Let Me Just Stab the Can, It'll Work I Promise

I would say that this past week has been a pretty good one! It was relaxing during the week. Last week I made my roommates dinner two times which was a pretty big deal considering I usually stick to just setting the table for dinner. One of the nights was Taco night, just bringing a little of my Mexican ethnicity into Room 2204 since our two Asian roommates make rice every night. The other night I made dinner all I needed was a can opener but of course that is the one thing that they forgot to equip our apartment with. Yes we need a knife sharpener, but not a can opener. So I went next door, thinking our neighbors would be able to help me out and I could borrow one. No, not that easy. Out of our entire floor, no one answered their doors. I was forced to go up to the next level just to retrieve a can opener before Matt completely destroyed the can by hitting it with anything he could get his hands on. But the rest of the week was nice, where we just hung out and watched the Olympics. We went to the beach a lot this weekend which was fun! One of the days Matt was trying to teach me how to paddle on the surf board and while I was bobbing along in the waves Jen got a little over her head (literally) in the waves and like almost drowned before Matt calmed her down and brought her to shore. It was a pretty funny matter once we realized she was okay. Saturday the Brisbane boys came down to hang out again which was fun and when we went to the beach on Sunday we walked down to the huge surf competition that was on our beach. We only made it there for the finals but it was still fun to watch. Those surfers are amazing! Also on Saturday when we were just sitting there hanging out watching the Olympics, all of a sudden our electricity went out. We all had the same fear, we didn't pay our electricity bill so they cut it off. Of course it was 4:41 pm and the reception office closed at 4:30. So we needed to call the person on duty and figure out what the deal was with our electricity. Turns out, the reason behind the shortage was that Jen put one of the comforters in the drier and it couldn't handle it being that full so it blew the whole outlet. Yeah that was embarrassing...

Sunday night the band Shwayzee was playing in Surfer's Paradise and we of course had to go because they are Matt and Nanae's absolute favorite band. So we all headed down there and watched them perform. It was so much fun! We were right up next to the stage and Nanae got to knuckles it with Shwayzee and Matt got a high five. It was so much fun singing along to Shwayzee, with my 3 roommates in Australia. Yesterday was a fun day, Matt Jen and I all went to the beach (Nanae had class). Jen was my little surfing paddling instructor and was teaching me how to paddle out in the waves. She was a hilarious teacher considering she was still a little scared of going far out in the water because of her rough experience from a few days earlier in the ocean. So she just stood ankle deep and yelled instructions at me. Than Matt, our little own pro surfer came and took me directly out to the big waves and would push me into the waves. He only pushed me into a few but I was able to at least get on my knees on the board! That was exciting. After my attempt at surfing and swallowing half the ocean, we went in to cook dinner and read for politics. Now I'm sitting at school in the middle of my 4 hour break between classes, chomping on trail mix. Ahh trail mix, a reminder of Colorado :)

Sorry if this was a lame post, I felt like I had a lot to say but I can't remember any of it now! Until next time!

Woah... Wait... Dad! What are you doing here?!

So there it was Wednesday afternoon, I'm tired after pulling an all nighter and I have one class to go. Jen and I are sitting in the lounge as usual because God forbid we go some place else on that campus, and my mother dearest wanted to Skype. I was so oblivious to my entire day that I didn't find it suspicious in the least bit that my mom was extremely curious about my location on campus. She told me she had a map of my campus and just wanted to know where I was. I graciously informed her, without thinking it was strange that my mom was looking at a map of Bond. All of a sudden some strange little mexican man comes and kisses my cheek. I look up and low and behold it was my dad standing there just smiling. I was completely dumbfounded. I was so confused at what was going on and could not wrap my head around the fact that my dad was standing right here in Australia with me. I finally got enough composure to get up and hug him as Jen continued to sit there still not completely understanding what just happened. Apparently for the past two weeks my parents have been planning on having my dad surprise me in Australia and not even my sisters knew he was coming! Well they planned well because I was for sure surprised! Since I still had one more class to go to in an hour, I gave my dad a quick tour of Bond but than of course it started raining in the middle of my top notch tour so I had to cut it short. After class I gave my dad the grand tour of our apartment on the beach before we headed to his hotel. That in itself was an adventure considering he needed to learn real quick how to drive on the opposite of the road. It was a difficult task and every time he tried to turn on his blinker, the window wipers flew up. No one knows when he is turning and he turned into the wrong lane a few times but hey at least that windshield is clean! His first night here we just grabbed dinner down at the hotel restaurant. We were going to start his vacation off in style by having the legit seafood buffet thinking it couldn't be more than a $30 buffet but after asking it ended up being a $75 buffet. Good thing we inquired or my mother would not be pleased with that bill! We just stuck to the ordinary entrees offered. On Thursday, my dad was still a little hit by the jet lag and that whole minor detail of jumping 17 hours ahead, so we just decided to lounge by the pool and let him rest. That evening we went to my apartment where we threw the classic shrimp along with steak on the barbie and had a barbeque on the roof of our apartment. It was a huge, delicious and fun dinner. Us five ended up hanging out and talking until 10pm when they close the roof and we had to get off! Friday morning after meeting my doctor partner to work on our presentation in the morning, we went and picked up my roommates for a trip to Byron Bay. We weren't completely sure of the whereabouts of this supposed beautiful place but we had a GPS in the rental car so we figured we would be golden. That was a mistake. The nice lady who told us the directions of Byron Bay must have decided that taking the long long scenic route was a better way to go instead of the quick and direct route. We found ourselves somewhere in the countryside where there was no ocean in sight. It ended up taking two hours to get to Byron Bay when it was only supposed to take 45 minutes at the most. At least my dad got to see a little more of Australia!

