6 Breathtaking Stops on the Great Ocean Road

January 29, 2019

The Great Ocean Road is a beautiful coastal drive located on the southern tip of Australia outside of Melbourne. It’s packed with amazing scenery from beaches to rock formations to waterfalls and is the reason I fell in love with scenic road trips. Back in the spring of 2017, I took a road trip along this great drive with fellow friend, traveler, and videographer Monica!

From the learning to driving on the other side of the road, to learning that you need to pack snacks for a road trip, it was definitely an action packed trip, and I even made a video about it (link at the end).

So as the temperatures drop WAYYYY below zero in Chicago, all I can seem to think about is the warmth of other places I’ve been as an escape. If you need motivation to get your butt on a vacation or to a beach, I hope these next 6 stops I took on the Great Ocean Road will convince you to do so!

BRIGHTON BOXES: Although not *technically* on the Great Ocean Road, the Brighton Beach Boxes are just about the cutest thing you ever did see in Melbourne. These beach shacks, all painted in unique ways, allow for plenty of instagrammable moments on the beach that don’t face the ocean! Instagram or not, this place is really special, walking along the boxes feels like you’re in a game of candy land, and really makes you want to downsize your entire life into a cute lil box on the beach.

AIREY’S INLET: Our first official stop on the great ocean road was the most picture perfect lighthouse I’ve ever encountered! Set against the coast, you get panoramic views of the beach. The white lighthouse is quite possibly too perfect for words.

LORNE: A quaint town set on the coast, small shops and great views. The best part about this town, to Monica and I however, would have to be the trampoline park hidden within a beach club. As we spotted the trampoline park from the road, we made a quick u-turn and had no problem paying $10 for 15 mins on the trampoline.

Even crazier was the fact that this trampoline park didn’t require you to sign your life away or wear protect gear as you went to jump. A seriously foreign concept to me, as any activity in the US means signing your life rights away so you don’t sue.

TWELVE APOSTLES: This is the most popular stop of the Great Ocean Road and rightfully so! This stop will be crowded no matter what time of day you get here, but if you want to see something really special then you have to go around sunset. The beautiful colors were insanely special and made me feel like I was transported into a painting.

THE GROTTO: Intricate and larger-than-life rock formations against the coast, you can get up close and personal to the waves and the ocean. I really was moved at this location by the shear power of the ocean that I have never experienced anywhere else!

LAVERS HILL: On our second day on the road trip, we were heading back to Melbourne to return the rental car, so had to skip going back along the great ocean road, and instead drove through the countryside. We had low expectations going in for Lavers Hill as how could it possibly top all the amazing coastal views that we saw? But guess what, it DID. The green country, the farm animals, and in the distance the coast, was one of the most confusing sceneries to be stopped in, but definitely an amazing one. The contrast between the lush land and the ocean was purely amazing.

So there you have it, 6 stops that if I haven’t convinced you that you need to go on an adventure, I don’t know what else to tell you! The natural beauty in the world is stunning, amazing, and unique, go out and experience it for yourself and lmk how it is :)

sydney + whitsundays

June 7, 2017

5.25 reunited with a familiar face After the wonderful week with my parents, I had to grind through my schoolwork considering I didn’t touch it the entire time they were here, and to make it even better, I’m entering finals season…. Oh well….

But despite that, I only have like 10 days left in Sydney, so im clearly going to make the most of it, starting with seeing and old friend. Kellye was my freshman year roommate at Michigan, and she was spending the month of May studying abroad an hour south of Sydney in Wollongong. After multiple attempts at meeting up, our dates finally clicked and we were able to hang out for the first time in a loooooong time. I met up with her at spice alley for a nice Asian fusion dinner, I got to meet all of her friends from her program and hang out with them for the night.

Then we went to a cool bar called Soda Factory, probably now my favorite bar in Sydney after this night. It’s a tiny little, hidden place, that hosts different live music bands. Monica and I had been there a few weeks earlier, but this time it was amazing. The band was sooooooooo good and they were playing the best songs that we had an absolute blast. Kellye got to meet all my Australian abroad friends too, so she was finally able to connect faces to names.

5.26 vividly high

Today was a chill day of doing homework in coffee shops and trying to catch up on all the work that’s due in the upcoming week. But at night we were able to take a break and do some fun touristy things, the Bridge Climb!

Stef, Monica, Eva, Jess and I all signed up to do the bridge climb and today was also the first day of Vivid Sydney. It’s a light, ideas, and musical festival that goes on for three weeks where they basically light up the city in neon lights, what a perfect time to climb the bridge.

We got to bridge climb literally right on time, which was not the ideal time, but the front desk lady was able to slid us into the group and we were good to go. We got suited up in these gross gray jumpsuits that made us feel like we were in ghostbusters, but they somehow worked, Then we got accessories, and not the good kind ladys, we got straps and bandanas and headsets and harnesses, I easily had added another ten pounds to my body in accessories.

At this point, this is where we met our guide Mitch, he was really fun and from the start was making fun of us Americans, but in a good way. Once we started the walked we were at the front of the group, and I was first in line so I had a good view, and I also was able to give him intel about the rest of our group, especially talking about Eva, who he then continued to give a hard time which was hilarious. We climbed the bridge and he told us all these interesting facts about the bridge construction, while also informing us of ways that people fell during construction and died. What pleasant stories to hear as we are climbing this bridge.

Walking up the bridge the views were incredible, the entire city was lit up and it was gorgeous in a whole new way that we’ve never seen before. The opera house had animations all over it, and all the skyscrapers were lit up in different colors, and all the boats on the harbor were in different colors as well. Overall, incredible to see from above we were all in such shock.

Once we got to the top, we got to hang out on the dance floor, and we had a little dance party. Of course, being the americans, we brought the party and were clearly the center of attention as we were busting moves, while still buckled in to the railing, so not our best moves but still moves. We even got Mitch to bust a move or two as well and he joined in with us. Walking down was pretty fast in comparison to the way up, but still pretty fun. Having Mitch as our tour guide was definitely a major plus, we would have not enjoyed it nearly as much if we didn’t have him. At the end me and him were chilling waiting for everyone to climb down the hard ladders and he was a cool guy, we ended up taking a picture with him at the end of the climb and his coworkers gave him shit for it, but totally worth it.

We were all going to go out after the bridgeclimb but we were all pooped and hungry, as the climb was 3 hours long and we finished at 11pm. So, we decided to go to pancakes on the rocks, a 24/7 dinner right on the water with to die for pancakes.

5.27 80s style

Today Monica and I woke up and headed to the Glebe Markets, which are the thrift shop stands, to find some cool clothes. We both really wanted 80s windbreaker, fresh prince of bel air style jackets so we hopefully headed out to find them. Luckily, there were like 10 stands with 80s inspired clothing and vintage, so we knew that we would be able to find them. And after a little hunting we did!

Afterwards we went to a taco stand and sat in the park and hung out and listented to some live music.

5.28 beach dayyyye

Today we headed up to Manly Beach, one of our favorite beaches but of course one of the farthest beaches from our apartment. It was Taste of Manly today, and we thought that meant it was a food festival and were super psyched, but it ended up being a wine and alcohol festival, mostly for people to try lots of different alcohols and get drunk. None of us were really feeling that, so we just got some food and headed to hang out at the beach.

It was sunny and warm, so we were even able to tan and lay out which was nice. Of course Eva doesn't like the beach so she was fully covered as usual, we still don't know why she decided to study abroad in Australia......

Monica met up with us later in the day and we had a really nice chill day of hanging out on the beach and relaxing together, enjoying the nice warm weather as we enter the Australian winter here.

5.29-31 school school n nothing exciting

I basically just worked on school and didnt do anything too crazy or exciting. I needed to get a lot of my work done because I was going on a weekend trip!

6.01 the beginning of a weekend to remember……

Today I embarked on my first really solo adventure of my time down under, going to the Whitsundays on a sailing trip for the weekend. For those of you who don’t know, the Whitsundays are iconic islands in Australia with famous white sand beaches. So enjoying adventure and the ocean, I booked this two day two night sailing trip and I was so excited!

The day started with me waking up at the crack of dawn to catch a 7am flight. Luckily, I slept the entire flight and woke up but unfortunately woke up to rain. Regardless I went on about and checked in for my boat, where they told me I should probably buy a sweatshirt since it would be cold on the water. Then I spent the next two hours until the boat departure trying to find a damn sweatshirt, and let me tell you this wasn’t easy for some reason. The touristy stores didn’t sell anything heavier than a t shirt and the clothing stores sold cropped sweatshirts, like why what is the point of that???

Once I found a winner, which ended up being an XL mens sweatshirt, I was on my way to the boat. Along the way I met Dan and Matt, two brits traveling together and we talked while trying to figure out where this boat was supposed to pick us up. Once we did, we were off and on our way.

Of course, as soon as we got on the boat the sun disappeared (and this was legitmatley the last time we felt the sun until we docked at the end of the weekend). The weather was horrid, the sailing conditions were awful, so the boat didn’t even end up sailing, we just motored our way to the islands. One poor kid got so seasick he was puking off the side of the boat, literally, the entire 2 hour trip.

Eventually we made it to our stop for the night, as by now it was about 5 oclock. We all needed a break so we decided to go for a dip, especially because the water was warmer than the temperature outside. They had a plank which was pretty hilarious, so people were able to jump off of it and stuff. The water could stay warm only so long, so we all got out and started the evening festivities, which was drinking.

I wasn’t super keen on getting drunk on this boat, so I just tried to socialize with the other people on the boat, there was about 32 of us on board, plus 4 crew members. I went to bed with my fingers crossed that the weather would be good for tomorrow.

6.02 white sand, hella rain

Woke up, and the wishes did not come true, as it was extremely dark and gloomy, we woke up for the sunrise but couldn’t even see it. After breakfast, I ended up going back to bed until we made it to our first stop of the day, Whitehaven beach, the one with the gorgeous sand. We all disembarked onto a dinghy boat and headed to the island, where we hiked for about 15 miuntes to the lookout point. Despite the awful weather, it was insanely beautiful, the white sand swirls throughout the cove and its just amazing, I’ve never seen a beach like it.

When the time came for us to go down to the beach and for a swim, of course, it started torrential downpouring. I kid you not, we were soaked from rain before we even hit the water in the ocean. We hung out for a little bit and tried to put on our best faces, but everyone was pretty miserable and we had to get to the boat before low tide, so we left the ocean.

We then sailed to another area of the island, where we could snorkel. I decided to go in and it was cool seeing the reef, since we were on the edges of the Great Barrier Reef. The last time I swam the reef was back in February for orientation, which literally FEELS LIKE JUST YESTERDAY, but its not. Unfortunately, the reef actually is super dead and its pretty much just gray coral and fish, but still pretty cool nonetheless.

They then took us to another snorkel location, but it started raining and was cold again, so I opted out… Since the weather was shit, we all hung out inside and people started drinking, so I just kinda sat and hung out with everybody because still didn’t really feel like drinking on a boat.

6.03land (and sun) ho!

Today we were sailing back to the mainland (thank goodness!). After two days on the water, and with a bunch of interesting European frat stars, I was ready for a break and some Internet service. Of course as soon as we docked, the sun came out and it was absolutely beautiful. So after I checked into my hostel for the night, I headed around town to explore.

At this point I realized how destroyed the town was, because about a month ago there was a really bad tornado. So about half of the storefronts on the main strip were closed and the main beach was also closed off for repair. So I ended up going to the shit beach (that is its nickname) and Im guessing because it’s the shit beach that’s why it was completely empty and I was able to get some peace and quiet. I ended up taking a lil nap, before heading back to the hostel.

This hostel was pretty cool, it was organized like a resort so there were multiple cabanas which the dorm rooms were in, and then there was a pool and hammock area, so I went over to hang out and ended up running into a couple of people from the boat. Shockingly, even though I wasn’t their biggest fans, I hung out with them and then ended up going out with them that night.

