A new Australia video for everyone!

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I’ve updated my pictures! I added some to “Random” from various times…going out in the field with australian vegetation, making toffee apples (candy apples), our thai food outting…JT over our stove to make us cook better…etc. I also added pictures from the Broncos game we went to a while back, and also pictures from my most recent trip to Brisbane. Enjoy!

pics here

Nothing too much new here just thought I’d do a little entry. Just been hanging out this week, the last week of uni! I can’t believe it. Time really has flown by so so quickly. I’m starting to get a little sad about having to leave Sunshine Coast…I really love it here and love the friends I have made even more…I will miss them heaps. (I’m a true aussie now because i use “heaps”) I really hope that I will see many of them again through mine and their future travels. Thank goodness for the internet. It makes staying connected with everyone so much easier. I’m also trying to figure out how I’m going to get all of my stuff home. Luckily the post office will ship my big suitcase…who knows how much it will cost but I have to get all of my cool aussie presents and decorations home somehow! I think I’m going to end up leaving a lot of things here, hopefully someone can use them. My camera is broken…I’ve sent it to canon to fix, and I really hope they fix it and send it back before I leave…yikkesss. Davis comes in three weeks! YAY! It’s gonna be great.

That’s all for now…miss you all!

Skype is working! Woo! Call me up!

This weekend I went to Brisbane with Hanna-Maija (Finland), Ramona (Sweden), Vicki (Germany), and Steffi (Germany). So much fun! We went down Thursday night for Architecture in Helsinki…which was soo much fun…they were really great live. Friday we went to the Art Museum, Queensland Museum, and Gallery of Modern Art…all fantastic. We did a little shopping and met up with Vicki and Steffi that night. Saturday we went to the Brunswick St Markets which were awesome, and did moooore shopping uh oh! Saturday night we ate Chinese and went out to a few clubs…great fun! Sunday we went to the South Bank markets and hung out down in that area which was really nice. A great weekend!

Woah! I just got back my grade from the first major assignment I turned in here. It was for my GIS class and I had create a report which identified a problem and then outlined how I would solve it using GIS. I chose to use GIS to identify areas for riparian rehabilitation, and I really thought I didn’t do very well on the assignment at all. My teacher wasn’t very clear in his directions or anything, so I just sort of did what I thought would be right…and guess what?? I GOT AN A+!!!! woooo hoooo yayyy now I have to write another assignment on australian political parties which i know nothing about but yea hopefully I will have as much luck as I did on that assignment!!!

So..let’s recap this past week!

Last weekend I went to Kingaroy, which is about 2 hours west of the Sunshine Coast. Rhi is from there, and we stayed with her family at her house. Her good friend Kate was turning 18 and had a birthday party. We drove up Friday afternoon, and got there around 5. Rhi’s cousin was having his 7th birthday at the RSL (which is a club…clubs in Australia are really funny. They have a bunch of restaurants, pokies (slots), gambling, bar, music etc and they are huge. they are also usually themed, sort of, like there are Surf Clubs, Bowls Clubs etc..) We ate dinner at the RSL and had some cake. We went back to Rhi’s house and watched a movie and hung out. Rhi has two younger twin sisters who are 15, Ruby and Jessie. Saturday morning we got up and had a little tour of Kingaroy! We went to two nice lookouts, the peanut van, and a Lavender gift shop! Saturday night we went to Kate’s party! It was a lot of fun, and it was great to meet all of Rhi’s friends. The party was in a beer garden at the local Hotel (all hotels in small towns always have pubs.) The party ended about 10…and Christine and I decided to go out with Kate and some other of Rhi’s friends to “the club” which is apparently the place to be in Kingaroy on a Saturday night! haha. Rhi couldn’t go because she’s still 17 but we went and had a funny old time.

Sunday morning we woke up and went to Macka’s (McDonald’s) for breakfast…what everyone does Sunday morning in Kingaroy. After that Rhi’s mom took us up to Bunya Mountain National Park, and we did a 3k hike through the rainforest. It was cooler and really refreshing! Just what we needed. Rhi’s mom made us a yummy lunch and then we headed back to the Sunshine Coast…a good weekend! Pictures will be up soon.

I’ve had a lot of assignments due lately…and still three more assignments and 3 exams to go. I finish up my internship this week, so I will have Tuesdays, Wed, and Friday completely free! I finally finished my big Australia Vegetation report…”The effect of fire regimes on the vegetation structure, species abundance, and species diversity of coastal woodland vegetation in southeastern Queensland” and turned it in on Monday…a relief. Now I have a paper to write for Australian Politics! funnn.

Yesterday Christine and I went to the beach which was so nice and we definitely needed it! They waves were surprisingly calm and the water was so blue. It was windy and sort of chilly too! We couldn’t believe we were actually a little bit cold!

This coming weekend I’m going to Brisbane with my friend Hanna-Maija. We’re going to the Architecture in Helsinki show Thursday night and then just hanging around town for the rest of the weekend. I can’t wait! There is also talk of going down to Byron Bay the weekend after next. We’ll see! I can’t believe how fast time is flying! Ahh!