the countryside

After driving through the winding roads of the countryside and the mountains, we finally arrived at Byron Bay and boy was it worth the drive! We hiked up to the awesome Lighthouse which was the furthest eastern point of the continent! After grabbing some smoothies we went to some big rocks where the waves were crashing against to take pictures. As Jen was making her way to take a picture with me, she slipped and cut her toe and ankle, that girl has had an injury filled trip to say the least!

He's so adorable

Right After Jen cut her leg...

Once we returned to Surfer's I took my daddio to Hungary Jack's which is Australia's version of Burger King. BK is his utmost favorite restaurant in the states so it would make sense for him to get some in the land down under! Saturday was nice we just talked, hung out by the pool and got burnt to a crisp. For dinner we tried a nice Thai restaurant which had really cool legit artifacts surrounding us and my dad was obsessed with the large wooden elephant sitting next to our table.

Sunday we woke up and tried out the Surf City Church in Surfer's Paradise. After the service we went out in search for a place to get breakfast but we weren't having good luck considering it was already 11:30. We finally struck gold and were able to get breakfast food at a little cafe near the water. The rest of the day I needed to work on preparing for my presentation with my brilliant doctor partner for Tuesday. I felt bad that we were inside the rest of the day but I need to at least seem like I know what I'm talking about in my presentation next to my partner who was the main speaker at a medical conference this past weekend. We're obviously at the same level on public speaking. My dad didn't seem to mind, he was enthralled by the speed skating in the Olympics for a majority of the day.

On Monday we went into Surfer's Paradise and I had my dad try our favorite chicken place... yeah you guessed it, Nando's!!! He of course loved it like the rest of us.

Obviously in love with Nando's by that expression

We then went to the local touristy store to buy him some souvenirs for people where he of course embarrassed me in front of the young Australian clerk boy. He wouldn't be my dad if he didn't embarrass me somewhere right?! We than grabbed some ice cream at Cold Rock (Australia's version of Cold Stone, see the connection?) and than I had to go finish for my presentation with the doctor. It was a nice last day in the Gold Coast with my daddio. I loved having him here and was sad to say bye. It was a great surprise though! Now next in the family to come... Dumb and Dumber (Beth and Ali). I can't wait for my sister's to come and visit in April!

That Lizard is Planning Something...

Well this week has been a very laid back week but has kept us all busy with school. I'm still preparing my presentation with my super smart doctor partner and trying to figure out my politics class. But this weekend was a fun one. It officially really started on Friday when Matt and Nanae headed about 20 minutes south of Burleigh to Coolengatta where there are amazing waves to go surfing on. After taking our time to get ready, and baking under the sun at the bus stop, Jen and I finally met up with them at the huge beach. Nanae had gotten stung by a jellyfish on the arm while she was paddling out (I am the only girl left out of us 3 to get stung, I'm crossing my fingers it won't happen!) so she was just chilling on the beach while Matt caught some waves. Jen and I took the easiest of hikes up a hill (easy because they so politely put in stairs to use) where you could see all of Coolengatta, Burleigh in the distance and even Surfer's Paradise all the way across the water. It was beautiful. We just stood up there and looked out over the waves while discussing the plan of the lizard what was looking up at us while standing a few feet away. Apparently Jen is frightened of lizards because one ran across her bare feet as a child so now she freaks out whenever she sees one. She was convinced that the lizard was planning on attacking her and it was holding eye contact with her. I convinced her to not be so vain and think that the lizard was staring at her but was just planning on having his family of lizards come attack her from behind. It was a ridiculous dialogue that we shared over this lizard for about 20 minutes and if you want to know all of it, check Jen's blog soon. We than walked down and all four of us headed over to Nando's chicken again! We enjoyed our time at the amazing chicken restaurant and than finally took the bus home. When we got home Jen wasn't feeling well at all so she napped while the rest of us examined the game of Cricket for a few hours. We are determined to learn the rules of this game so we tried to figure it out by watching it for awhile. We now finally have a basic understanding but are still in search of a little clarification on some parts of this popular pass time activity.

