Thursday, March 18, 2010

mmm possums and spiders

for my outdoor education class we have two field trips planned and we just got back from our first trip. we went camping at a place called meebunn-bia somewhere on the goldcoast just outside of a town called rathdowney. sweet eh? we had to pack everything in this giant legit backpack. we carried our stove, food, "mattress", actually just a ridiculously thin and skinny piece of foam, rain jacket and clothes on our backs the whole time. crazy. the place we stayed was basically farmland. the first day we got there we hiked for about 2 hours to where we were staying, set up our tent, which was actually two tarps, one on bottom and one on top that was propped up by 5 poles and held down by rocks. when our instructor said the university would be providing tents it was a little misleading. after we set up our camp we went to a ropes course where there were 3 different sections and a zip line. they were awesome! the crazy part about it was that we did everything ourselves. all we had was a helmet, a harness, and two carabiners hooked on to our harness that we attached to the trees and wires BY OUR SELF!!! we weren't attached to anyone on the ground or security, my hands have never been more sweaty. surprising, i know. between each little section of the ropes course was a tree, so you had to switch your carabiners at the tree and somehow find a way to hold on to the tree, unhook yourself from the wire, and move on to the next course, by yourself without falling. sweeeet. if you were lucky there as a platform on the tree to stand on but that was about twice. i was behind a couple girls who got to one transition point and kept talking about all the spiders on the tree that you had to get around. all i could think of was how i was going to get there and freak out from a spider and fall off. buuut you all will be so proud to hear that i was happy to be hugging a tree with spiders crawling all over it. i was so scarred of falling and not being attached to the wire that i literally loved holding onto the tree with spiders and i said it aloud right then. i was shocked with my self. someone definitely owes me something for that, tim. i survived the ropes course and zip line which i got to video tape from my teachers camera so hopefully ill get that soon! that night we went back to our camp it was raining a little sooo we were definitely worried about sleeping seeing as our "tents" had no sides, little did we know that was the least of our worries. a little after dinner we were sitting around the camp fire and noticed some noises. possums were every where. freaking great. they weren't even scared of us, which scared me. we all stayed up and tried to warn other tents when the possum would go near it but that could only last so lung. i got stuck on the outside of the tent and mummied myself in my sleeping bag and tried to sleep. pretty soon i hear a little scratching and then feel something crawling on my back. eeeffff meeee. i rolled over and screamed. about 5 minutes later that piece of crap tried to crawl on my feet. i didn't sleep for the rest of the night. the next day we woke up and had to navigate around the whole farmland. four of us took off with a map and a compass and had to find 15 markers. there were about 4 trails and the rest was complete forest and bush. it was crazy. we were literally trekking through huge trees and weeds and dried up creeks with overgrown brush. we ran into about 17 HUGE spiders but after this weekend of bush walking spiders and hugging trees full of them, the progress i'm making is unreal. again tim, if you want to just reward me for that it would be great. after the navigation we packed up our camp and started on another 2 hour hike with all our stuff in our packs. our next activity was a free fall where we climbed up a freaking tiny unstable cable latter 40 ft up a tree and jumped into the air. our harness was attached to a rope connected to someone on the ground who actually knew what they were doing so that was nice but it was heaps fun. we continued our hike up to our next camp were we set up "tents" again. this time even better. no poles, just a rope that we tied between two trees. i'm convinced i can do anything at this point after snuggling with a possum and hugging spiders. we got up to our next campsite just in time to walk up this hill right behind us and watch the most amazing sunset. we all decided that we would wake up early the next morning and hike back up the hill to watch the sunrise. it was one of the most amazing things i've ever seen and so inspiring. we all were so excited to get up that early and sat up there in silence as the sun came up. beautiful. our last activity was another ropes course that you did in pairs. it was legit the hardest thing i have ever done. you are constantly connected to someone and can't move more than 2 feet away from each other, as well as being 30 feet off the ground. trying to climb up a rope ladder, across a cable ladder where the wood planks were too far to step from one to the other, then walk on a cable wire only holding on to ropes spaced apart just enough so you couldn't reach from one to the next. it was extremely difficult but getting to the end and ringing the bell with taylor was one of the most rewarding things and best feelings i have ever had. we were so proud of ourselves and it felt really good to work through that with someone. i loved it!

food for the weekend was interesting.. breakfast consisted of a granola bar and an apple each day. lunch was a tortilla with the famous pb&j, which is surprisingly good and i actually make it at home now when i have anything available to me, sad i know. and dinner was pasta ahhh. boil some noodles. add some sauce. same menu for three days. yuuuup. i was definitely ok with it but that's because at home my meals aren't much different. =] haha

i had a blast the whole trip, i was exhausted but i feel like i really learned a lot and got a lot out of it. i have camped with just a sleeping bag, mat and two tarps, and happily survived. i feel like that's a great accomplishment. im pretty proud of myself. and i'm pretty sure the worst has happened, a possum crawled on me and im ok with spiders crawling everywhere. sounds good hey. and now i could not be more excited for the outback. next step... no tarps, just the stars. perfect =] we'll see what kind of wildlife i come across and if i can survive.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

quiksilver pro, not a big deal.

