The Goings On

Things at NFIH seem to be simmering down as finals approach. Not as much late-night rowdiness disturbing those wishing to sleep, less plans to go to "Beachies" which is the only bar within walking distance, and things like that. It's generally really quiet here right now.

Speaking of right now, I am laying by the pool soaking up some sun! Since I've decided to leave in just over a month's time, I have a new determination to bronze myself! Fun fact: the UV rays actually get 3x  stronger in the Wet season than they are in the Dry. Since the Wet is swiftly approaching, I should have no problem getting my tan on--as long as I keep from burning and letting it all peel off!

 NFIH has an annual End of Year Dinner that happened just a week or so ago. We were joking that they'd be serving us sausages, since that what they always feed us! Even though the dress code was "black and white formal" we were still not convinced that something classy could happen in Darwin, especially at NFIH. We were pleasantly surprised!

 Everyone actually dressed up and they hired a caterer! We got free drinks for the first half hour of the dinner...and we pretty much ran the poor bar dry...don't know what they were expecting though! They had also arranged some dance performances, Aboriginal and Indonesian, and a guest speaker. It was very fancy indeed! We had a great time and the food, which was nowhere near sausages, was excellent!

They have arranged a few more activities for the coming weeks to provide us poor students with "a break from studying" including a trip to the island Mandorah, a toga party, and a trip to do some paintballing! Very excited...and doing my best to be motivated to study!

That's all folks.

My First Non-Huge Post!

Had my first day of work today! Yay! I'm working at a restaurant called Fasta Pasta that's really close to where I live. It only takes me 20 mins to walk there or 10 mins to ride the bus. I'll be riding the bus more and more as the wet season continues to creep up on us! It's just so hot! The heat isn't really that bad, I can handle that, it's the humidity! It's outrageous! ...and it's only going to get worse! When I came into Australia the woman who looked at passport and visa told me that I was "going to die" in Darwin, I'm starting to think she was right! The only good news is, it should be really easy for me to keep losing weight since every time I step out the door, I'm drenched in sweat! Silver lining, yeah?

Went to see a drag show last night at the gay bar here in Darwin. It's called Throb and they were hosting a performance by the "Pussycats" The show wasn't very long or spectacular...but they had some awesome outfits and lots of energy, plus we got there early and had free entry! So I'm not about to complain!

One more thing! I seem to be unable to get a cold bottle of Pepsi. It sounds silly, but it's true. It's too bad I don't like Coke, cause that's everywhere! Even at the grocery store! I have to buy the 2 liter bottle or a 24 pack of cans...and I def don't need that much Pepsi! After searching everywhere one night, I finally found ONE vending machine on campus that wasn't sold out of Pepsi...but then I discovered that it doesn't take $2 coins!!! I only have one $1 coin and a soda is $3!! I almost cried, but had some chocolate instead! haha!
Loves!

Semester Break Adventures!!!

We had a break from school last week, some people went to Bali, some to Melbourne, and others stayed to study. Jessica and I had our own plans! But first- NFIH put together a camping trip to Kakadu National Park! I had been planning on trying to rent a camper van and try and make the trip on my own (with a few friends) but when NFIH put the trip together, it only cost $100 and included most of the food, all of the transportation, and a boat tour of the Yellow and Alligator Rivers! The boat trip alone was $80/person, so it was a really good deal. So, 2 nights in Kakadu! 

KAKADU NATIONAL PARK

I was surprised to see the state of our campsite, I don't even know if I could call it camping if I hadn't slept on the ground in a tent with tons of bugs eating me alive. There were 3 pools all connected, one really shallow for kids, one normal pool, and one that had a small waterfall gently pouring into it with bubbles! So yeah...life was rough!

They also had a bar/restaurant next to the pool and we were able to have wine while relaxing! It was pretty amazing to watch the sunset from here...def didn't feel like camping. Plus the bar had a huge flat screen TV playing Australian Football...so yeah...really not how I'm used to camping. 

