May 19

We slept in for a tiny bit, then headed to Daydream Island, per the suggestion of the tourist agent. We had to walk to the ferry, which was across town, but it was a nice morning (sort-of). We ate at the coffee shop while we waited to board the ferry, then sat up top on the outside deck. It was a nice boat-ride... until we rounded the corner and suddenly got slammed with a wall of water. We kept getting the fury of all the splashes so much that it was like a water park ride! And the boat was rocking so much that we could hardly stand up or move to a different seat. My boyfriend moved, but after a few more splashes, I had enough and ran downstairs to take cover. I could barely hold onto my camera, purse and the railing, and as I descended, my skirt way flying up all over the place. I couldn't hold onto it, so I just decided to go as quickly as possible and hope the boat staff didn't care! Downstairs, I entered the quiet, dry cabin and everyone turned to look at me, soaked. I sat down and tried to dry off under the cold air conditioning, but before I knew it, we were docking at Day Dream Island.

We headed inside to the tacky 80-90's looking lobby and asked what there was to do on the island. The guide recommended a shark and fish feeding that started in 20 minutes, so we signed up and then waited for that to begin. The young guide showed us baby sharks and then we got into a tank with some sharks and learned about them, held them and felt their rough skin. Then we fed fish that would probably eat your toes if you got too close, but the fish didn't seem to be very hungry, so they didn't want to eat the food we were dangling for them. Then we pet some sting rays that flapped around for us in the shallow water. It was kind-of fun, but not quite worth the money. Oh well. At least it was something to do. Then my boyfriend really wanted to check out the scheduled water polo game, going on in one of the pools so we headed over there and found a family of 3 (dad and 2 little girls on noodles) trying to throw the ball around. Good thing we weren't playing because I can just picture my boyfriend spiking the ball on a little girl's head and making her cry!

We walked around the island, got a ride to the other side, where other activities were supposed to be. We ate lunch at the only cafe that was open, chased some large birds that hissed at us, and then walked to a pool-side bar for their noon happy hour. The whole place looked kind of like a rundown carnival. I'm sure during the high season, it's overrun with families and kids, but the place was rather deserted when we were there. We got a drink, sat by the pool and relaxed for a while because there wasn't much to do...

We played mini golf on one of the worse courses I've ever seen (the greens were so torn up, it was hard to play) and it was overrun with ants. I knew my boyfriend would be so competitive with me about it and mini golf is something I am either good at or terrible. So I went into it not caring (because I didn't want to get competitive either and then frustrated if it ended up being a bad day), so I ended up being so bad that he stopped keeping score after the 4th hole. Probably for the better.

Then we walked back to the other side of the island, but this time on the "nature hike", which was just through the trees, up a hill on the other side of the island. It had some nice little look-outs. We stopped at Lover's Cove, which was a beach (a coral beach, not very sandy) and had a drink while enjoying the view. There were some wild Kangaroos that tourists feed junk food so they are pretty friendly and allow you to pet them sometimes. A wedding party was taking over the area, so as more guests arrived, we decided it was our cue to leave, and we headed back to the dock and waited for a ferry. I tried to sit up top again, but after a couple splashes, went back inside.

We walked back through downtown and my boyfriend really wanted to eat at this sushi place, so we tried it, but it was probably some of the worst food I've ever seen. Then we went home, cleaned up and walked back to town for a crappy dinner.

May 18

On Wednesday, we slept in a little, then packed our bags and headed to the airport for the Whitsundays, a vacation I'd been planning for a while. The airport we landed in was tiny and had no baggage claim - they just cart over your bags and then it's a free-for-all! I had arranged for someone to pick us up and take us to the hotel, so that was awesome because I got to see my name on a sign! =P Fancy. We got to the hotel and it was pretty nice. My boyfriend was pretty impressed which was good because I spent a lot of time trying to find the right hotel. haha Then we walked around the area, found some lunch and enjoyed the views. The tour I had arranged for the next day called to cancel because of "maintenance issues". WTF!? Annoying, but they said that they could take us on Friday. Luckily, we could go on Friday. But it didn't exactly instill confidence in me, so we walked to a tourist office and explored alternative options. Ended up getting talked into a tour to Daydream Island for the next day and stick with our original on Friday. Whatever. Then back to our hotel and a late dinner.