It was an interesting night to say the least, we got a ton of free booze from the tour company, which was super nice, so we got those free drinks at this place called Shed Bar, which was basically just a picnic area that sold booze. Then we headed to the beach to hang out and drink more which also was a ton of fun, before we headed to a club called Boom. This place was god awful, it smelled, no REEKED of vomit and the smell just didn’t get any better. It was your stereotypical club, and it was fun night to say the least, made a few friends even though the boat tour and entire weekend was not great.

6.04 back home (to Sydney)

Not realizing how much alcohol I drank, I woke up pretty hungover and my timing was pretty poor because I had to take a flight home back to Sydney that day, and hungovers + Juli + planes = AWFUL. But, I was able to soldier through and make it home.

Once I was home, I literally had to do all the homework and final projects that I should have been doing that weekened, but was sailing instead… whoops. I also ended up planning out my entire week because its my last full-ish week in Sydney, and I needed to make sure I hit everything that I wanted to do before I leave.

Being back in Sydney, now it's my last week :( Saving that post for the end of this week before I head to New Zealand for my next adventure!!!

parentals down under

May 28, 2017

5.11 adventure time! Since coming to Australia, it has been on my bucket list that I would go skydiving. So today, on this random Thursday, I decided it was the day. None of my friends wanted to go, so on a solo trip I traveled an hour down the Sydney eastern coast to Wollongong to skydive.

When I arrived in Wollongong, I got to a small shack that this operation was running from, got suited up with all the gear with my group (which ended up being a family of Asian tourists who spoke no English), before we took a van about 20 minutes to the airport. From there, we boarded a small plane and sat with our instructor, at this point we got strapped to our instructor person as we flew up 14,000 feet in the air.

I, for some reason, was not that scared, I was more extremely excited for thrill and getting high off of adrenaline. Luckily, I was the second person to jump out of the plane, so I only needed to see one other person fling out of the plane before I ended up doing it myself. Jumping out of the plane was absolutely crazy, I couldn’t tell you if I was scared or just in shock, but it was amazing. Freefalling was one of the most incredible experiences ever, and the view definitely helped as I flew down into the coast.

I’m not sure how much time passed, but my instructor ben finally released the ‘chute, and we slowly descended to the ground. The views were absolutely insane, as the coastal beaches looked amazing and the ocean spanned out for miles. The best part was landing on the beach in the sand, being on ground and realizing what I had just done. Absolutely incredible!

Once I got on land however, I was extremely motion sick and had to sit down and try not to pass out or throw up for a good 30 minutes. But the pictures, and this video I made, are absolutely hilarious, and if you don’t laugh at the amount of facial expressions I make throughout this jump then you clearly don’t have a soul.

Also, fun fact, one of the pictures I posted of me skydiving on instagram got posted on the University of Michigan alumni page and then i made this video – check it out!

https://vimeo.com/218346714

5.12 the parentals arrive!!

Today was the day that I was waiting for since Tommy left Australia, the parentals being in town!!!!! I was so excited to the muther and futher as I hadn’t seen them in about 3 and a ½ months, so when they texted me that they had made it to the hotel and were about to grab breakfast, I jumped out of bed and headed downtown to see them (and get that free breakfast).

After being reunited and catching up over breakfast, mostly showing them my skydiving pictures and videos, we headed out on the town. We started off at the Rocks and walked around the cute markets across from the opera house. Suprisingly, Dad made the first purchase of the trip buying some interesting wind thing that will definitely be hung up in LBI somewhere. Then we walked along the harbor before hopping into a water taxi for a tour around the harbor.

The best part about this water taxi was that no one else was on it, so we basically had our own private tour of the harbor where we got to see the opera house, the nazy base, the botanical gardens, darling harbor and the bridge! We got out at darling harbor and decided to walk around for a bit, Dad somehow go us to go into the maritime museum, where I almost fell asleep on an interactive museum exhibit, so that was our cue to head back to the hotel, where dad and I took some quick power naps.

That night, the parentals then came to Bondi Junction to check out my pad and grab dinner near me. We headed to the zebra green hotel, a favorite of my roommates and I in Bondi Junction, for some dinner. The jetlag of flying was finally hitting Mom and Dad, so they headed home where I headed out for the night with Jess. We went out in a neighborhood called Darling Harbor, one of the areas that we saw on our boat tour, and it was so fun. All of the bars and clubs are right on the water so they are all indoor/outdoor with great music, needless to say we had a blast.

5.13 fun in the sun, fun in coogee

Now that the parentals had a solid night sleep and hopefully no more jetlag, we started the day off with doing the Bondi to Coogee walk and Monica joined us on the adventure. The walk was quite hilarious with mom and dad for some reason, we took it slow and stopped at every chance we had to take pictures. 10 minutes in we even ran into Grant, one of my friends here, and we ended up chatting for a bit….

Along the way we found a cute park to play on, walked through the cemetery, and hit up the beaches before finally making it to Coogee for a nice late lunch. We ate at Jack Horner’s and we all had a great meal before mom and I decided to do some shopping in the neighborhood, and since Monica isn’t a huge fan of shopping she gave dad company in a coffee shop.

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Here we went our separate ways, Monica and I headed home to shower and decompress and mom and dad did the same. Once we were all freshened up, I headed back down to Coogee with Jess to meet them for dinner. We ate at the Coogee Pavilion and then ended up heading upstairs to the bar after for some good times. Dad was on top of buying drinks and we hung out since I am legal here, it was a fun night filled with lots of tequila shots. We were going to head to a different bar around midnight, but Helen the lightweight had to tap out for the night and head home…..

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5.14 mother’s day

Unfortunately, the weather today was not as bright as Mother’s personality (cue the awwwwhhs), as we experienced some rain, but I met up with the parentals for a nice breakfast before heading out tho the Kirribilli markets. These markets are located on the other side of the bridge, across from the Opera House in northern Sydney. We walked around, and enjoyed the looking through the thrift shop section and then the art a design section, and then dad was just about done with the markets, so we were on to the next activity…

We then hopped in quite possibly the most painful Uber ever taken, as the driver’s car smelt terrible and kept repeating the same things over and over and over again, I was literally dying and extremely carsick. When we arrived at Manly beach, I nearly kissed the ground as we got out of the uber, but we were off exploring and I had no time to do such thing.

We walked through the quaint town, and it was actually nice in the rain because it wasn’t as crowded as it usually is. Even though it was raining, it was still nice to explore the cute streets of Manly, it’s a nice beach town that at points reminded me of LBI just a lil bit…

Then I just had to take Mom and Dad to experience Doughnut Time, a very famous Australian donut chain that we love and only eat on occasion (because if we ate them everytime we wanted to wed be fat AF) We grabbed our donuts, some coffee and tea, and headed to the dock to wait for our ferry back to the city center.

After the ferry, mom and dad were off to Melbourne, so I was off to my apartment to get some homework done for the upcoming week…

5.15-16 school

school is super fun (detect the sarcasm), but on Tuesday I accompanied Monica to get some dreadlocks in the park which was interesting. She tried to convince me to get some as well, but that was definitely not happening haha

5.17 outback bound

Today I was outback bound to meet up with the parentals again, they had been in Melbs doing all the cool melby things while I was in class… I met up with them at the hotel before we went to dinner at one of three restaurants in the town. Mom and I got kangaroo steaks, she wasn’t a big fan, but I liked it, and the fries were awesome.

Mom signed us up for stargazing tour, so we walked out into a field area and leaned back and could look up at the stars. It was so clear, and since we were in the middle of freakin no where, and it was actually pretty amazing. Usually I’m not a huge fan of these star tours, but this one was interesting. The tour guide explained things in a way that didn’t go completely over our heads, and I got to fully see the southern cross star constellation (my tattoo) and that was incredible (im not very good at finding constellations on my own). Then we dipped out early because it was cold, and they started showing us stuff in the telescope and it al looked pretty much the same. So we headed back to the room and got a good night sleep so we were all rested to do out big tour of the rock.

5.18 outback steakhouse

So the main attraction of the Outback is this giant red rock called Uluru and another cluster of giant rocks called Kata Juta (I think). So today we woke up and headed to Uluru to go around the rock, it was a 10 km trail which we decided to bike instead in order to make it go faster (biking was too slow, and tbh would have taken like 4-5 hours).

So we hopped on our bikes and started the trail. The rock was pretty incredible, its quite literally in the middle of nowhere and once you get up close to it, the massive-ness is enough to make your jaw drop. Unfortunately it doesn’t photograph that well when you get up close, mainly because it doesn’t fit into your camera frame at all. The rock also has lots of little coves, that’s what Ill call them, where you can walk in closer to the rock to see where the aboriginal people lived and some watering holes.

So this is where the bike tour got interesting. We left our bikes at one of the cove walking points, and we walked in literally for 15 minutes maybe (because there wasn’t much to see) and when we walk out, I notice that we have one less bike and of course that one less bike is mine, so someone had stolen it. Cue a grand theft auto moment by Helen Polise, as she immediately interogatted the tour group passing by, asking if they had seen someone take the bike, and turns our people saw a Japanese lady take the bike. So Mom hops on hers and legit tears ass down this dirt path in the direction they said the lady went, meanwhile, dad is walking up to this whole situation and I tell him the whole ordeal and he hops on his bike to give mom back up (he doesn’t quite tear ass like Helen, hes hitting a calm pace).

So there I am now, I don’t really know exactly what to do, because now im just thinking I have to walk around the rest of the damn rock and we weren’t even halfway there. So on I go walking, bike-less, parent-less, down this path, and 5 minutes into my walk I see mom in the distance riding her bike with another bike rider. Helen successfully Grand Theft Outbacked and retrieved the bike for me, and don’t worry, she even took a picture.

The rest of the bike around Uluru definitely wasn’t as eventful, more scenic and pretty. We finished the tour around noon and then headed back to the resort area for some lunch and showers before we headed out to a camel tour!

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Now I was really excited for this camel tour, it has been a strange goal of mine on my bucket list to ride a damn camel and the day finally happened (even though dad was less than thrilled that we were camel riding). But we took a bus to the farm, and hopped on to our camels for the night. I got the joy of riding Pete, the second tallest camel, and Mom and Dad rode Stumpy (idk why mine had such a boring name like come on). We were off on our way, and the camels went pretty damn slow, but I really enjoyed it, I thought it was really fun and it didn’t hurt that the cowboy leading our group was quite good looking…

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An hour or so later, we made it to the lookout point where they had an open bar waiting for us! I definitely took advantage of this and drank some champagne, and so did Mom. She bravely had three glasses and was very loopy (what a lightweight). They also provided some hor’deuvers, which honestly were pretty gross, so we just drank some more (which was not a good idea for Mom) until the sun set.

Once the sun was down, the Field of Lights started to illuminate. It was this installation art piece in front of the rock that was really cool, it was hundreds of thousands light orbs changing color in the field, and since it was so dark it was the only illumination in the middle of nowhere, so that was pretty cool. We were able to walk through the whole thing which was amazing, although extremely hard to photograph, I promise it’s pretty.

5.19 sunrises and sleeps

Since mother signed us up for an activity to keep us busy every hour of the day, today we were signed up to go on a sunrise tour. So we all had to drag our asses out of bed around 5:30, and I was not a fan of this. We met for the bus and it was cold and dark and I just wanted to be back in bed. But there we were, in a van with a bunch of old people, driving to Uluru in the dark.

Our tour guide took us to a small area where no other tour groups were which was pretty nice, as we got the views all to ourselves. But we got to the lookout point about 40 minutes before the sunrise was actually going to happen, but he came prepeared with hot drinks and food. Mom and I absolutely obsessed over his gluten free banana bread that was literally to die for, I don’t think I‘ve ever eaten such a delicious gluten free thing EVER. Besides that, the sunrise was pretty cool and beautiful, it didn’t rise over the rock, but all the colors in the sky and the area were pretty insane and cool.