 We had to get up SO early the first morning...which was awful because it was amazingly hot all night and Jessica and I kind of went bonkers. We tried everything except medication to fall asleep! We ended up having to take the fly off our tent (which was kind of cool, cause then we could see the stars) and ended up in our underwear on top of our sleeping bags still sweating...ALL NIGHT! But once we got on the boat and got to see the sun rising over the river, it was all worth it!

 This is one of the first crocs (of oh-so-many) we saw on the cruise that morning. The boat captain got us really close to some big crocodiles, it was pretty scary. The crocs were really used to seeing people though, so they weren't worried that we would try and touch them or anything, they just chilled. That does not mean, however, that any of us were under the illusion that we could get out and pet them!

My favorite part of the cruise was when he started talking about the crocodile hasn't evolved since the days of the dinosaur. He described them as, "pretty happy with themselves" totally cracked me up...and was kind of frightening. Can't think of another animal that can boast that!

Next was Ubirr Rock!!!

 It was a bit of a climb to the top, but totally worth it!! It was really beautiful up there. Plus, with that work out I didn't feel so guilty about being fed sausages every night for dinner, haha!

We stayed for sunset, as it's a famous spot to see it from. It's pretty obvious why; it was absolutely beautiful! There was about 50 or more people at the top of Ubirr Rock that evening, but there was plenty of space to spread out so we weren't too cramped. It was fabulous! I also realized that it's not often that (outside of Alaska) I see the sunrise and sunset of the same day! Kind of cool!

The next night was not as hot, though I still didn't really need my sleeping bag...but we did wake up soaking wet from all the dew, so that was fun! Ha! This day was about Rock Art! We had seen some at Ubirr Rock, but there were much more famous sites in Kakadu and we got to visit one!

On our walking tour of Rock Art we found a wallaby with a baby in it's pouch!! It was pretty much the most adorable thing I'd ever seen. The mother wallaby seemed pretty tuckered out, I would bet she was resting in the shade because it was midday and really, really hot. She was up on this rock which was only about 8 ft or so from the walking path. Nobody seemed to bother her, which was really nice.

These are just some of the examples of Rock Art we found, there were tons more!!! I'm taking a class on Aboriginal Art at CDU, so it was really interesting to see all the pictures from my text book in person! That def doesn't happen too often! It was pretty surreal to stand in front of the rock and realize that these paintings were done decades and centuries ago! It's like they were created in a whole nother world!

Then we were back on the bus and headed back to NFIH!! We were all thoroughly exhausted and most people slept on the way back, including me! We got back to our rooms at about 6pm, I think and immediately started packing! Why?- you might ask; because Jessica and my plane to Sydney was leaving in 7 hours!

SYDNEY (Again)

After fruitlessly begging our friend Mo to give us a ride to the airport, we took a taxi (which was only $15 anyways...) to the airport and waited. We were so excited!!! We were going to arrive in Sydney at about 9am and head to our hostel, where we would freshen up and find something to do for the rest of the day! Waste no time! Sleep? Why?

We arrived at our hostel after a long shuttle ride and found that, unlike the pictures online showed, it really matched the price we paid...which was only $15/night. So, we weren't really surprised...and kept in mind that we would only be sleeping there and not really spending much time there otherwise. By he time we were settled, had our valuables in a locker and ate some lunch it was already about noon! Where had the day gone? We had wanted to go to the zoo that day, but the receptionist at the hostel advised us that it would probably not be worth it this late in the day since it closed at 5 and we would have to take a ferry to get there. So she suggested we do the Coastal Walk that started at the famous Bondi Beach and ended at Coogee Beach with tons of small beaches in between! 

It wasn't warm enough to actually stay and sunbathe anywhere, but it beautiful, and felt awesome to have so much fresh air and wind after the long plane ride! We were completely exhausted by the end of the walk, which took about 2.5 hrs! and managed to find a bus (eventually) back to the side of town our hostel was on. We stumbled back to our rooms (up 5 flights of stairs) and were pretty much ready to crash for a bit until we had enough energy for dinner.

