A particular day in Darwin...

A post that only covers one day? I know what you're thinking...there can't be that much to talk about. But really, there is...I promise. Or maybe it's all boring! Either way, I bet you're going to read it cause you're already here! Suckers!!!

BERRY SPRINGS

Unfortunately I didn't get to take many pictures because I didn't have an underwater camera :( Nonetheless! I had lots of fun swimming, going under a (very small) waterfall, and then letting the waterfall give me a nice back massage! Another wonderful trip provided by NFIH, the dorm I live in, and again for FREE! The best kind of trip! After Berry Springs we went to a rodeo, which wasn't like any rodeo I've been to before, but also kind of the same...

 The water was the most amazing color blue I've ever seen in freshwater!! And it was as warm as bathwater! Made for a really nice swim and the trees kept the sun off of most the water, so we never got too hot!

On our way back to the bus to head to the rodeo, we wandered into a field and there were 5 or 6 wallabies just hanging out!! In the top picture you can see the one in front of the trees and there's on in the opening in the background! Tamas (the one with the nice tush in the bottom pic) kept encouraging us to go closer and closer as they inched away from us. We ended up getting within 20ft of one of them, and then it finally retreated into the woods. They were pretty dang cute! If they had been kangaroos we probably wouldn't have tried to walk up on them since those tend to be a bit more dangerous, these are pretty harmless. So, Mom, don't worry! And most of all, don't lecture! Haha!

NOONAMA RODEO

After our refreshing swim we were all starving and ready to see some action at the rodeo! I was surprised when I got there to see that, for being in the middle of nowhere, there were quite a lot of people in attendance. It was kind of a big deal around there actually! We got a good discount through the dorms, which was good because then we had more money to spend on greasy food and beer! Haha! There were also rides there! Not big roller coasters or anything, but they had something like the spinning teacups and one like the Sizzler! Unfortunately all of us were just too cheap to pay $7 per ride! I think that's more expensive than the fair at home!!! Eesh!

From left: Simon, Lina, Travis, Jessica, and JonLuc. We were waiting outside while our tickets were being sorted out. I think that's JonLuc's hungry face cause we were all starving!

Another thing that made it seem more like a circus than a rodeo was this boxing tent! I was trying to sneak a peek of some hot boxers...but it wasn't running at the time! Bummer! There was also a band playing right next to this tent. I've never seen a band at a rodeo...but I approve.

From left: Jessica, Lina, me. We're sitting in the stands at the rodeo here with only the best of canned beer in hand (not, it was really gross). My favorite part of this picture is the woman who's giving Lina bunny ears! We didn't know her at all and didn't talk to her either...apparently she had just decided she wanted to be included too! Haha! Seriously cracks me up...

This is Travis, me, and Tamas on our way to get more beer and they decided, with a few other guys that they just had to have these fuzzy hats. Not really sure what the selling point was for them...but they did get asked for a few pictures from us girls, so maybe that was it!

Nothing better than a chocolate dipped ice cream cone on a hot summer night! Notice another classy can of beer in my hand! Ha! They didn't have wine, ok?! Our choices were beer, beer, or light beer! Didn't mix too well with the ice cream either...

Ah Jessica! I'm pretty sure she hates this picture, but I love it! She is supposed to love everything pink, and so I forced her to love this hat as well! As you can see, she made the same mistake as me with the beer and ice cream at the same time!

There was a restaurant/bar right outside the rodeo and this was their front window! Not sure what this one was supposed to mean, but there was also on that said something about an eel erection...and at the bottom you can see Ass & Aluminium...so it's safe to say that some bar patrons got there hands on this window. I was amused.

More to come very soon as Jessica tells me that I'm a awful blogger and need to post more often! Next is my trip to Crocosaurus Cove where I got to pay money to risk my life! Yay! Mom, you can lecture me about this one if you want! Haha!

Laters!!

Territory Wildlife Park and Darwin Cup!