May 17

On Tuesday, I woke up early for my class. I wasn't going to attend any classes this week while my boyfriend is in town, but my group scheduled our presentation for today. So, I gave my boyfriend the choice to sleep in or come with me and he chose to wake up early and come with me. So I got to campus early, set him up in the computer lab, printed out my presentation notes and headed to class. Our presentation went OK, we had an ice-breaker game to get everyone out of their seats and throw balled up paper, faster and faster, more and more balls until they started dropping them all over the place. This was supposed to demonstrate how networks end up falling apart, easily when people don't focus on their task at hand or end up getting flustered by too many other things, etc. I was very worried because we hadn't practiced our parts together even once, so I wasn't sure how it would go in terms of timing and Jane ended up talking for a long time, giving me very little time for the conclusion. But I tried to talk fast and it worked out well, maybe we were only a couple minutes over. After a 2nd group presentation, class was over and I took Jane and Manuel to meet my boyfriend, who looked pretty cute sitting in the computer lab with a collared shirt. haha They had to run off to class, but at least they got to meet each other because I talk a lot about all of them. I didn't go to the rest of my classes that day, instead, I walked around campus with my boyfriend, then we ate at the food court and made ourselves some sandwiches. After lunch, we walked to the city cat and took the ferry back into the city. We bussed home and relaxed for a while, since we had woken up early. In the late afternoon, we went to Paddington and walked around lower Paddington, since my boyfriend really wanted to do it after Michael pointed it out as the cool, bohemian area. It's really not that great, just a couple of high-priced vintage and boutique clothing stores, and we arrived as everything was closing, but it was nice to get out and explore a new part of town, nonetheless. We ate at a neat little pizza place which had some decent pies, then had a couple of fancy drinks at the Lark before cabbing home.

May 16

On Monday, we went out to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, which was fun as always because we got to see Dingos and Tasmanian Devils, Wombats, Platypuses, Koalas, Kangaroos, etc. I was afraid because we went on a school day that we would have to compete with groups of kids, but luckily we went late enough in the day that they were leaving. We fed the Kangaroos and pet them, soo soft! I really liked this one little guy who was so sweet. Some of the larger ones were a bit more aggressive about the food. Then my boyfriend decided he wanted to bite the bullet and hold a Koala for a cheesy photo, so I waited in line and took photos while he did that. Fun times. His experience seemed more enjoyable than when I had done it a year earlier, so that was good.

We headed back on the bus, went to the grocery store downtown on the way home, then walked up the hill to get some dinner in Paddington at the Indian place there, which was delicious. We took the bus home and ate some ice cream at the barracks on the way home.

May 15

I'm so relieved not to have to do any assignments for a while and just get to enjoy my boyfriend while he's here. I have been so excited since I moved here to show him around the city because I always thought he would really like it, the architecture, etc. So, we headed down to the South Bank to the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA). Unfortunately, it was in the process of changing exhibits, so there wasn't much to see. We went to the state library where I picked up a CD of my great-grandfather's photograph taken from Kangaroo Point. Then we ate a snack and checked out the bridge right there. Walked down the South Bank, then back across the river, into the city and Queen Street Mall. Got a smoothie and bussed home. My mom wanted to treat us to a nice dinner, so we went to Park Road and ate at a Mediterranean place that has delicious Sangria. I ate Paella and he had Risotto. Both were good. I am already having such a good time with him here. 

May 14

I woke up a little early with a bit of a headache, did some laundry, changed the sheets on my bed and waited until it was time to pick my boyfriend up from the airport. Michael offered to drive, which saved me a ton of money via taxi, so we headed out and got there just in time, didn't have to wait very long! We came back to my house and ate some lunch, then relaxed for a short bit before I planned for us to go night kayaking! So, we bussed down to Kangaroo Point. They almost lost my reservation, but luckily found it, then we headed into the water and it was kind of tough not to get soaking wet! =( We didn't bring a change of clothes, though, so we tried our best. It was a pretty long way along the river, I don't know if I've ever kayaked that great of a distance before! But it was challenging and fun without being too long and hard. After the kayaking, they set up a BBQ for us, so we had an authentic Aussie BBQ - hot dogs on bread slices and all! Haha.. It was quite fun. Then we tried to walk back along the river, but it was kind of far, so halfway out, we bailed and called a cab to take us home! What a fun first night!