Just when I was getting all settled, Jessica discovered that her friend from Sweden, who was studying in Melbourne, was also visiting Sydney with another friend! So we decided to meet them for dinner. We went to a pizza place and, surprisingly, only one of us ended up having pizza! All the food was amazing, and we were stuffed! But not too stuffed for some coffee/cocktails and chocolate down the street! That's one things I love about big cities- you can just walk around and find amazing food/sweets/drinks...or really, whatever you are craving!

After  that we stumbled back to our room and decided we wanted to tackle the zoo the next day. And if that meant nothing else, it was an early morning! We set the alarm for 8am (or something ridiculously early) and passed out.

Taronga Zoo is actually on it's own island! I was glad that we forced ourselves to wake up so early, because we ended up being there until 4:30! The zoo was huge and had tons of different types of animals. My fav part, of course, was seeing the giraffes; but my amazing experience didn't end there! I found out that we could feed them if we signed up, for a small fee of course. Surprisingly, it actually was a very small fee and Jessica and I were able to split it!

It was fricken awesome!!!!! I actually got to pet one of them on the head while I fed it too! Plus, the zoo keeper in charge of the giraffes, who was the one helping us feed them and things, was so cute! Just like icing on the fantastic giraffe cake! I was pretty much in heaven!

We also got to see kangaroos, a tree wallaby (who knew!), and a Tasmanian devil- just to name a few! We were, again, completely exhausted by the time we were done. Not that it stopped us from going out for a few drinks at a bar right next to our hostel! OH!!!! and for dinner we had Mexican!!! We actually found a Mexican restaurant! Needless to say, between the giraffes and Mexican food...it was a really good day!

The next day we were going to the Sydney Aquarium and decided to stop in the museum that was along the way. It aptly named the Australian Museum. They had lots of information on Aboriginal culture and the past of Australia, even back to the dinosaurs. Speaking of dinosaurs...they had the best dino exhibit I've ever been to! It was really cool!

It was so amazing to be standing under those fossils! I've taken a class at UAF called Life in the Age of Dinosaurs, and I learned so much about them...but there's no way I could have understood just how it would feel to be standing next to an animal that big!

We went to the Aquarium too, but I've already posted pictures of that last time I was there, and on our way home be got really hungry so we decided to check out a restaurant that, from the street, was just a glass door opening to stairs going down. We were a bit suspicious, but ventured down anyways and were very pleasantly surprised! It was a really nice restaurant that didn't have nice restaurant prices! Yay! We ended up making friends with some locals and stayed talking for hours! They were a couple in thier late 40's-ish and were lovely to talk to. Plus, they bought us desert and wine! Score!!

The next day we wandered around town...and it seems like we didn't get anything done...except wear ourselves out again! But, it was nice to walk around the city...I think we saw almost every corner of that place with all the walk we did!

Our last day was the earliest start of all! We had to get up a 6am so we could take the ferry to Manly Beach and have surf lessons!!!

Since it had been raining and quite chillly the last two days, we were ecstatic to see sunshine!! Our first lesson was at 9am and then we had another at 11:30. It was definitely the most strenuous thing we did the whole time, even more than the hiking in Kakadu! It reminded me of yoga, where muscles are sore that you didn't even know you had...except the ones I knew about were sore too!

When we were done, we found a restaurant with $10 steak that came with fries and salad! It was sooooo good! Especially since we had to resort to McDonald's for breakfast, ugh! It was the perfect end to our little holiday, I just wish we could have had a better shower before getting on the plane! I brushing salt and sand off my skin all night!

Now I'm back and I have tons of school work to do! Had a mid-term and now I have to write two papers for next week! It's like they want me to study while I'm here or something...wierd!

Other exciting news: I have an interview today at a restaurant called Fasta Pasta that's really close to school! Wish me luck!!!

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!