So, not to brag...excessively anyways...this is what the sky looks like everyday here in Darwin! It is always blue skies, bright sun and just beautiful! Don't worry, it won't be this nice all year, pretty soon it'll be pouring rain every day and I might even see a cyclone! There's something to look forward to!

TERRITORY WILDLIFE PARK:

The picture above was taken at the Territory Wildlife Park which is about a 45 min drive from school. NFIH (the dorms I'm living in) provided free transportation and got us in for half price!!! The park was beautiful! I don't think "park" is really a good word to describe what they have there...it's more like a small, specialized zoo. They had quite a few different demonstrations in different sections of the park and had little trollies to transport us around. There was a nocturnal house, aquarium, natural lagoon, dingo pen, aviary, and tons of walking trails!

The first demonstration was for feeding stingrays and another kind of fish. In the top picture you can see how large the stingrays are! They kept bumping into the speaker, like a little nudge to say, "Hey! I know why you're here, quit teasing!" The second pic is of this certain kind of fish that actually uses suction to get food into it's mouth. He would hold the food just above the water and the fist would come up and make a really loud noise as sucked in it's dinner! There were also Archer fish that can see bugs flying above water and spit water at them to knock them into the water! You could hold out your hand over the water and they would spit at your hand; they had really good aim!

 We went through the Wilderness Walk and I found some really interesting trees. I also spotted my first wallaby here!!! They had a couple acres fenced off area where they were housed and ran around freely, the Wilderness Walk was really just a path through this area. I was surprised the wallaby was anywhere near us, not that it was that close, but we were being so loud laughing and talking. Plus, Mo's cell phone kept going off until I heckled him about ruining the ambiance multiple times!

 This is Sarah, Jessica and Mo (hiding behind Jessica) as we walked through the park over a small pond where there were warning signs for crocs all over!

The aviary! Like any good aviary, there were tons of birds...and stairs...Poor Sarah is petrified of birds, but we made her go in anyways! She squealed every time one moved or made noise! As soon as we got within 20 ft of the exit, she actually ran out the door...

We went through the aquarium and they had this super awesome sawfish! These are the craziest looking fish I've ever seen! They are completely flat on the bottom and have a long, flat nose that has little spines sticking out each side. I was definitely the most excited person in our group about these, and probably more than the little kids that were there too. I can't explain it, they are just fricken awesome.

 Big nasty croc! Probably about 12 feet, or so, long; he was asleep when we walked up but he opened his eyes just as a snapped this picture. I wonder if they ever look happy...they always appear cantankerous! Like a grumpy old man...

We got to hold a really big snake!!! The bottom picture is Mo, who was the most enthusiastic about holding the snake. He even asked the guy before the presentation started if he could hold the snake, then bragged to us about it because he wasn't told that everyone else would get to hold it too!

WE ROCK THIS CLUB, WE GO ALL NIGHT:

Now, of course I'm not only going to be sight seeing and having good clean fun! I'm still young enough to be reckless...so that's what we do! 

Example #1:There's a bar in the city (Darwin City, about 20 mins away by car, 45 by bus) called Tab and they have a drink called "The Fishbowl" that comes in quite a few fruity flavors. The drink seemed to consist of mostly Sprite...but it was more about the experience anyways! They even made you put a deposit down on the glass, which is funny because before they did...I may or may not have been wondering if I could sneak it out with me. Since Jessica and I are classy ladies, we always order drinks by color. I got to choose first so, naturally, I chose purple...which looked a bit black. And Jessica, of course, chose pink (don't know if I've mentioned this before, but she loves pink. "If it comes in pink, I must have it").

Example #2: We frequent a club called Monsoon's, also in the city, and always dance our butts off! The top one is most of the crew near the end of one night, but it was so crowded that we had a hard time sticking together. I love how we are all making different faces! The other is  Jessica, Sarah, and I up on stage doing "The Creep" as I had just introduced them to Lonely Island, a band that collaborates with a number of celebrities to make hilarious music and is shown on Saturday Night Live.