After the sunrise, our tour guide then took us on a “hike” aka we walked about 10 minutes and then would stop for him to tell stories for 10 minutes and the cycle would continue. It was interesting, but we read all the stories he told the day before, so we just hung out. Then, on the drive back, he took us the scenic route along the rock and there was something about being in the car that just made me fall asleep in the middle of his stories and of course I was sitting in the front right next time him, he had no problem calling me out once I woke up, but hey I was tired and his stories, no offense, were boring.

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We got back to the hotel around 9:30, so we ate breakfast and then were forced to checkout of our hotel at 10:30 even though the shuttle to the airport wasn’t until noon. I just took another nap in the lobby, then when we got to the airport and on the plane, I slept the whole flight. Sunrises really take all the energy out of you.

5.20 money is only good…

I met up with Mom and Dad today to show them around the downtown city area. There are a couple of beautiful buildings and shopping centers that dad just needed to see. So we started off going to the Strand Arcade, it’s a beautiful alleyway with high end shops. We also walked through the Pitt Street Market area and saw a cool street performer drumming on some paint buckets (was a lot cooler than it sounds I promise).

Dad was then on a mission to buy me a pair of new shoes after seeing me wear my 8 year old converse. I was hesitant, mine had such character and had been so worn in they were practically molded to my feet. Two stores later, we had successfully found the exact same pair of shoes so we got them, dad was very pleased to see me in shoes that weren’t falling apart and brown…..

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Then we randomly decided to go to Bondi Beach since the sun had finally come out. We hopped in that uber and hung out along the strip of stores. Mom and I went shopping for some souvineer type of shirts, Dad wasn’t pleased with how long we took in the store, but we were in no rush. We hung out around Bondi for the rest of the afternoon, before heading back to my place to pack. Since I will be traveling for three weeks after I finish school, I had mom take my large duffel bag and we put pretty much everything in the duffel, so now my wardrobe is literally limited to two pairs of pants, three shirts, and a jacket, basically a dude wardrobe……..

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That night we went out to dinner in Newtown, it’s a cool neighborhood outside of the city that’s supper hippie and trendy. Unfortunately, we got recommended to literally the worst and overpriced restaurant that ever existed, the food was shared plates of the strangest food ever, talk about portion control and no overeating that night.

After dinner, Monica and I went bar hopping around the neighborhood which was super cool and fun, finally a neighborhood with no cover at ever door and EXTREMELY LOCAL! It only took us the whole semester to discover the neighborhood we wished we lived in instead.. next time.

5.21 adios amigos

Today was the last day with the parentals L I didn’t really plan any activities because we just wanted to have a chill day. Dad wanted to start the day by swimming at the Bondi Icebergs Swim Club, so while he did that Mom and I walked around and went shopping and just hung out. We even hit up the beach for a little bit, but for some reason it was not pleasant at all… So we got up and headed into a small café for some lunch.

There we met one of the most gorgeous humans I have ever encountered, but of course he was from the USA so boo to that. We got a really good brunch there, I was in the mood for some breakfast so it ended up being the perfect find and WAY better than our meal from the night before.

We then headed back downtown to the Rocks Market, where we started our week together on their first day. The markets today, however, were massive in comparison to the previous week. So again, Mom and I paroozed the area and did just a lil shopping before heading to the Opera House to take some family pictures.

Dad was failing as a photographer, so I had to step in to help mom recreate her photos from the 80s. Dad wanted to walk inside the Opera House, but it was closed, so that was a no go, but at least he got to feel the roof of it hahaha what an engineer…..

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That night, I picked the restaurant to ensure it would be a good meal, so we headed to the Meat and Wine Co. for one of the most delicious meals of all my study abroad time. Dad and I split a ribs platter because I’m basically the third son he never had as I nawed on some ribs in the most ladylike fashion…….. not………

Once we were sufficiently stuffed, we were generally disappointed with their dessert options, so we went back to the hotel. We got some fried ice cream and a nutella pizza as we enjoyed our last moments together before I left and they were off to go back to America….

MOM AND DAD – I am so happy you guys came (and fed me) because it was one of the most fun weeks ever, so many laughs and I didn’t even get too annoyed with Dad (although he was clearly done with when we all sat in the same row home from Uluru but switched seats). Can’t wait to see you (and the rest of the fam) in just a month, don’t forget, I land at 6pm on June 28th and if you’re late to the airport… well you don’t want that to happen hehehe

Birthday Radius!!!!

May 7, 2017

After an exhausting week in Thailand, it took all of us a bit of time to recover. We spent most of Sunday and Monday doing homework and taking naps periodically. And by the end of the week we were all rested up and ready to be tour guides to our two friends visiting from Melbourne and Gold Coast! Lindsay and Nick arrived on Friday afternoon and we had quite the weekend showing them around ~our~ city. 4.28tourist for the evening

Once Nick and Lindsay arrived, we took them to the Sydney Harbor to see the Opera House and Bridge. It was exciting taking someone else there, because they were so excited to see everything and take pictures. We hung out for a while before meeting up with the rest of our roommates to get dinner.

Our initial plan was to go to a restaurant called Bar Luca, but the wait was over an hour, so we used google maps and found this insane hole-in-the-wall basement restaurant called Contrabando. It was quite the hard fine, as the entrance to the restaurant was a small graffiti door with a sign the size of a piece of normal paper. So once we found it, we all sat and got tacos and quesadillas. I got a hamburger quesadilla and it was amazing, the combination of my two favorite things, Mexican and cheeseburgers.

That night, we all went out to Scary Canary, it’s a backpacking bar downtown and it’s a lot of fun because the music is amazing and we spent the whole night dancing which was a ton of fun.

4.29 thrifting

We all woke up on the later side this morning, but once we were all alive and coherent, we headed to the Glebe Markets. It’s a 40 minute bus ride into downtown Sydney area, but once we got there it was so cool. It’s a market but most of the shops are vintage and second hand clothing thrift shops selling clothes, so all the pieces are pretty unique and cool. Some booths have super expensive clothes (like who are you asking for $70 for a smelly shirt) but then other booths have $10 racks where you can get some pretty cool clothes. I ended up purchasing a cool floral dress (which I wore on my birthday J)

Since we had a dude with us, we didn’t wanna spend too much shopping and bore him out of his mind, so once I was satisfied, we went to the food truck area where we got the best nachos I’ve ever eaten. They were so damn good, but the meal was quickly ruined as a bird pooped on me as soon as I finished. Luckily Eva, our resident mom, had some wet wipes in her bag and I was able to get most of the poop out of my hair. Needless to say, that was a good enough reason to start heading home.

We were all pretty exhausted from the night before, so we all took some power naps before heading out to a nice dinner. We went to a small restaurant around the corner from our apartment called Zebra Green Hotel, where we had the MOST delicious meal of our lives. I got wings and corn fritters and it was yum delish.

On the way home is where it starts to get really exciting though. We stopped at the liquor store to get drinks and when I got home, I was absolutely shocked to walk into the apartment to a surprise birthday party for me. I had no clue at all, and all my friends from the other neighborhood came down and I cannot explain how shocked and happy I was, I even cried….

We played some drinking games, and ate some cake before we headed to the bar El Topo for a fun night. We had to get there before 10, which is always pretty lame so that we wouldn’t have to pay cover to get into the bar. But it was a good time, I got Eva to take her first tequila shot and her first jagerbomb throughout the night. We spent the night dancing, and Monica spent the night shouting at people that “ITS HER BIRTHDAY” so it felt like the whole bar was aware.

4.30naps around Sydney

Today we officially were all pretty exhausted from two long nights out. At the end of the day, we coined today as the “Napping Tour of Sydney”. We took our guests Nick and Lindsay to Manly Beach in the morning, it’s quite a hike where you need to take a nice scenic ferry across the harbor, but once you get there it’s a cute beach town that is so quaint. We got some smoothie bowls before having our first nap of the day.

Once we were overheating from the sun, we headed back on the ferry and we all kinda took naps again on the ferry since we got the un-scenic seats on the boat ride there wasn’t much to see. Once we were back in downtown Sydney, we walked through the Royal Botanical Gardens and found a nice little park with a really cool view of the opera house and the bridge, so again we sat and hung out and we didn’t necessarily nap, but we definitely could have if we wanted since it was so peaceful. Eva and I are planning on returning here for a picnic one day.

5.1 + 5.2class

school isn’t great. This weekend everyone at Michigan finished up the school year and we still got a month left. Oh well… im in Australia so I definitely got the better end of the deal

5.3 MY BIRTHDAY AKA THE BEST DAY OF THE YEAR

Today was my birthday!!!!!!!! I am officially 21 and legally able to drink in the whole wide world. The day started with Monica christening my room with balloons while do an early morning rendition of happy birthday, we then got a simple breakfast at the diner in Bondi Junction.

Afterwards, I decided to treat myself to a nice pedicure before heading to class to do a presentation. 3 hours later, I was back home and getting ready for the night. All my roommates, except Nina who was MIA, joined me for a nice dinner back at the Zebra Green Hotel again, it was easy, close, and the food was delicious so we figured why not return. Eva even gave them a five-star rating on Yelp, so we know it's gonna be worth it.

We started the celebration with some sparkling sangria which was delicious, and the kind waiter gave us a jug on the house. We enjoyed our amazing meals, yet again, before heading home. We had some cupcakes and vodka for dessert, we all got to witness Eva take her first ever vodka shot which was a true honor. Then we headed off to World Bar for a night out on the town.

I must say the day was fun but bittersweet as it was my first birthday ever away from home. Special shoutout to Monica for organizing a surprise party and making sure I was happy every hour of the day, to Eva, for ensuring Monica had a plan, to Bashon and Nick for buying the tequila and jagerbombs at the bar – you guys are the true MVPs, and to all my friends here in Sydney who I’ve only known for two months, but made the birthday radius an amazing time.

5.4hungover n lazy

Spent the morning basically in bed, did not realize how much alcohol I had consumed the night before until I was laying in bed and the room was spinning, whoops, but im 21 now so its okay (right?). That day was pretty lazy, I accompanied Monica to Bondi because she wanted to so surfing, but that didn’t really work out as the surf stands were closed (because its winter here aka 60 degrees).

We ended up just relaxing on the beach for a while and hanging out. Even though it was cold, I actually wore jeans and a sweatshirt, it was pleasant. The beach was empty, which is always nice since Bondi is always packed and you literally have to sit on people when its sunny. We got some smoothie bowls before heading home.

Everyone was exhausted from the birthday week, we had gone out way more nights that usual, so we all hung out at home and had a chill chill much needed night.

5.5 Cinco de Drinko!

Cinco de Mayo, my favorite holiday after my birthday.

Today we went to Luna Park, TEAN provided us with tickets and meal vouchers so we hiked our way over, it’s a small amusement park on the water across from the Opera House. It reminded me of a smaller Coney Island type of place, the rides were not Six Flags grade by any means, this was just your classic, sketchy carnival rides. The park was also completely empty which was so nice, so we started on the carousel, and it was fun, but I mean I enjoy six flags better.

We hit basically every ride in the park, even the bumper cars, where some rando slammed me into a wall giving me whiplash, which made every other ride extremely unpleasant. But as the sun started to set all the lights went on and it was really cool.

When we went to get food, we met a guy named Nathan working at the food stand and he was hilarious. We ordered hot dogs, hamburgers, and fries (he gave them to us for free even though they weren’t included in the voucher), and each time he would imitate our American accent pretty terribly. While we waited for our food, we talked to him about study abroad and he said we were his new favorite friends and to come back and get more food so that we can hang out more. Later we did, because my hot dog was literally terrible, so I had to get more fries. Nathan hooked me up with free fries so that was pretty awesome.

We headed home, and then we actually decided to go out to a cool club/bar place that night. Who are we? Going out so much? The place we went was called the Argyle and it was Uni Night so there was no cover to what otherwise is a higher class bar. The place was really cool, it was outdoors and hip, with that exposed brick. We had a fun night dancing but have really decided we need a long break from alcohol after this past week……

5.6 Saturday markets

We seem to have made a trend of visiting different markets on Saturdays since there are so many in Sydney. Today Eva and I headed to the Sydney Markets. They were absolutely beautiful, all the carts were so quaint with food and the buildings were old abandoned warehouse types that were now just open spaces for these markets. There were also florals and fauna all over the arches and everything, just overall a beautiful space to be in.

