictures, I must mention that this guy was hot! He was an Australian cowboy ans Laura and I were happy to talk to him, and then we asked him a good place to go to for drinks and he told us Cookie. We thought that was a strange place to go but we walked down the street a bit more and we found it.

So we pulled out or id's and the bouncer looked at Ashley passport and says loudly "Oh, Americaono! Go on in!" With out even looking at our ids. For once it pays to be American. Let me just tell you this bar was awesome the wait staff were friendly and fun to talk to and they picked out beers for us. Plus the beers were cheap only five bucks! So we each had a few then went up stairs to the 7th level of the bar and had a beer, talked to some nice Australians and then left for the night to go back to our hostel because we had a 7:00 am flight.

Last Day of the Tour

So today was the last day and we got to sleep in until 7:30 a.m. We got up and went to the rain forest near the Grampians. These rain forests are cold weather rain forests and they have very different animals and plants than what we're used to thinking of as a rain forest.

Our our guide Jen told us about these black snails that comes out when it rains, and it was lightly raining that day. So we got to see them. These things are vicious though and she warned us not to pick them up because they are carnivorous and if you put them on your skin the will bite you with very tiny teeth and then spit a venom in you to paralyze you. If you were a snail it would climb on the other snail, then drill into the shell spit venom in, and then suck out the body of the paralyzed snail. Gross I know. They creeped me out. When Laura picked one up by it's shell it started to come out of it's shell to try and bite her. They were nasty little creatures, and only found in Australia.

Then we headed back on the bus to look at more spectacular views at Kennet River! Here we got to see Koala's in the wild! And quite a few of them. We were Koala hunting with our cameras, but all of them were high up in the trees until we walked a bit further up the road be hind a camp site area and spotted one not eight feet off the ground! We got the best pictures! The Koala was very lazy and didn't want to wake up for our pictures, so our tour guide scratched his back and he liked that and woke up.

After hunting Koalas we dove on the Great Ocean Road all the way to the start where we got out and spent some more time looking at the sites. Unfortunately, we could not go to Bell's Beach because there was a surfing competition and music festival going on that weekend. So we drove up the road to where Rip Curl and Billabong were founded to do some shopping.

Laura, Ashley, and I went to Sub Way and ate for dinner because we didn't want to have to go out in the city after we got back. We all got back on the bus for the last time and headed back to Melbourne where we were dropped off at our hostel for the night.