THE DARWIN CUP:

The Darwin Cup is an annual horse race that lasts all day, and I mean all day. It's a formal event and fancy hats are strongly encouraged! Everyone buys really nice dresses, puts on their fancy heels and with a feather or two on their head head out to spend the day at the track! It's also a great excuse to drink all day long, and I mean all day long. We were up at about 8:30 to get pretty and be ready for the bus at 10. When we found out that bus was full and had to wait an hour for the next one, so we sat around having cosmo's at 10am! Definitely a strange feeling, but we knew it would be cheaper to start at home. 

Starting at left: Jessica, Sarah, Damien, Mo, and Natalia walking toward the track since the bus had to drop us off about 3 blocks away due to massive amounts of traffic. People come from all around for this event!

Our first horse bet! We chose our bets based solely on the names of the horses. My top pick was Crackalakin...but I was let down! I don't think either of us won much of anything...but we had so much fun yelling the ridiculous names of our horses!

Some guys, like the one standing with me, Tim, were dressed really nicely...in fact, most were dressed extremely nice with suits and ties. Others, as seen in the bottom picture with Sarah used the event as a second Halloween! They were pretty funny, but the blue paint could come off if they touched you, leaving room for all sorts of bad jokes about "smurfing" someone...and the like.

 I think I actually won on this race! But I never bet much...so I got $2! Which was just enough to get me a much-needed bottle of water!

 By about 2pm, we had enough bottles to make a good sized pyramid...but since the tables were on a grass hill...it didn't actually stand. Good try though.

Damien and I switching "sunnies" as he calls them. He's from Darwin and uses all the weird sayings and Aussie abbreviations that I love to laugh at. He just thinks I laugh a lot and doesn't usually realize it's at him...I think it's best that way! Haha!

That's enough for now!!! We're almost caught up to date too! Yay!!! Thanks for checking it out!

So, I'm in Darwin...

As you know, I am on exchange in Darwin, Australia! I am greatly enjoying my experience so far and the fun doesn't seem to have an end in sight! I thought I would start this blog so that those who don't have facebook can see what I've been up to and all the neat things I've done. I e-mailed my Dad some pictures of my trip and it took forever as I had to send 4 separate messages! That experience has inspired this blog as it seems like it will be much easier. This way I can contact more people that I'd like to tell about my trip without having to spend all day in front of my computer!

I had a 13 hour layover in Sydney, so I decided that would be the perfect opportunity to have a look around! First stop was, of course, the Opera House and then I took a ferry to Darling Harbour where the Sydney Aquarium is. I had great fun meandering about the city and being on my own. I was the only person there wearing a tank top, whoops! I was like a glowing beacon that said, "TOURIST!"

 I didn't really mind too much though, after my 15 hour flight from LA the fresh air was a welcome treat, even if it was a bit chilly!

I arrived in Darwin in the middle of the night and ended up having to take a taxi to the dorms as my complimentary ride from CDU was nowhere to be found...but I made it and was met by a very sleepy Resident Leader (RL) and shown to my room. I slept for almost the whole next day! I had about 4 days completely to myself because the dorm I'm staying at, NFIH, didn't have any events planned till then...even thought they told me the activities were supposed to start 2 days before I got there. I suppose, for once in my life, I'm glad I wasn't on time. By the time they had an activity planned I was desperate to meet anyone! I was so lonely!!! But, I did make fast friends who were as desperate for human interaction as I was and all turned out fine of course!