We grabbed lunch at the Coffee Grounds and it was absolutely delicious. Eva got some deconstructed mocha, because its one of those hipster type places that puts your food and drinks in test tubes.

Instead of taking the bus home, we decided to take a scenic walk to the train station. We stumbled upon another large warehouse that was holding some antique markets, so we walked in and just had a browse. There were lots of cool things I wish I could have bought, but it was also things not easily transportable back to the states, so that dream had to die.

It was an action packed week, and now I need to rest up as the parentals will be down unda this friday!!!!!!

SUN SUN SUN

April 9, 2017

This weekend was suuuuuuper chill as the sunshine finally returned to Sydney. Spent most of the weekend just chilling and relaxing at the beach :) 4.6 Bronte Beachhh

The weather in Sydney is FINALLY living up to the expectations with all the sunshine we got this past and today. I started my day with heading to the bookstore, purchasing a book, and heading to Bronte Beach. It was a 15 minute bus ride, but once I got there the beach was fairly empty and the weather was perfect. I laid my towel out, and hung for a few hours before grabbing lunch at one of the local cafes along the beach.

Really enjoying doing these solo adventures around Sydney, its fun to explore and not worry about other people (as harsh as that sounds) but its awesome! Hopefully I can do some bigger and longer solo adventures in the future!

4.7 Maroubra Beach

The sunshine continued! What a shocking surprise, so Monica and I trekked our way down to Maroubra beach on the worst 40 minute bus ride ever that induced so much car sick ness. But once we got there, again it was wonderful. Maroubra is definitely a more local beach, and not as packed as Bondi, so we enjoyed all the personal space we could have. We got there later in the day, we went into the Maroubra town to grab some late lunch/early dinner at Inferno Grill, where I had quite possibly the greatest burger and fries on the planet. Better than burger palooza, it was INSANE. Didn’t even take a picture because I just wanted to eat it haha.

4.8 Wattamolla Beach

Today was our adventure day, as Monica, Grant, his two friends visiting, and I rented a car for the day and drove into Royal National Park to Wattamolla Beach to go cliff jumping! Grant had been there previously and was leading the way. The beach was about an hours drive, so we got on the road at about 10 in the morning, and made a Macca’s (mcdonalds) stop as well as a beer stop (the beers were for later), and then we were on our way again.

Once we got into the park, we all lost cell service, put our phones away, and that was it for the day, didn’t touch the phones again, and we honestly didn’t even miss them. We got to the beach and it was absolutely beautiful, it stretched out really far and this strange river ran through it with rock formations, and that is where we cliff jumped. We set our stuff down and lathered on the sunscreen before heading into the water.

To get to the top of the cliff you had two options, walk along the hiking path (easier option) or climb up the rockers spiderman style (harder option). So naturally, I opted for the spidey option, because who doesn’t feel the need to scale rocks and risk the potential for a concussion or paralyze-ation? So I climbed up the damn rocks, and damn it was tough. If dad were there, he definitely would be commenting on how not nimble I was, so I soldiered on. Some of the rock steps I literally had to bring my leg all the way up to boob height just to get onto the first step so you can imagine me struggling a lot through this one, as Grant (who is over 6 foot) easily traversed. Finally, and cautiously, I made it to the top of the rock and walked to the edge. It was kinda scary being up so high, but I was soooo excited to jump that I volunteered to go off first and literally ran out.

Being airborne for that long was crazy, it was a 30 feet cliff or so (?) and there is a point when you are in the air falling that you can just look around at everything and its just insane. But then you hit the water. And if you are a girl DAMN IT HURTS because female bathing suits naturally give you a wedgie, so when you enter the water with the force of a 30 foot jump that sucker just wedges right up the butt and it quite honestly is one of the strangest pains I have ever experience. Despite that, I was literally on an adrenaline high because IT WAS SO FUN JUMPING. I watched everyone else go, and because the water was really cold, we decided to lay out for a bit and toast up before we went up again.

We hung out on the chill-est beach ever and watched people jump and we saw some really bold people do some tricks off the cliff. We brought a football, so clearly we stuck out like a sore thumb when we started throwing it around and everyone else is playing with rugby balls. We didn’t really care, we just kept going and hanging out. We walked more towards the ocean side of the beach (as the cliff was near the river side) and we walked along these rocks, and again, another physical activity challenge of the day as it was high tide and most of the rocks were underwater, so our walking rocks were limited. But we still made it out pretty far to these amazing views.

We headed back to the river side to make a final jump before we left for the day, as the sun was setting. So we took our final jumps, this time I opted for the easier option of walking to the top of the cliff via a longer path rather than the spidey climb. It was just as fun, and we went in groups this time and you literally cant help but laughing and smiling so wide as soon as you come up above the water, it just feels so good and who knows why.

We packed up camp and headed home around sundown and caught some amazing sunset views over the national park on the way home. Ten minutes into the ride, the car took a turn for the worse as everyone in the car, besides me, decided to buy a nice cup of 7-11 coffee. So if you know me at all, you know that in the past my dad’s one cup of coffee + the car DO NOT MIX as vomiting on the side of the road was a usual result of those two, so now we got FOUR CUPS OF 7-11 COFFEE + 45 MINUTES OF JERKY CAR RIDE, I thought I wasn’t going to make it. I physically had to cover my nostrils, stare out the window, and not participate in conversation, since I already wasn’t feel too hot.

Luckily I survived the car ride without vomiting, and Monica and I were so exhausted we passed out shortly after arriving home.

4.9 BBQ in the park

I started my day with a nice workout and then I was a little beached out after three full days, so I decided to go with Monica to a BBQ her church was throwing! It was in a park along Bronte beach and was super chill. We got some free food and hung out, overall a very chill way to end a chill ~authentic~ (we think) australian weekend :)

day 2 day

April 5, 2017

3.27 more sun, but will it stay? Monday it was sunny so after class I decided to the coastal walk from Coogee Beach to Bondi Beach. The walk is right along the beaches, and there are also some cliff areas where you can get some absolutely gorgeous views… only if you hop the fences and ignore the CAUTION signs, which of course I did. At one point, I did sit on the edge of a cliff and was momentarily terrified when I was trying to stand up and a gust of wind came, whoops!

I kept going on the walk and it was stunning view after view. Gordon’s Bay was a tiny little cove with disheveled boats along the beach, and then there was a detour so I had to walk through Waverly Cemetary, which was creepy, but also insanely beautiful. Finally I arrived at Bronte Beach, and since I have already hung out at Bondi multiple times, I decided to cut my walk short and try out a new beach. This beach was smaller, and quiet so I laid out my towel and actually fell asleep immediately. It was a nice nap, but the wind was still really strong and making me cold so I decided to head home.

3.28/29class

RIP sunshine, it was pouring Tuesday and Wednesday.

3.30 rainy Thursday

I woke up to rain, again, so I walked around the mall and Bondi Junciton for a bit to kill some time. Eva and I got lattes and a muffin at a really cute coffee shop within the mall, and for the first time ever, I got latte art on my chai tea latte, it was so purty!!

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As the rain continued, we ventured to the Olympic Park outside of Sydney to watch a rugby game that TEAN had coordinated for us. It was cold and dreary but also really exciting to be in the Olympic area, the stadium was huuuuuggggeeeee but completely empty, definitely did not meet the standards of game days in the big house at Michigan by any means. Despite the rain, we watched some rugby (not understanding the rules one bit) and we eventually snuck upstairs to the fourth floor VIP-ish area and snagged some dry spots, which saved the day.

3.31SUN HAS ARRIVED

THE SUN HAS RETURNED!!!!

It was a happy day waking up to (semi) clear skies. As many of our friends were going on a wine tour, Eva and I took the day to explore around Sydney. We started our day heading up to Watson’s Bay, it was a 40 minute bus ride but once we got there the bay was so chill. You could see the Sydney skyline from the beach, but the beach of Watson’s bay only extended a few feet before the water came up, so there wasn’t much space to lay out and enjoy the sun, so we kept walking.

We went to the next beach 5 minutes away called Camp Cove and it was this super cute secluded beach. There was a little gazebo out into the water, where there was a whole production crew shooting a scene for something. The scene looked pretty dumb, but it was funny to watch from a distance.

Eva and I laid out our towels at this and hung out at the beach for about 2 hours just chatting and enjoying the rare sun and the beautiful view. The beach was empty and it was so nice it felt like we had the whole place to ourselves, until some rando guy came and plopped down literally 5 five away from our towels giving us weird looks, so we decided we were getting a little toasted from the sun and left.

We headed back to Watson’s Bay where we caught the ferry to Circular Quay (pronounced Key) which is the Sydney Harbour/Opera House area, where we decided to grab some lunch. Eva ordered a VIRGIN pina colada which absolutely killed me considering, we are legal here and she is 21. Our lunch was decent, nothing to write home about (haha get it), and afterwards we headed back to our apartment. We chilled and cooked dinner later that night, and ended up having a chill night at home.

4.1 April Fooooools

Today I was in charge of my professional frats snapchat, so I was determined to make the day as action packed as possible and show everybody back home a virtual tour of Sydney. Eva joined me and we were on our way to the first stop, the Opera House. Again, it was a beautiful day so we walked and took some pics, and spontaneously decided to get some mimosas at the Opera Bar, and they were damn delicious. Since we hadn’t even eaten breakfast yet, we both got a lil buzzed off the cocktail which was quite comical.

Our next stop of the day was Burgapalooza. Eva heard about this food festival from some other girls in our program, and I honestly couldn’t think of a food festival more up my alley. So we got our booties down there and were so ready for some amazing burgers. We got there early enough that we got our first round of burgers within 10 minutes. I got a burger with cheddar, bacon, gravy, and hash browns and it was TO DIE FOR. If I could eat one burger for the rest of my life, it would probably be that one. I INHALED IT. I loved it so much, that I almost got a second, but then decided to try something different, like banana donut fries that were, again, to die for. So amazing, so full, so great.

After the fair we headed home, I rested and digested for a bit before I decided that I needed to go on a run because of all the food I had consumed. So I attempted a run, it wasn’t a very successful run, as my headphones died two minutes in and it was mostly down hill, but hey I got out of the apartment. I ran to the beach and sat there for a while to relax, before taking a bus back home (lol this is the way to run).

That night, Eva and I were on our own, as mostly everyone we knew wanted to go to a casino, and if you know me and my brother Jonathan, youll know I’m not a huge fan of casinos, and have to save up all the casino juices for the ONE day I will go with him this summer now since I will be 21.

4.2 brunch and a boring day

This morning, Jess, Eva and I decided to get brunch at Bondi Beach at a place called Speedo’s Café. We waited 20 minutes for a table/bar seating at the window where I ordered a beautiful smoothie bowl. Even though it was stunning, the bowl was not filling whatsoever, and tbh, not as good as the cheap acai bowls I get at the lunch stands. Other than brunch, it was a lazy day and we hung out and did homework.

Sundays are such lazy days, especially when its cloudy and gloomy.... is that how Sydney normally is?? let me know haha

chill week down unda

March 29, 2017

3.20-22 reminder, im a student! After the Melbourne excursion, it was time to come back to a (sweet) reality back in Sydney. Since father constantly asks about my studies, I figured I would give you all an update of some of the projects I am doing in class.

First, my painting with color class I completed my first project which is this color wheel. Looks pretty simple, but would you believe me if I told you I made all 72 of those colors just using red, yellow, blue, and white? Because that’s what I did, and it took over 15 hours… and it still isn’t perfect according to my teacher oh well, still pretty proud as it look cohesive and pretty correct if I do say so myself. I also made a landscape painting to go with it, but I forgot to take a picture of it before I handed it in....

Second, my photography class. The class was titled “Photography: The Place and Everyday”, so I was under the assumption that this class was all about landscape and day to day street photography, (in a Donald Trump voice I internally scream) WRONG. In this class, we are learning large format film photography, quite the adjustment having only shot digitally my entire photography career.