The next morning I woke up to go to the grocery store looking for a thermometer for Jen because when she is sick, it is apparently a necessity to be aware of her temperature the entire time. I had no such luck finding one but I did buy a lot of snack food for the sick roommate to chomp on while she is all sniffles. Later on our friends Jamie and Scott came down from Brisbane to visit because they were surfing in Burleigh. Matt joined the two in going surfing and while they were gone Jen and I decided to watch our classic show that we love making fun of, Laguna Beach on her computer. Nanae came in and commented on how stupid the show was but we knew that once she started watching it, we totally would get her hooked on it. So for about three hours we all laid on our bed and watched the completely realistic high school drama show. It was some classic girl roommate bonding time. When the others got back from getting rocked by the waves, we all went out for some Thai food. I never had any before so I had no idea what I was getting myself into but it turned out to be quite delicious. It was a nice chill evening until it started storming and raining really hard. We went out in the rain and it was raining so hard my umbrella collapsed under all the pressure or something. It was slightly ridiculous. So now it is Sunday and I have a Spanish test tomorrow that I am not looking forward to considering the only phrase I can remember is "A que se dedica?" Overall a good weekend in the Down Under

I'll post pictures of Coolengatta once I upload them to my computer :)

B TOWN or as the locals call it- Brisbane

Welp it's been a little bit since I updated my blog, but that's because I was out of town this weekend! We decided to take a quick weekend trip up to Brisbane for a few days. After grabbing some sushi (it's become a regular activity) on Friday we went and caught the one hour train ride up to Brisbane. Public transportation like the bus and train have become pretty regular to us these days, and I don't even mind the long trips. I usually just pop in my headphones and listen to my ipod which makes the trip relaxing and quick. Matt began to make me an anklet on the train ride while I just looked out at the scenery and Jen sang silently to herself.

view from the train- beautiful

We have some friends in Brisbane so we got picked up at the train station and then went to their place where we enjoyed some homemade spaghetti. We got into Brisbane in the late evening so we just hung out there and played Rock Band (apparently the musical game is a big hit worldwide). The next morning we woke up and took the bus into town. The area where we were at was like a a huge outdoor and indoor mall with heaps of stores and places to eat. Our friend Jamie was our official tour guide and showed us all the cool shopping stores and introduced us to Nando's. It is a chicken restaurant that is absolutely delicious! I can't believe I've been missing out on it all my life.

Deliciousness

We then went and saw Sherlock Holmes at the cinema in the mall. The way they do movies here is a little different than back home, where when you buy the ticket you tell them where you want to sit in the theatre, back, middle or front and than you get a specific seat like D 12 or something. So everyone has specific seating in the theatre! It was a fun movie and a good way to end our day! It was cool to visit the city of Brisbane and now its one of the things we can check off our list!!

Other than Brisbane we have just been enjoying our apartment. We had steak and rice the other night and just dimmed the overhead light (we wanted candles but that was the next best thing, dimming the light) and watched the storm outside our window. Last night as Jen and I attempted to learn our 2nd language of spanish for class (and I failed miserably at rolling my R's, you would never know I am half Mexican) Matt and Nanae went and bought groceries. They bought some kangaroo so we can finally try it but last night we stuck with chocolate chip pancakes for supper. We than watched Valkraie (spelling?) and called it a night. The nice relaxing nights where we enjoy a good dinner and end with a movie are usually my favorite nights here.

So nothing super new, just trying to get through classes. I need to prepare for a presentation with my 30 year old partner who is a doctor and has given presentations in front of hundreds of people. When he asked how I was at presenting I told him I took Public Comm last year so I felt pretty confident. I then asked him and he was like "pretty good, I give speeches all the time, I'm giving one tomorrow in front of 250 people about my medical research" How I got paired up with him... No idea. We'll see how that goes! Prayers are always welcomed!