 This is of me at Mindil Beach for the Beercan Regatta! It's an annual event completely unique to Darwin where people form groups (some people were just friends, others were businesses or church groups) and they build a small float out of, you guessed it! beer cans! This beach also hosts a local market every Thursday and Sunday commonly known as the Sunset Market because this place, by general consensus, has the best sunset view in Darwin. The actual race was quite comical as half the boats sank without making it too far offshore! The Mindil Market is also where I tried kangaroo for the first time!!! It came grilled on a skewer from a stand called Roadkill Cafe, their slogan was "You kill it, we grill it!" and they offered crocodile, and a few other animals that were not quite as enticing as kangaroo! The meat kind of reminded me of moose in that it was a bit gamey, but not really that tough. It was lean and very flavorful...but I'm not going out of my way to have kanga steak anytime soon!

This is Sarah (right) and Jessica (left), we became fast friends and have had all sorts of adventures together! Sarah is quite busy with school now, she's in the nursing program and is having to take an extra class this semester, so she doesn't have as much time to make mischief as she used to. But that doesn't stop Jessica and I! Oh, I should probably mention that Sarah is from Calgary, Canada and Jessica is from Sweden (I can't spell or pronounce the town's name...)

Interesting face! They have ants here that have transparent green hind ends! They creep me out, but as long as they stay out of my room...I don't kill them.

I found Waldo whilst discovering Darwin City! He was spray painted in a random spot at the top of a long set of stairs. Really long set of stairs! I like to attribute him with the motivation I needed to make it the rest of the way up!

This is a picture of the sunset from campus taken from my iPod with a fun camera app. It makes me feel artsy!

We went to an Australian rules football game!!! This form of "football" is completely unique to Australia and isn't like any football I've seen before. If I tried to explain it, it'd be soccer mixed with rugby. The guys who play are amazingly fit head to toe as they crash and smash into one another fighting over what looks like an American football, but more rounded. Darwin doesn't have a huge fan-base for AFL as they don't have their own team and are quite far from any other towns in Australia. The teams that played came from the East coast, and I heard that we were quite lucky to be able to see a game as they probably won't come to the Norther Territory again anytime soon.

 The last Harry Potter movie came out while I've been here, but I hadn't met any other HP enthusiasts yet so I was a bit bummed. Jessica came to my rescue and said that even though she wasn't really into Harry Potter, she'd gladly go with me. So I put on my HP themed shirt, got the special 3D glasses and thoroughly enjoyed our date! As neither of us have a car and the bus stops running around 9pm, we had to walk to the theater since we couldn't make the earlier shows. The theater is in the shopping center that's about a 15-20 min walk from the dorm, so it's not too bad...in the light. On the way back home, however, we were continuously frightened by wildlife! I saw a bat fly right over us who's wing span was almost as large as my arms! I thought it could have been a dragon flying up behind us!! Then Jessica saw what she thought could have been a possum or large rat scurry across our path. The sidewalks are lit, but the trees surrounding the sidewalks are not trimmed...so they block the light about half the way! In the end, worth it! For me at least, I'm not sure about Jessica!

I decided I was already too hot, so I cut off my hair! I instantly felt better and cooler! Of course, now I'm considering growing it out for the rest of my stay because I miss my long hair so much...and I think it'd be cool to come back home with long hair! We'll see how long I last once the wet season kicks in and it's even hotter and exponentially more humid!

I haven't eaten at McDonald's (called Macca's for short here) in years! Well, I mean...not a burger anyways. I've had their salads, wraps and an occasional breakfast. Jessica and I were absolutely starving after having to wait more than an hour at the bank just so they could tell me that my card hadn't come it yet, so we were desperate and stopped in the first place we saw! I also think it's quite comical that I traveled all the way across the globe to eat American fast food, and the worst kind! We'd been walking so much that we figured we could afford a few (hundred) extra calories that day! My stomach totally hurt when I was done. Let's just saw it'll be a few more years, if ever, I eat a double quarter pounder with cheese meal again!!

This is just a fun picture of me (and friends in back) at the beach next the university! I played with the color a bit so that my new Aussie towel is the only color...I think it looks neat!

So, I think that'll be quite enough for now and I haven't even gotten to the best part!!!

 Thanks for reading!!!