May 13

I cleaned the bathroom and mopped the floors all morning, making my boyfriend stress out in his last hours before leaving because he couldn't get ahold of me! Haha, whoops. Then I showered, and walked up the hill to Bardon for a beauty appointment. Took the bus home, ate some lunch, cleaned the kitchen, and was about to settle in at home for the night, when somehow I got talking to Christian, from my classes and he was feeling down about being American in a foreign land, so I decided that we all needed a drink! Jillian was happy to get a break, too. So we met downtown and had a drink at an Irish bar, then he convinced us to go to some salsa place, so of course I had to invite Lina out. All it took was calling her so she could hear the music and she came out! Haha. After a couple drinks, everyone was tired, so we headed home!

May 12

Thursday was a super long day. I woke up and met with Jane and Manuel for a group meeting, which lasted right up until our class and we still weren't done. So, we headed off to our least favorite class - Research Methods, where the professor spent more than half of the class discussing the assignment that is due tomorrow. I thought I was ready to turn it in, but he brought up some new points, so I tried to figure out when I would have time to do it without making a special trip to campus on Friday just to turn it in. During the break, I complained about taking up so much class time answering questions about assignments and my tutor basically explained that assignments are more important than lecture notes (I agree, but am shocked to hear the teachers say so). Then she called me out for not attending tutorials. UGH.

After class, I met with my group again for more discussion about our group assignment and we picked up an assignment, which I got a high 6 on! Whoo - higher than Jane. I was a little happy about that because she always does better than me. Still undecided about whether to go to tutorial or not, our meeting finished with the perfect time to go, so I headed over there. Jane attended my tutorial, because she missed hers. In my tutorial, I added a couple more sentences to my article review that included points discussed in class. Jillian started texting me, panicking about her guy situation, so right after tutorial, I raced over to the library and met her. I could only sit with her for a few minutes, but hopefully it was enough to calm her anxiety about the situation. Then I printed my paper and turned it in! Whew! Feeling proud at how much I had accomplished, I headed home for a short break, changed clothes and walked to Auchenflower for a dinner with my upcoming Italy class. It was good to meet a couple of the people who are going to be there, although I am definitely the loud, obnoxious American. I think it's very different being a post-graduate student because I'm a lot more comfortable with my tutor and professor, so I was cracking jokes with them the whole time. I hope I didn't intimidate some of the other students. =(

During dinner, I got a text from Jillian that apparently because Lina is moving out, Michael says we are all responsible for her portion of the rent or find a replacement roommate. Uhhh what?! I would understand that with a lease, but we don't have a lease, so he can't really hold us to that. I hurried the mile and a half home and talked with Jillian, but didn't make any progress. Never a dull moment, that's for sure!

May 11

Slept in, made breakfast, went to class. It was boring as usual. I feel bad for this teacher. She tries to make it "hip" with YouTube videos, but the content is still boring and she talks soo monotone. She put a joke on the screen about stakeholders. But no one understood because they don't speak English. It was a vampire and a guy, holding a stake above his coffin. And it said Beware of Stakeholders. But all the students were confused. They didn't understand that the guy was holding a "stake"... Haha! The poor professor. All of her jokes usually fall flat, but this one was especially confusing for people who don't speak English well.

Then I got a snack at the Food Court and waited for a guest lecture that our class was invited to by Disney recruiters. The lecture was filled with blah blah sales crap on how Disney is soo great. Afterwards I asked the presenters about Disney's strict employee policies and how it related to a person's individuality, specifically in light of the fact that Disney has had several lawsuits about employee discrimination. The guy gave me a political answer and even though they were in a rush, he talked a lot about Disney's strict clothing and looks policies (until recently, a man couldn't even have a mustache!). But he didn't really get to discrimination at the heart of my question. Anyway, then I complained that the career emails we were getting at the school did not apply to my program (non-Aussie Natives). They thought that was good feedback, but I think they were trying to rush off to something else.

Then, I headed home and took a nap because I was exhausted. I took the night off from working and relaxed, catching up on other stuff. Internet has been horrible, so I couldn't watch any movies...