Regardless, there was quite the learning curve, but I actually am pretty decent at film photography. We use this ginormous camera that literally weighs 20 pounds and takes about 30 minutes just to set up, but I feel like im back in the 1900s making historical photographs. But instead, its 2017 and we’re just a bunch of hipster art kids taking pictures of our shoes (because I forgot that we had to bring in objects). So here’s the negatives and screenshots of my first film photograph ever, my 8 year old converse, looking rugged and great, honestly this could be an advertisement for converse if I do say so myself.

My third art class is a visual communication class, I’m doing a project about drinking, so I’m just gonna wait till I finish that one before I put it up…. And then my last class is a history/philosophy class about computers, brains, and minds. Most of the time I sit in class and just get my mind blown by my Australian professor who talks about all this stuff about consciousness and what is a soul, what is a brain. Very deep stuff, but very interesting nonetheless….

3.23 exploring Sydney

After having my friend Lindsay show us around Melbourne last weekend, I decided that I needed to get better aquainted with Sydney the city. So mid day, after some homework and emails, I ventured into the rainy city to explore. I started off by walking through Hyde Park, and there are these beautiful fountains and buildings, and my plan was to just sit in the park and read (like I do in Union Square back home) but literally the second I sat down, it started raining a lot, so a change of plans was needed.

I ended up just walking in a random direction down a street that I didn’t recognize and I eventually stumbled upon the Strand Arcade. It’s basically an alleyway full of all these fancy shops, and I just walked in upon this really old Victorian (?) style building and the inside was literally beautiful. I ended up walking through the entire building just looking at all the details in the architecture because it was so stunning.

After I toured the building I met up with Eva, and I took Eva shopping, showing her the ways of Helen and Juli…. We worked up quite the appetite shopping so we decided to get some dinner, and again, we stumbled on this random place call Chef’s Market, and it had this INSANE chinese, Asian food. Since I was crazing fried rice and dumplings that’s what I got, and they were the best fried rice and dumplings I ever had! Eva got lamb and noodles and it was also pretty delicious. And for the finale we indulged in these emoji buns because how could we resist NOT ordering the emoji buns…. (although I got too excited to eat them and burning hot custard came out and literally burned my hand and left a mark haha if this isn’t class Juli I don’t know what is)

That night, as it continued to down pour, we had an impromptu karaoke night in our living room with some beer, it was a good time

3.24 a quasi beach day

Today it was cloudy with hints of sunshine peaking out here and there, so we decided to go to the beach! I also forgot swim suit bottons, so yeah lukcily my underwear matched my top today....We just hung out for like 45 minutes after getting lunch at Bondi, but it started raining L

That night, all our friends from Coogee beach came over and drank with us before we headed into downtown Sydney to a place called Star Bar. We ended up dancing the night away, and left our booties on the dance floor, I would call that my workout for the day for sure

3.25 paddington markets!

Today Monica and our new friend Hannah, ventured into Paddington, a town between Sydney and Bondi Junction (where I live) to go to the markets. It was really similar to the Queen Victoria Markets, but smaller and less repetitive, so I liked it better. I bought a fresh bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich before following up with an acai ice pop. Both two winners and both completely satisfying. The markets were super cute and had adorable stands with hand crafted art, clothes, and random things that were fun to look at.

The weather wasn’t too great, but I did gather up the energy and motivation to go for a run! I went and ran in Centennial Park, this park is like 5 mins away from my apartment, and whenever I run I try to explore a different part of the park. Today I found a little alcove by a pond, and decided to sit and relax (and made a futile attempt at doing an ab workout here) before I ran back home.

3.26 A REAL BEACH DAY

IT WAS THE FIRST COMPLETLEY SUNNY DAY IN THREE WEEKS, I REPEAT IT WAS THE FIRST COMPLETELY SUNNY DAY IN THREE WEEKS. So we went to the beach. And that was about it.

Great Ocean Road Trip Video

March 23, 2017

I forgot to include in my last post a video that I made with footage from the great ocean road trip!! It's a really cool video if i do say so myself, definitely worth the two minutes :)

https://vimeo.com/209308350

Weekend in Melbourne!

March 23, 2017

3.16 first weekend trip – MELBS This weekend me and most of my roommates (Monica, Eva, and Jess) went on a weekend trip to Melbourne with a bunch of our other friends. On Wednesday morning, we woke up at the literal crack of dawn (4:30 am) to catch our 7 am flight to Melbs. Once we got there, we locked our stuff up at the hostel we were staying at and headed to get some much needed mimosas and brunch.

We headed to a restaurant called Auction Rooms, and it was this trendy hipster place with a really cool vibe and awesome décor. When we sat down, the menu wasn’t exactly what we expected but in a good way, the meals, were literally brunch, a breakfast and lunch dish combined. I got a beef brisket and egg hash that was too die for and split it with my friend who got a breakfast nacho dish that was also to die for. And lets not forget about the amazing mimosa made with fresh squeezed orange juice that gave our exhausted selves a little bit of a buzz.

After the amazing brunch, we walked around our neighborhood for a while before deciding that we all needed naps if we wanted to go out that night, so we headed back to the hostel and got the best power naps of our lives.

Post nap, we then headed to met one of our friends, Lindsay, who was studying abroad in Melbourne. We meet her during orientation the first week and we were all really excited to see how her uni compared to Sydney. So, we hopped on the train and soon realized that we were in fact on the wrong train. As we all were talking trying to figure out where to go, a nice lady came over and offered us some help. We told her where we were going and she said she was passing it on the way home and could give us a ride, she reminded me of mom so i knew nothing bad would happen, and I was right. She dropped us off right where we needed to be with no worries.

Once we got to Deakin University, where Lindsay studied, we met up with her and grabbed dinner at a place on campus called the Diner. Since we hadn’t eaten since our brunch, and it was now almost 8pm, we were all starved and ordered cheeseburgers and pizza and fries to share. We all inhaled our food, then ordered a second serving of fries to go. And in classic American style, we walked into Lindsay’s apartment (which we thought would be empty) shoveling fries in to our faces as we introduced our selves to all of her friends lol. It ended up being a really fun night, as Lindsay took us to a college bar that reminded me of Michigan.

3.17-18the road trip begins!

So today Monica and I started off by picking up our rental car! Many of our friends were doing a tour of the great ocean road, but after hearing tommy and mitch rave about their adventures the previous week, we wanted to go on our own, plus we are sick of tours at this point.

Our day stated off by ubering to the rental car, where the nice uber man just told us all the things that could go wrong by renting a car, thanks a lot man. I tuned him out and did not entertain his doubts because I wanted it to be the best road trip ever. *insert lots of death stares to him in the rearview mirror, you know I got skills there*

We got in the car, and Monica drove first. It was a scary first couple of minutes because we had to drive the car out of the city while trying to figure out how to drive on the opposite side of the road and swap everything we ever learned. It was a stressfull 45 minutes, but we eventually made it to our first stop of the day.

Stop 1 Brighton Beach

This is the beach with all the tiny colorful houses lining the beach. All the houses were super cute and the beach had an amazing view of the skyline from the beach. We walked along the houses and they were all super cute, here we also instituted a rule that we need to use our cameras less and experience more, so for the first ten minutes we shoot and then just enjoy and experience the rest.

Stop 2 Angelsea Beach

We were getting ansty in the car after driving for 2.5 hours, so we decided to stop at a scenic lookout point when we got on the Great Ocean Road. This beach was really cool, and the waves were absolutely stunning. We didn’t stay too long here because it was really just a view of the beach….

Stop 3 Airey’s Inlet

This was the first major stop we made on the road. When we got there, we walked up a trail to a white lighthouse. Then from the light house, there were other paths to scenic lookout points. At one point here I ended up hopping the fence to go out on a cliff and walking out the edge which was amazing, we kept going farther and farther and it was awesome because we finally got away from the crazy tourist families with kids….

Stop 4 Lorne

This stop was unplanned as we were driving through this extremely cute town when I spotted a sign for a trampoline park. We immediately turned into a parking space and ventured out to find said trampoline park. When we found it, a man told us it was $5 for 10 minutes, we were so down, then he told us we could stretch it to 15 if we wanted. There were no papers, no waivers, no IDs photocopied, NOTHING, we just hoped on these bad boys and jumped away.

Jumping on these trampolines was honestly one of the most fun things ever, Monica and I could not stop laughing throughout the whole thing, so worth the five dollar, so worth it…

Stop 5 Sheok Falls

This was a random stop that I saw on google maps, but never saw mentioned in any blogs about the Great Ocean Road. We needed a break from driving so we took a chance and pulled over to this small stop. After lots of stair stepping we made it to this small oasis and it was just us....

Stop 6 Apollo Bay

We were starting to lose daylight and we were starving, so once we got to Apollo Bay, we spotted a Pizza place and ran to it. We ordered a large pizza and the men behind the counter definitely doubted our abilities, but we finished the whole pie in less than 10 minutes. After we ate, we strategized how to go about the rest of the day since the sun was setting in about two hours. We made a gameplan to skip Apollo Bay and the Cape Ottoway Lighthouse to go straight to the 12 Apostles and hopefully make it before sun down, so on we drove…

Stop 7+ 8 Lavers Hill

On the way to twelve apostles, there were beautiful hills and farms, so we stopped multiple times to get a nice picture and just in take the view. At one point, we made it to a stop where there were green hills on one side of the road, and a rocky cliff beach on the other. Just absolutely stunning.

Stop 9 Twelve Apostles

Tommy and Mitch were right in warning us how touristy the 12 apostles were, and especially because we made it just before sunrise. All the lookout points were backed, and luckily I found a spot by myself and just stayed there for the entiritey of the sunset. It was another absolutely amazing view and watching it over this scenic and important spot made the experience even better.

Stop 10 Coles

Stopped at the grocery store for some much needed ice cream and tim tams, we finished the liter of ice cream with no ragrets.

Stop 11 The Hostel

Our hostel is in a town in the middle of no where, we were a little scared driving up to it, but the place ended up being even nicer than the one we were staying at in the central Melbourne area, and they had a friendly cat!!!

Stop 12 Bay of Islands

Waking up was a hard thing to do, but when we did, we immediately rushed to our first spot in hopes of catching the sunrise, and we successfully did. We sat atop the roof of our car and watched the sunset over the hills, with our Tim Tams as our nutritious breakfast. Once the sunrise was over, we headed down to the scenic lookout points and again, absolutely incredible.

Stop 13 The Grotto

Our next stop was my favorite stop of the entire trip. We started by walking down this path to a beautiful outlook, then we continued down these wooden stairs and we were almost at water level. There was a brick fence thing, but we have taken fences as only a suggestion this far, so Monica and I hoped the fence and walked out as far as we cold on the rocks. After my experience at Coogee Beach, I was a little wary to get close to the water, but I did anyway. It was so beautiful that we set up my camera on a rock and took a picture together.

Stop 14 London Bridge

Another beautiful beach with beautiful rock formations, what can I say…

Stop 15 Loch Ard Gorge

Our 15th and final stop, we were sad to leave. But it was a great last stop as again more beautiful rocks surrounded us. As Monica and I sat and enjoyed the view, we stopped taking pictures and videos and really took in the experience of our last stop. We felt so lucky and happy to be in that moment, to have had the opportunity to see all the things we did. Each and every view was spectacular, views that I will never forget, this road trip was easily my favorite experience I’ve had abroad, and I have a feeling it will be hard to top….

3.19A Day in the City of Melbourne

With the road trip successfully behind us, we had the day to explore downtown Sydney. We started off at the Victoria Markets, which were incredible, it was basically a giant farmer’s and flea market in the middle of Melbourne. The first stands we say had amazing produce, we all sampled a peach and were immediately sold, so we all bought some peaches for breakfast and were chowing down (quite messily) down the aisles of the market.