this past weekend 6 of us went up to the gold coast, a little place called coolangatta, or as i like to say cool and ghetto, where the 2010 quiksilver pro surf tournament was held. legit, i know. we left friday morning on a bus that dropped us off a little less than a mile from our hostel. we had huge back packs and boxes of goon with us so we looked really cool walking from the bus stop to our hostel. luckily our friend was driving down to meet us and somehow saw us... and gave us a ride. when we got to the hostel the guy checked us in and gave us our keys and told us that the quiksilver surf after party would be starting in a couple hours at the bar underneath our hostel. oh cool, ever day life. siiiiiick. haha also that the official closing party for the tournament would also be happening there. again nothing short of what i would expect... haha i was in love at that point. i had decided that since the party was being held at the place we were staying, i was hosting it. so the entire afternoon when people would ask what we were doing that night, i would immediately say, "hosting the quiksilver pro after party, what are you doing..." it was great. we went to dinner at this pizza place by the water and all shared a huge pizza and garlic bread and each had our own bottle of wine. they do a b.y.o at all of the restaurants there which i find really weird but it was actually really cool. we looked pretty classy walking up to the restaurant with our own bottles of wine. after dinner we went to the coolangatta hotel, apparently voted australia's number 1 hotel, where mickey avalon was playing up stairs. we hung out there for a while then headed back to our hostel where the after party was. it was so much fun i can't even describe it. i'm not sure why it was so fun because i'm pretty sure i danced by myself for about 3 hours but it was a blast. somehow the 6 of us managed to get up in this cage/stage area and dance i don't know how we got up there or who let us but it was soo much fun. all i could think of was how jealous mariah was going to be and how much i wished she was right there next to me. we slept a total of about 3 hours that night because we woke up to it being bright and sunny which hasn't happened much in lismore so we ran straight to the beach. running is actually an extreme exaggeration. but we we managed to get ourselves to the beach. walked all around the surf competition, fulfilled my dreams from when i was a 9 year old boy obsessed with quiksilver by buying a tournament t-shirt and then fell asleep on the beach. rough life, i know. we were really tired at that point and decided that we were just going to watch a movie that night. we found a mexican restaurant, again with the b.y.o, and got some mediocre food. all i can think about is a 103 with beans from el taco and i'm counting down the days for it. i think i can wait though, i mean things here aren't too bad here... =]

my roommates and i cooked dinner tonight which was delicious. when i say my roommates and i, i mean they made the food and i did the dishes. and i will happily make that deal with anyone anytime as long as someone is making me food other than pb&j. my roommates are pretty great actually. one of them is studying to be an osteopath and part of her homework is to give massages. yuuuup. i sign up for that just about every night and it is glorious.

it was finally sunny out today so i took full advantage of that and went straight out to the pool when i woke up. i can't be the whitest person in all my pictures anymore especially when i'm usually with girls from minnesota. im still working on the bronzing so hopefully its stays this sunny for a while.

we had a meeting today for our central australia outback trip and i could not be more excited. our teacher was explaining the sunrise hike and the overnight walk and showed us pictures from previous trips and i couldn't stop smiling the whole time. i can't believe i get to do that and i am so thankful for it and blessed. amazing.

looove

Thursday, March 4, 2010

meat pies and netball

at the beginning of orientation i signed up for an "aussie lunch" where a family picks you up from campus, takes you to their house and cooks lunch for you. free meal, i'm there. so it was on sunday and the family i went with was actually dutch, soo you guys can tell me what country their from.... but they moved here 5 years ago and live on 15 acres in a town called rock valley which is about 30 minutes away from my school. i went with one other american girl and it was a really cool experience. they drive there was extremely pretty. all green hills and farmland. it actually looks a lot like central california. they live at the top of a hill and we drove up their dirt drive way into what looked like the swiss family robinson house. they had an AMAZING deck that wrapped around their entire house and it opened up out over the cliff with a perfect view of the valley. they had a hammock and dinning table outside and we sat out there for a while and ate our meat pies. i never thought i would like anything called a meat pie but it was delicious. she sent us home with some and they were definitely gone within 10 minutes of me being home.

tuesday night my house went out for family dinner at this place called tommy's. it's sort of like a restaurant/bar/nightclub. actually it was a really nice place but it was student night so everything was only $14 dollars. steak, chips(aka french fries) and salad. bomb. it felt so good to have a legitimate meal that was cooked properly and didn't involve me using the microwave. i have decided i am going there twice a month to get a steak. i'm already excited for the next time i go.

these girls came to our room one night and asked my roommate to play netball with them because they wee one short, she didn't want to go and for some reason i just stood up and said i'll go. good thing i know what netball is and how to play. siiiike. as i walked down with them i had to explain that i had never heard of the game before and had no idea what do. it was sooo much fun! i played center, i don't know what that means, i got the whistle blown at me about 7 times, and we lost. haha it was great. its like basketball except there is no backboard and you cant dribble or move if you have the ball. i still don't get it or any of the rules but i had fun and hope they let me play with them again.... hopefully i wasn't the reason we lost.

i'm also on a beach volleyball team. that was legit. we had our first game today and we got the big W. wooo wooo. we won the first game, lost the second and won the third it was actually pretty close and we were all getting into it and it was super fun. everyone was diving for the ball and super competitive, my kind of team. haha there was sand everywhere when we were done but it was soo fun!

i found a site to watch lost on so my life is officially complete. i was absolutely absorbed in it last night and i cant wait to see next weeks. i'm so angry that everyone, tim, marcus and my mom, are a week ahead of me but it was all i though about today. big loser, i know. but i love it heaps.