May 10

My alarm woke me up at the usual 6:30am for my 9am class on Tuesday, but I couldn't bring myself to wake up. I turned off my alarm and slept longer. However, it wasn't really that restful because I ended up dreaming about what I was missing in class! =( I slept until about 9:30am, then got up, showered, and ate some breakfast before heading out on the 11am bus to catch my noon class. I guess I figured since I finished my assignment early, I deserved a day off..

Class was interesting as always, but I was distracted because Michael sent us an email informing us that Lina was moving out and gave us a couple options for our future living situation... Then I had a TSA meeting, which went well and I think we made some good decisions to combine our Japan Day fundraising efforts with the Cultural Day. I headed home, feeling extremely stressed about all of the stuff I had to do and what to do about the living situation, etc. So I took a shower, listened to some music and tried to calm myself.

Then I worked on my group project and talked with Jillian when she got home about what we were going to do. Didn't really come to any decisions, but oh well. I'm not sure what's right.

May 9

 I was feeling pretty good because I finished my papers early, and I was ahead of the game. Somehow, while making breakfast, Jillian and I got on the topic of our study room and backyard. Both are a mess and have Michael's stuff stored everywhere. We decided today was the day we were going to clean stuff up! So, Jillian sent him an email asking him if we could clean up the backyard and what was trash (weeds, stacks of wood, pile of dirt, pile of tile and wood scraps, pile of rug and batting scraps).. Then we rearranged the study room. We put the two desks he's storing into an L shape and made one side an office, the other side has the couch and nice seating area. We vacuumed and were pretty darn proud of ourselves because it looks nice. 

Then we got an response about the backyard - no, don't touch anything. It'll be cleaned up "soon", "as soon as the weather clears up", etc. This always seems to be the answer, and we've lived here for almost a year with it just getting worse and worse. We felt a little deflated. We just want to help and make it look nice. We're even able to do the hard work ourselves... But nope. So, then I worked on papers for the rest of the day, finishing up the two that are due soon. In the evening, we walked to Rosalie to replenish our wine supply and walked back. On one of the bottles it had a tag: "That's a cracker!" What?! Another said "Top Drop!" We asked the store keeper what this meant and he told us that you want every last drop! Oh.. Ok. So weird! I thought we'd lived here a while and we're still learning new Aussie slang!

Oh, and my professor emailed the class to let us know that we have an extension on the assignment (Environmental Impacts Paper). Now it isn't due until the 24th. That's the one I JUST worked my butt off on all weekend and finished!!! UGH!! Oh well. The 24th is right after my boyfriend leaves, so I would've had to finish it early anyway.

May 8

Today, Jillian and I had a breakfast date with Lina, whom I hadn't seen since before the mid-semester break. So, we caught up with each other, which was nice and then she told me that she was moving out. Oh. Awesome. Since she hasn't spent the night at our house once this year, it was no surprise. I just hope it's the right decision for her and her boyfriend... Definitely not something I can worry about right now, I've got too much on my plate.

Then, Jillian and Lina went to go study together at the library and I had Lina drop me off at the grocery store so that I could buy some food. Then I worked on my paper all day with peace and quiet at home.

May 7

Same thing - Environment Impacts paper. I finished my goal for the day early, so I kept going.. Maybe I'll actually finish these on time! For the first time this semester, though, I'm going to be under my word count. So, at some point I'm going to have to address that issue and figure out how to write more or add a new section or something. We'll see. Anyway, so far I'm on track with my assignments, though these next few days are going to fly by! As a break, I researched for my upcoming vacation with my boyfriend to the Whitsundays... I'm very excited to do fun things with him in such a beautiful place!

I did get to talk to my boyfriend via Skype today for the first time in WEEKS!! And we got to chat for quite a while. That was the highlight of my day. I really hate how skype doesn't work in my room and so I have to go into one of the main rooms of the house and Jillian is always in the main rooms because she has absolutely NO internet in her room... So, it's always a little awkward because I don't really feel like my conversation is that private.. 

May 6

My life is boring because I've gone into work mode, trying to finish everything in the next week! I worked on a paper about the environmental impact of events for most of the day.
Then I watched a movie as a break at the end of the day. Exciting stuff.