We continued on just exploring the markets, I ended up buying a shirt from a local artist that had a Volkswagen camper on it to commemorate my road trip, its supa cute. Then we started to get hungry so I bought a cantelope half for lunch, and my friend Jami bought avocados and bread, so we had our own little homemade breakfast from the markets which was pretty unique.

Then we ventured further into the city to explore. We hit the Victoria State Library, which kinda reminded me of two Michigan libraries combined, and then we took the City Circle tram around the entire city just to see it all. Afterwards, we met up with our friend Lindsay (the one who is studying abroad in Melbourne) and she showed us around some lesser known spots. She took us to this hole in the wall Chinese place for late lunch/early dinner, where we got 30 dumplings, fried rice, and potato pancake things. All I can say was that it was incredible, we were stuffed, and we were content.

All in all it was a great first weekend trip! Exhausting and frustrating, as when I got to the airport I realized I booked a return flight for the wrong date, then had to scramble and buy a new ticket so that I wouldnt miss classon Monday..... quite the struggle but i made it, and im excited to keep explorinnnngggggg

bros abroad | dads down unda

March 14, 2017

3.3 tommy and mitch arrive! The first American visitors have arrived! This morning tommy and mitch arrived and came over to our apartment to say hello and hang out until their airbnb was ready. I was a kind sister and made them some eggs and toast to start the day. The weather was crappy so naturally we decided to go to the beach and go surfing, Tommy was able to convince most of my roommates to join us as well, so we headed to Bondi…

When we got there it was windy and the rain was whipping on us, but we still continued, because Tommy and Mitch are quite the motivators, and we went in the water, it was a pretty comical scene. My roommates and I were definitely struggling, Tommy seemed to catch some waves, but he also got badly stung by a jellyfish, so we ended up cutting our time a little short since it was getting miserable. Still quite the experience though…

That night Stef, Jess, Monica and I headed to the boys airbnb to have some drinks before we went out and it was quite the pregame. The first bar we went to ended up being quite the uphill hike that I was not expecting, and I got a lot of crap for leading the way, but it led us to a dive bar type place, called The Royal Hotel, that was really cool. There was live music and pool tables and no other Americans from our program so I was really happy with it, but some of my friends wanted to go to a club, in which we split up.

Then we headed to a different bar further south called the Pavilion that’s really popular, we went there for my friend Sara’s birthday the weekend previously and I knew they were very strict with ID-ing people, which caused me to freakout when I got out of our uber and realized that I did not have my ID on me at all. Cue the complete panic. Mitch started filming me on snapchat because Kelsey always does this apparently, so he sent a nice video out which was great….

Tommy, Monica and Mitch somehow talked me off the ledge and we decided to see if we could get into the bar regardless, and we randomly found a side door and just snuck right in as the bouncers literally stared us down. I was expecting them to come find us in the bar and kick us out, but we successfully were able to stay in the bar the rest of the night.

3.4 mardi parti

Exhausted from the night before, the morning was very slow, I went to breakfast with Monica and Eva around noon, then took a nap when I got home. The nap didn’t last long as I was awakened by my friend Sara jumping on my bed screaming “LETS GO ITS MARDI GRAS”. What a nice wake up call let me tell you, then I proceeded to get out of bed and go into the living room only to walk in front of about 15 people in a giant sweatshirt and that’s it. I had no idea they were going to be so many people and all I wanted to do was go back to bed.

But I rallied, I got ready and I got dressed, but I did not touch any alcohol as I started to get hungover from the night before, and Im not one of those people that can drink through their hangovers. But we all painted our faces and took lots of cute pics on the balcony and got ready to go.

Mardi Gras itself was crazy hectic, we ended up breaking off from the group pretty early on because we got to the city way too early. So my little group of Monica, Eva, and Kayla went and got coffee and then we ate at quite possibly the nicest McDonald’s that I have ever been to. In usual fashion, I ordered chicken nuggets and French fries, which I intended to share with Monica, but I ended up eating most of it due to my fast eating.

Then we went to a bar to meet up with Tommy, and we made it with five minutes left in happy hour, bonus! Once Tommy and Mitch arrived, we hung out at the bar for a little before heading to the parade. In true dad fasion, Mitch started talking to some older gentlemen at the bar the whole time we were their, then informed us he fell in love with them, lol.

The Parade was an absolute mess, the crowd was literally ten people deep, so clearly I knew I wasn’t going to be seeing much of the parade. But at one point Mitch and Tommy got on each others shoulders and I just about died laughing, when Mitch was on Tommy’s shoulders he was trying to take videos of the parade with his new and improved view, such a dad move yet again.

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We grabbed some food after the parade, then decided to head back to Bondi to go out somewhere less crowded. So Mitch and I took an uber and dropped Eva back at home, and Tommy and Monica took a separate uber. Mitch and I arrived in Bondi within 20 minutes, Tommy and Monica didn’t have such luck, as their first uber drove them in a circle then dropped them off right where he picked them up because he couldn’t figure out how to get out of the parade traffic. Get this, the uber driver still charged them $15 for the ride that LITERALLY got them no where. According to Monica, Tommy LOST HIS SHIT and was screaming out the window and going crazy. I’ve literally never seen Tommy go crazy and my roommate, who I’ve only known for two weeks, and only knew Tommy for two days, saw him lose all shit. Oh well. Mitch and I went to a bar and got pizza while we waited for them…. Quite the night.

3.5 surf open

Today was the Australian Open of Surfing, so we all decided to go and see some surfing at Manly Beach. The town is super cool and quaint, and if it wasn’t raining and gross out I would have taken so many pictures, but because of this we plan to return later in the week.

We got the area where the competition was, and it was pretty cool, but the waves weren’t that big and it wasn’t a super professional event, so the surfing was cool but not crazy. Mitch, Tommy, Kayla and I decided to get some food and out of the rain, so we headed to a restaurant called Daniel San, it was a really cool open restaurant (again if it wasn’t crappy out, it would be ten times nicer). But the vibe was great, the music was on point, so much so that we came back an hour later with my friends from TEAN.

It was a Sunday night and the weather was crappy, so I didn’t really feel like going out at this point, so I just hung out at home with my roomies and Tommy and Mitch apparently had a crazy night, that I still have to hear about……

3.6/7/8 school school school

Hey, you probably didn’t think I was doing anything school related? Well you guessed wrong! Not much happens on Mon through Wednesday because I literally have class and after class try and do the homework that’s due the next week so I don’t have to do homework on the weekend, I know I’m such an overachiever (insert me doing a hair flip or something)

On Wednesday night, Stef and I went to go hang out with Tommy and Mitch at their new airbnb in Surry Hills. According to one of my uber drivers, surry hills is like the West Village of manhattan, so just use that as a comparison for this neighborhood, especially as we tried to go out and discovered all the bars were gay bars. We gave one of them a shot, Tommy whipped out some solid dance moves and Mitch claimed to get hit on by a couple of men, but we soon decided to leave once the strip competition started…

We then headed into the downtown (central business district, CBD) to a different bar that was extremely empty, but the bar was still cool, definitely plan to revisit on a weekend night.

3.9 walking walking walking

Today we didn’t really have a plan at all, it was cloudy and kinda gross out, so I met up with Tommy and Mitch in Darling Harbor for lunch. We walked around for a bit, and we just kept walking and walking and it was cool to see a different part of the city. Then, we walked over the Sydney Harbor Bridge just for fun because we didn’t have any other ideas of what to do. Mom called us mid walk, and informed us to go to the Taronga Zoo, so we said why not, and headed in that direction

Before hitting up the zoo, Tommy and Mitch did some ~sick~ parkour and it was quite the sight. Then, we got in an uber with the coolest driver on the continent, he was giving us advice about what to do and informed us we could definitely get the zoo done within an hour. Boy was he right, we blitzed the zoo (partly because most of the animals were sleeping since it was the end of visiting hours), but we got to see three koalas hanging out in a tree and we were super close to them – fun fact, koalas sleep for about 20 hours every day and they only have the brain capacity to eat sleep and repeat. They even poop in their sleep to be efficient and not wake themselves up.

We were exhausted from all the walking, so we took the ferry back to the central business district of Sydney (CBD), before parting ways. I thought I was going to end up going out with them that night, but after a quick nap I felt really sick, so I stayed in with Monica and Eva and we watched 8 Mile, at Monica’s request because shes obsessed with 90s and 00s rap.

3.10 bluuuuuuuue mountains

I woke up to a bajillion text messages from Tommy, Mom, and Dad, first about how Tommy got kicked out of a bar, then second from the parentals about how Tommy lost his phone, then Tommy on his work phone about how he couldn’t find mitch… so yeah, you can imagine how crazy our morning was trying to get on the road to the blue mountains and do all of this. When we finally got in the car, we logged into Find My iPhone for Tommy, and we literally could see exactly where his phone was, literally the EXACT address. At one point, I even saw the phone move within the house, so we called the phone instantly, and Tommy’s cab driver from the previous night answered and agreed to meet him to return the phone. We immediately re routed ourselves to meet the cab driver, who was so nice and refused to take any money from Tommy for returning our phone. This is what I call the Tommy-Helen Luck, because for some reason Tommy and Mom always have the luck that things work out for them, but if this was myself or my dad, nope, the phone would be gone.

We finally got on the road to the blue mountains, we stopped at 7-11 to pick up a hearty breakfast of chicken salad sandwiches. About 2 hours later we arrived at the three sisters of the blue mountains, it was basically three rock formations that are all hanging out in the same area. It was really beautiful, and reminded me of the grand canyon, except more green, but it was soooo incredibly swamped with tourists, making the experience pretty unpleasant. We started walking along one of the trails in hopes of getting out of the complete touristy area, and it led us to these amazing views and a beautiful water fall.

Mitch always comes in clutch, running multiple paces or up many stairs ahead of Tommy and I in order to get an action shot of the two of us walking among the scenery. At one point, Tommy climbed the water fall, and used the water to cool off, only to come down and have me inform of a sign that says the water is contaminated from the local fire department near by, he spent the rest of the afternoon trying to wash his face off with bottled water…

We continued hiking and it was absolutely beautiful, we finished the hike and still had time to explore the area, so Tommy and Mitch went to the information center where they were told about an area called Wentworth falls, with an easy and fast hike that was doable on our ride home, so we decided to venture there next. However, we made a quick pit stop so that Tommy and Mitch could take some car modeling pics (this was a continuation of a trend from their Melbourne excursion where they rented a Mustang and took some photos, but this time, they modeled on top of a Nissan). So we found a nice park along the way and had a little photo shoot, I just about peed my pants and tried so hard no to take a blurry picture.

As we were driving away, the boys spotted a tour bus coming into the park and out of that bus came about 20 german girls on a tour hanging out around the lake. Tommy and Mitch quickly decided to turn the car around, and immediately ask the girls to join them in their pictures. Tommy walked up to the giant pack of girls first asking if “you ladies would like to take a picture with us”, they were confused, so Mitch came in, with maybe the most dad line of the entire trip asking “have you ladies heard of snapchat?” DEAD. Giggles erupted from the group, because DUH, a group of teenage girls know what snapchat is. As the boys continued to explain their idea, the girls actually took to it and joined in the picture. I remained the photographer, again trying not to take blurry pictures through my laughter.

We continued on to find Wentworth Falls, using a good ole fashion paper map, so it did take a little longer than usual. Since we were now cutting it short on time, thanks to the photo shoot, the boys started running through the Wentworth falls trail determined to make the one hour hike completed in 30 minutes so that we could make it back to go out on the town. So picture this: Mitch in the front, camera in hand, then Tommy behind him a couple of paces, and then me struggling with my camera and running behind many paces behind as we pass calm, tourists who are taking leisurely walks at dusk.

Once we got to the bottom however, the view was insanely breathtaking and worth every minute of the run. We were at the bottom of a giant waterfall, looking up and there were rainbows and the light was hitting it perfectly. We took tons of pictures, and you can’t even see us in the images because the waterfall is THAT big. One of the most incredible experiences of this trip by far.

The kicker, was the all natural stair climber that we had to do back up the mountain side. Being five foot two, these giant steps were literally like doing lunges each step up the waterfall, and it was, quite literally, the most intense workout ive had in a very long time. Tommy and Mitch somehow flew up the stairs, and there I was huffing and puffing at the bottom while the 27 year olds beat me (embarrassing I know).

Once we finally reached the top and cooled down, we headed back into Sydney for the night. One of Tommy’s bosses friends took us out to two very schmoozy bars where I registered as a legit baby. I swear everyone else in these two bars were in their 30s, dressed to the nines, and there I was in a casual bar outfit with a baby face, so yeah, I definitely registered as a child.

3.11 beach attempts

After a long day at the blue mountains, we decided that Saturday was going to be our chill beach day. Monica and I met up with the boys at Marouba Beach because we wanted to try something new. As much as the boys wanted to surf, the luck was not in their favor, as the waves were huge and “the beach was closed”. We could hang out, but going in the water was not and option, and Mitch was extremely disappointed. But to lift his spirits, he did another dad move, and decided to facetime people while we sat on the beach.

Then, because swimming needed to happen, we ubered up to a beach further north, Coogee Beach. As we put our towels down, I kid you not, over the loud speaker they announced that everyone needed to get out of the water as they were shutting this beach down too because the waves were too rough. It was not Mitch’s day. But, then we saw a secluded rock area called the Baths, and people were still swimming there, so Mitch Tommy and I all headed over to cool down. It was a really cool area, but also quite slippery and I was shocked people were allowed to be swimming here considering the beach was closed off. But we slowly waded in, and as I did so, I got absolutely pummeled by a wave. It knocked me over and I slammed my leg against a rock, then I proceeded to get blending into the baths by multiple rocks, getting continually scrapped up. I saw no hope in getting out, I made eye contact with Tommy and I swear I probably looked terrified as he came over to legitimately pull me out of the water. I now have a bruise the size of an orange on my ass, and my entire right leg is scrapped up with cuts. Fun stuff.

For our last night together, Tommy and Mitch took Monica and I out to dinner in Bondi Junction, we went to a place called the Zebra Garden Hotel. It was a tiny hole in the wall and the food was amazing, I got a cheeseburger (lol) and it had apples and coleslaw on it and it was amazing. That night, we went to the Coogee Bay Hotel and another bar called PBH and I was determined to keep up with Tommy and Mitch (they were giving me shit the entire week about how I would leave the party early to go to sleep). It ended up being one of the most fun nights ever, from the dancing to the dad jokes to the tearful (and drunken) goodbye on my part, the longest and best night out ever, as I didn’t get home until 5:45 in the morning.

Big shout out to Tommy and Mitch for even making the long journey out here, I super appreciate you both coming and absolutely loved having you guys here for every minute, I will miss all the drinks you purchased for me and all the ubers you let me ride with you, but most of all, I'm excited for the shenanigans we will get into once I'm back in NYC. #brosabroad #dadsdownunda #longlivethevacation

getting into the swing of things

March 5, 2017

2.25 I thought clouds were illegal…? Today was the first day of bad weather that we had, just when we thought that clouds were illegal, we woke up to a dreary day. But Eva was ready to go and had some activities in mind to keep us busy and exploring despite this, so Eva, Monica, and I headed to the New South Wales Museum.

Before we headed to the museum, we stopped at Doughnut Time to get famous Nutella Donuts. One of my roommates, Eva, is a total foodie, so she always has some cool places on her list to try and we are all lucky enough to reap the benefits of her research. The doughnuts were literally to die for, so amazing, but we could literally feel the donut (probably 1000 calories) sitting in our stomachs the rest of the day, but it was soooooo worth it.

Next stop was the museum. We started the trip with me giving Monica a quick lesson in manual photography, I was shocked with my ability to explain all the concepts in a cohesive way, but she understood, woo! The first exhibition was 17th and 18th century Australian and European artworks, so your typical nude sculptures and large scenic paintings that feature like 20 people or some triumphant war scene. The next exhibit was a Japanese art exhibit that feature works that were more technology and digitally based using projectors. This area was super cool, there were multiple TV monitors lined up to show digitally generated waves and flower scenes that responded to how many people were viewing the piece.

The next exhibit was contemporary and modern artwork, and at this point our friend Bashon joined us at the exhibit and boy oh boy was he not enjoying the modern art. Every time we looked at him, he was just shaking his head asking how the hell these pieces made it in the museum and wondering how much money people were making. It was absolutely hilarious. We ended our museum trip with the Aboriginal Art exhibit, which was also really interesting.

At this point we were ready to head back home and get a quick nap in before we went out for the evening. At home, we brainstormed some places to go out that night, especially since we had taken a break the night before, we were all ready to go on this Saturday night, and we even got Eva to come out with us! That night after a little pre drinks, we went to El Tapo, it’s a rooftop bar/restaurant/club with a (clearly) Mexican theme. It ended up being a really fun night, as a bunch of other American kids from our program (the ones we like and get along with) came as well!

2.26 a school night

Today was the last day of this vacation as classes were starting the next day. I spent the day mostly a little hungover, but my roommates and I all needed some sustenance, so we all got brunch together! We found a little small place around the corner from our apartment called “Nelson’s Tuck Shop” where I got a breakfast toastie (aka a cuter name for a sandwich).

It was a lazy day as we got ready to start classes, but it was also one of our friend, Sara’s, 21st birthday, so we all ended up rallying and heading out to Sara’s apartment to celebrate. The thought of ingesting alcohol after the previous night made me nauseous, so I had a sober good time with all my roommates. We had cake and a pregame before we headed to Coogee Pavilion, a rooftop bar. At the bar Sara (the birthday girl) wanted a picture of herself enjoying a drink, so I was deemed her personal photographer and took, I kid you not, about 100 pictures around the bar, but I was loving it and she was having a great time.

2.27 school?

Just when you thought I wasn’t going to go to school, the first day is finally here! Shockingly, I woke up an hour early, and then got to class too early, because that’s what I need to do to feel good.

My first class is Color. I was expecting the class Color class that they offer back home, where you talk about color theory and get swatches of color and basically make color compositions throughout the semester. But no, this is a color through painting class. I had a minor panic attack at first, thinking why the hell am I in this fine arts class when design is my focus. But then, as the instructor kept talking, I realized how chill and cool the class actually was. We basically will be making multiple paintings throughout the semester, utilizing different aspects of color and I’m really excited to be reunited with painting, since after all, that is where my art career started.

Our teacher was so cool that she ended up taking us on a field trip, but this field trip included a one mile walk in the 80 degree heat to a museum. Not so cool. Luckily I bonded with two girls Nat and Lulu, and ended up getting lunch with Nat after class and we talked about different Australian things that I should do and bars to go to.

At night, no one wanted to just sit and hang at home, so we decided to go out and get dessert at Choc Pot. But I just made a huge dinner, so Monica and I went the healthy route (shocking) and got an ice cream cone! Go us! Ended the day on a healthy note woo

2.28 beach b4 class

Today I didn’t have class until 6 at night, so I had all day free! It was great, I started the day off doing a workout with Monica in the gym in our apartments basement, it was my first time doing a hard core workout in a while and that felt so good. Then Monica and I decided to hit up the beach for a while, so we headed to Bondi. Since it was a weekday, it wasn’t too crowded, but I’m definitely ready to explore a new beach….

Class that night was really cool, I was expecting a graphic design class and it was more about visual communication as a whole, so our first project is a photo assignment on a community (the americans in australia) and using those photos we will make a mixed media collage book. Overall, very cool open ended assignments that I'm excited to get started on!

3.1 exhaustion

Today I had class from 9-11, 12-1, then 2-5, so by the end of the day I was done. My first class was history of computers, brains, and mind which sounds like it is going to be really interesting. But of course I sat down and started talking to the kid next to me, and he was an American who also goes to Michigan and is in my program. This is not the goal. I wanna make some more aussie friends!

Then I had class from 2-5 which is a photography class that looks like it will be really informational as the first project has to be a film photography project. Not exactly what I wanted to be doing, but Im excited to learn a new camera technique.

3.2 thurs-yay

No classes today! So I had a free day to catch up and run errands. I started my morning at the mall and then headed to the beach in the afternoon with Stef. Even though I said I was going to start exploring a new beach, we went to Bondi, purely out of convenience that it is the closest beach. Stef decided to rent a surf board, and I decided to get an acai smoothie bowl and lay on the beach and chill. The acai bowl was literally beautiful and it was a cheap-o acai bowl, it was a win win.

That night, we hosted a lil pre game in our apartment to go to the upscale bar called The Ivy again. I only knew about half the people in the apartment, but it was still a good time before we all headed out. The weather was absolutely gross and it was pouring rain, which wasn’t exactly ideal for the Ivy because its an open air/multi level bar. But, towards the end of the night, everyone was outside on the dance floor in the pouring rain dancing, so we all headed to the dance floor for maybe the most fun night of dancing ever. The music was great, it was pouring rain, we were all drenched but we did not care, we just kept dancing through the torrential downpour and it was amazing.

It was a fun first week of classes, and this current week Tommy and Mitch are here, so get ready for the next post, which is bound to be HILARIOUS, about my weekend with "Dad" (mitch) and the "fun uncle" (Tommy).

lots o exploring

February 24, 2017

it hasn't even been a full week in sydney, but theres been so much exploring and sight seeing that i needed to share... 2.20 exploration nation

My first full day in Sydney I woke up and decided to go check out the University of New South Wales campus and get situated. Since I was already enrolled in all my classes, all I really needed to do was a student ID card (don’t really know what I need the ID for, hopefully not a lot considering the picture is horrific).

Once I got my ID, I walked around campus through the activities fair where all the student orgs and clubs were out trying to get new members. We knew we wanted to join a surfing type club, so we were on a mission. Eventually we found the wind surfing and sailing club and immediately joined on the spot. The club provides surfboards and all type of sailing and water activity equipment for day trips to the beach. They also are having a welcome BBQ this weekend, and next weekend they are having a Surf Weekend at Culberra Beach. The retreat is three days long, and they rent two houses right on the beach so that you can spend your days surfing and nights hanging out. Definitely going to sign up for this one!

Later that night, my roomies Eva, Stef, Monica, Jess and I headed into downtown aka the Central Business District of Sydney for dinner, drinks, and the views. We navigated the train and arrived at the Sydney Harbor for golden hour (the prime time for lighting for photographers). It was beautiful and amazing and completely incredible, sometimes I feel like a one of those annoying tourists from Times Square who is walking slow and taking pictures of literally everything (sorry Aunt Catherine) but how can I not?

2.21 art campus

Similar to Michigan’s campus, UNSW’s art school isn’t on the main campus (of course), so I decided to venture out to find where I will be spending most of my time for the next couple of weeks in the studio. Monica joined me for the adventure and we hoped on a bus and headed towards Paddington. The art school is incredibly tiny and located in a charming little part of town where the houses are quaint and cute and surrounded by local coffee shops and stores. There was so much wall art I was stopping every couple of blocks to take pictures of the graffiti.

Once we returned from the art campus area, I relaxed and hung out before our group decided to find a local bar around town. We ended up going to Spring Street Social, its an underground speakeasy and we went and got their happy hour drink special, a $10 cocktail. This is a deal considering they are normally $20, so we all took advantage of it. I sat around with my roommates Monica, Eva, Jess, and Stef and we drank and talked about our lives n stufffff. Then we got on the topic of dessert and decided to ditch the bar for Max Brenner’s Chocolate Shop that’s located in our mall. A pretty chill day, but lots of bonding with my new roommies.

2.22 a (bondi) beach day

Since I haven’t gotten a real beach day since I’ve gotten to Australia, I got my roommates Eva, Jess and Monica to come with me down to Bondi Beach. It was amazingly beautiful and we had so much fun just chilling at the beach. At some point our friends Sara, Jami, Kennedy, Ashley and Grant joined us as well, and we all went for a swim. Everyone thinks the water is cold, but it’s easily the same temperature as like medium temp LBI water, so it honestly wasn’t terrible. The waves were big and beautiful and everyone was trying to body surf, but I was not about getting sand literally everywhere…

After the beach we all made plans to meet up and go out that night before going our separate ways. I took two friends, Grant and Sara, and showed them how to use the buses to get home so they wouldn’t have to walk home, it was like sending my children to school as I dropped them off at their respective bus stops and waited for them to get on the bus. And of course I needed texts confirming they got off the bus and home okay, so funny, how am I turning into the mom of the group...?

side note: one of the hardest things to adjust to is walking and doing everything literally on the left side. the elevators, walking, the traffic, everything is to the left and i keep messing it up and blocking the way...

That night everyone from the beach came over to our apartment to pregame for going out. We hung out for a bit before the group split up, there was the half that wanted to go to the nightclub and another half that just wanted to get a beer at a chill bar. I went with the chill bar people because I was not into that club scene all the time, and we just went back to Spring Street Social (the underground bar from the night before) and we spent the night there talking about all the traveling we want to do while we are here….

2.23 back 2 campus

Today was official orientation for the study abroad, it was your average orientation, again telling us how we need to take our studies seriously, our professors wont be lenient, an blah blah blah, the same thing we’ve been hearing literally since forever. Afterwards we hit up a free BBQ lunch in the quad before heading back to my apartment.

Today was a pretty chill day, but I spent most of it on campus just hanging out. I got home around 4, took a solid power nap, before everyone in the apartment started getting ready to go out, because apparently Thursday nights are lit. We were all heading to the Ivy, so we got all dolled up and went to da club. The Ivy was insane, it was like being in 5 different bars all at once. We started in a chill dinner type area, then we went upstairs to the bar, then we went downstairs again to a sick pool bar area (at this point I got pulled to the side and thoroughly questioned if I was legal – 18 – so that was very strange, I guess I look 12) then we went even more downstairs to a dance club area.

Monica and I saw some of the other TEAN/American kids in our program and we hung out with them, then we went off and explored and made some Australian friends who took us under their wing and showed us around the bar. They were telling us how this bar is super upscale with a cover charge of $40 (clear to see why considering how fancy it was), so there was plenty of older gentlemen in suits and then all of us younger kids infiltrating for the night. I ended up navigating the whole group home on the train since it was the easiest option for the large group, again feeling like the mom... how....

2.24 time to shred

Today was the day we were all looking forward to, our surfing day! Monica and I headed to the beach a little bit before our lesson to check out the other kids in our group and how they were surfing. We were hoping to get a little sun and get a little warm before it was our turn for the lesson but no such luck since the clouds were all over (meanwhile we were just starting to think clouds were illegal here since the weather has been beautiful).

When it was our turn we got in our wetsuits and split up into group, since I had the experience surfing before I went with the more advanced group and this was definitely the move, the instructors gave us a very abbreviated instruction and then took us right into the water and we skipped all the whitewash surfing as they call it (where you catch the wave after it breaks). I got up on my first try, which was absolutely shocking to me, but I was pumped and just wanted to keep going. It was a little frustrating because they wouldn’t let us try and catch our own wave, they wanted to push us out, so our group had to literally wait in line in the water to get a wave. In the end, my last ride was the best ride of the day and I was able to end on a high note.

After surfing our group grabbed lunch together and ate at the beach. I was feeling absolutely toasted from the sun, so Monica and I decided to head back to the apartment, where I immediately took a nap. The rest of the night everyone was exhausted from surfing and going out, so we decided to buy some ice cream and cookie dough and call it a night.

So far im loving Australia and I’m actually pretty excited for classes to start so I actually have something productive to work on….

pics or it didn't happen

February 19, 2017

Just a few pictures I wasn't able to include on the last post!

week 1 in aussie land!

February 19, 2017

DISCLAIMER: this post is a long one, but action packed and [hopefully] worth the read! day 1: endless travel

The first day of this trip could easily be named one of the longest days of my life. Leaving on the morning of February 12th, going from JFK to LAX to Brisbane to Cairns was three flights that allowed me to completely skip February 13th, and I arrived to Cairns (pronounced CANS fyi) at around 2 in the afternoon on the 14th. Since my flight to Cairns was a “puddle jumper” we got off the plane the good ole fashion way by walking out into the outdoors on the runway. Walking out of that plane I was then STRUCK with a blanket of heat (that ended up being 98 to be exact) in which my sweat glands triggered automatically (and they haven’t stopped).

Then I met with the group and headed to the hotel and got settled in. I ventured to the pool to cool off, and then was immediately hit with jetlag as I was ready to fall asleep mid swim. Fighting the urge to nap, I showered and went down to our first dinner, and my first meal since the airplane breakfast at 5am. A bunch of us hung out at dinner, while a couple of guys from a company called “#Yolo Down Under” (who will be referred to as the yolo guys for the rest of orientation) tried to promote their clubs and get us all to rally and go out. I chose sleep and was passed out by 9:15

day 2: kangarooooooooooooooooooos

After a solid nights sleep, we started the day at an animal habitat where we immediately got to see some baby kangaroos, and they were so damn cute, I even pet one and it didn’t drop kick me in the face, that’s a W. As we got further in we saw some larger kangaroos that were even cooperating to take selfies and strike some poses, everyone was trying to get one for the snapstory, because #picsoritdidnthappen. There were also other animals, but definitely nothing as cool as the kangaroos.

After our animal park trip, we headed into the rainforest where we were greeted by an aboriginal forest guide who gave us walking sticks and then lead us through the jungle. Of course as we started hiking, it also starting heavily down pouring, only making the experience that much more cool in my opinion. Within minutes we were drenched, luckily most of us were wearing bathing suits under our clothes, but we hiked through. Our guide showed us multiple plants that if touched could kill you, so easy to say I wont be hiking solo any time soon.

After our hike we were supposed to go to Mossman Gorge and go for a swim in the lake, but it was too dangerous due to the rain, lame. So we headed back on the bus for a 2 hour trip back out to the coastline. Skipping the gorge gave us some free time before we went to a group dinner, so we went into town. We explored the Woolworths, which is the Australian Stop n Shop, where we found the most beautiful looking avocados. They were the avocados every basic white girl dreams of, so following in that trend, I took a picture. After Woolworth’s, we headed to the liquor store where I made my first legal purchase of alcohol! Yay, what a rush let me tell you! Although in this liquor store, we discovered that beer and straight liquor is E X T R E M E L Y expensive and wine is dirt cheap, another W for me.

That night we went out to dinner at a bar named the Woolshed, the food was nothing to write home about so I wont bore you with those details, on the bright side the drinks were 2 for $8 so we all took advantage of that deal. After drinking for a bit at the bar, we decided to hit up a club that one of the #yolo guys suggested and boy oh boy was I not prepared.

The club had a large bar and dance floor in one room, then an extremely large outdoor porch with another bar and tables and pool. We mostly stayed inside BECAUSE THE BAR WAS AIR CONDITIONED. THIS WAS LIFECHANGING LET ME TELL YOU. It was actually pleasant and not a freakin sweat fest. As the night wore on and people got more drunk, we got to see an event called “Jelly Wrestling” in which two girls go face to face in a wrestling match in a pool of jelly. I kid you not this was scarring. I luckily got a front row seat and I saw ALLLLLLL the action……

day 3: a day spent inside

Today was our orientation day provided by TEAN (the program I am traveling through) in which we basically sat in a large conference room of the hotel and were lectured (yet again) about how to not be an obnoxious American. Considering the orientation started at 9:30 we all assumed it would be over by lunch time but we were stuck in that damn room until 3.

Since we spent the day inside, we were all itching to get outside so we went into town to this community pool. Fun Australian fact: its jellyfish season in Cairns, so swimming in the ocean is not an option, but Cairns is prepared with a beautiful infinity looking pool right on the ocean. We swam here for a bit and cooled down from the extreme heat that is slowly killing us all (lol just kidding… but actually)

That night we ate dinner at the hotel, drank some wine, and went out on the town for night two. We went to the Woolshed because it was ladies night, so free entry and free champagne, we girls couldn’t say no… Thankfully there was no jelly wrestling, but there was super aggressive guys dancing that made us conclude that Cairns is a basically a Spring Break type town. Glad I can knock that classic crazy college Spring Break off the bucket list now….

day 4: finding nemo!

Today was the big day, we were headed to the Great Barrier Reef. We got on a ferry and headed two hours out into the ocean, although the time flew bye as the crew gave us safety instructions and explained everything we would need to know for snorkeling and diving. Once we arrived at the reef, I started with snorkeling until my scuba group was called. We had to wear these ridiculous jump suits, aka stinger suits, that protect you from the jellyfish, so we literally all looked like a bunch of smurfs walking around this boat (trying to locate a picture of this moment because it is something everyone needs to see). Snorkeling was fun and the reef was absolutely stunning, but when i went to scuba dive, my ears wouldn’t equalize with the pressure change and I couldn’t complete the dive :( very sad. But in the end the reef was amazing, even though you could tell its definitely dying, its incredible to say that I was here and experienced this place.

Once we returned from the reef, I took a quick nap, showered, then took another nap before getting ready for a pub crawl (in which they should most definitely rename a club crawl). It was a long night but a fun night as we rode around on a double decker party bus from bar to bar, even though it was extremely tacky and obnoxious, it was a little fun towards the end of the night. I successfully made it to all five bars and danced my booty off at the last one thanks to all the good music.

day 5: a day on the island

In my opinion, this day ended up being the most fun day of the entire orientation. Although there was a rocky start sweating our eye balls out waiting for a ferry, once it came it took us to a tiny island off the coast. We immediatley got stinger suits and headed for the water in search for sea turtles and other wildlife.

When we got in the water, it was honestly more amazing than the great barrier reef, the colors were more vibrant, there was more activity, it was beautiful. Unfortunatley I didn't have my go pro to document this, but I truly got to live in the moment and experience some really cool things. We snorkeled for about an hour and were about to give up before someone spotted a sea turtle! We then surrounded the poor guy and took so many pics and watched it devour a jellyfish. Felt like I was in a national geographic tv show or something, literally so insane. Then after the photo ops, we hung out with it more, found a jellyfish and fed it to the turtle and just swam with it.

We were heading back to shore, when a friend spotted a small shark. We both started swimming as fast as we could and were following this shark around for a while until we both couldn't keep up. Another Nat Geo moment for me in the books.

Once we were all pruned up, we headed back to shore for good, ate lunch, and then decided to walk over to a different beach on the other side of the island. This walk ended up being a small hike through rocks and trees, but the views were absolutely incredible. Once we got to the beach we were pretty restless, so we ended up going for a walk and climbing over some more rocks to see if we could find a better view. The views were all equally amazing and one little area featured some rock statues (dad I captured this moment just for you).

By the time we headed back to the main beach, I could feel my skin was frying and sat in the water up to my neck until we had to leave just to avoid the sun. The ferry home allowed for a quick nap before a farewell dinner with the entire study abroad group.

day 6: home sweet sydney

Today started at the most unorganized airport ever, but also the most relaxed airport ever. Going through security was a literal D R E A M compared to all the JFK and Newark drama I deal with. I even felt so compelled to take a picture (such a Helen Polise thing to do but I did it). The flight to Sydney I somehow passed out SANS DRAMAMINE, probably a first for me and my sensitive sleeping skills, but I woke up just in time to get an amazing view of the Sydney Harbor. Needless to say, I cannot wait to start exploring this city.

The apartment is pretty luxurious as well, we all got here and our jaws dropped at the type of accommodation we have but eternally #thankful. However, the apartment is barley filled with supplies so we all have to make our way to the mall, which is literally located right below the building, to get all the supplies an apartment needs (for me thats eggs, bread, and chicken nugs).

All my roommates and I spent the night unpacking and relaxing, we are all happy and relieved to finally be settled and not living out of a suitcase anymore.

that's all for now, sorry for the lack of pictures at the end, the internet here is not supporting me to include then, ill have the technical difficulties figured out as time goes on... more details to come as the esplorin continues, subscribe if you want to hear about it on the reg :)

juli

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