Oh, I found out when my final exam is for one class. It's June 20th, which is pretty bad! I was hoping for something during the prior week. Instead, I have my last assignments due on the 3rd, then 2 weeks of NOTHING here in Brisbane before the exam, then less than two weeks to possibly go home before the Italy trip. Not to mention flights are now soo expensive to go back to the states anytime in June. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do. But my flight for Rome leaves from LA, so I'll have to go back at some point. 

May 5

Today was Cinco de Mayo! YAY... Except it's nothing here in Australia because there are no Mexicans. Boo. It doesn't really matter because I was so busy trying to get stuff done. I had class - Stupid Research Methods. The professor wastes the first half talking about assignments. I hate it, even though I ended up asking like 3 questions because I was so confused. So, at least that was kind of helpful. But then we got our "quiz" (Midterm) results back and I did pretty shitty. A little bit worse than I expected. Awesome. Well, now I have to do better on the next two assignments.  ugh. Then he went off on a tangent during his lecture material for 15 minutes about how Gen Y is unhelpful and are numbed by violence in video games. What?! I hate this class, I hate this class, I hate this class!!!

I came home and worked on my article review paper, for this class and finished it up, or at least finished the draft of it. I have to read through it and see how it can be improved. =(

May 4

Woke up fairly early for a group meeting with Jane and Manuel. We had to discuss an upcoming major project and a presentation. It's good to work with them because we know each other's work styles now, there's no beating around the bush and because we have the same class schedule, so we know when we're available to meet and how crazy our other assignments are, when they're due, etc..

I left feeling completely stressed about the amount of work I have to get done in the next 10 days before my boyfriend arrives... Essentially, I have to write a 3,000+ word essay on environmental impacts of events, a 1,000+ article critique on a really boring journal article for research methods, write/practice a presentation speech for another class, and finish the bulk of my part on our group assignment analyzing the marketing side of a business event (1,000+ words). ACK.

I got to talk to my boyfriend a couple of times today which was very nice because I didn't expect to talk to him at all today. Although, now I'm completely out of phone minutes for the next week. Oops. Hopefully no one calls me!

12pm class was super boring as usual, but we made fun of Manuel the whole time who expressed a sudden attraction to our very unattractive, boring, monotone professor! Ugh. We were so disgusted. Then I hung around for an hour and went to the 3pm tutorial since I hadn't been in a while and needed a couple pointers on the upcoming group assignment. Headed home, fell asleep for an hour (awesome way to start my productive evening!) and then worked hard on my article critique.

I found another baby spider in my room, this one was black and yellowish with striped legs and it JUMPED! It was so hard to kill because everytime I thought I got it, it jumped away. Finally, with Jillian's help, I was able to flush it down the toilet! Then of course I looked it up. I'm not sure what it is. Could be a Rabid Wolf Spider, a Funnel Weaver (Grass) Spider, or a Banded Huntsman. The Banded Huntsman is the only one that jumps (from my limited web research), so whatever. All are relatively harmless, so it doesn't matter too much. Just sucks that I have to keep killing these mysterious spiders and then worry about what kind they are!

May 3

Tuesdays have become my long days again... I got woken up by banging around upstairs around 6am. Went back to sleep until my alarm went off at 7am. I decided to skip my tutorial and sleep in, but fate didn't let me. Jillian came home from her mid-semester vacation around 7:15 and then her alarm went off at 7:30. UGH. I finally dragged myself out of bed and rushed to catch the bus for my tutorial class. And so began my day!

9am tutorial - boring, 10am class - also boring, between classes I raced to get money from the ATM and buy a smoothie and cookies (lunch), 12pm class - always my favorite. We discussed the dimensions of service evaluation based on a "zone of tolerance" and 5 levels of consideration: Responsiveness, Assurance, Tangibles, Empathy, and Reliability. I realized these are similar things you look for when hiring and employee and also the same things you expect in a mate. I asked him if this psychological/sociological connection had been made before, but then he proceeded to call out my observation to the whole class and made fun of me, questioning what I meant by "tangibles"! haha Ugh. Oh well.

Even though it looked warm and sunny when I got dressed in the morning, it started pouring with thunder and lightning during class. I didn't bring an umbrella let alone a jacket, but luckily I didn't have to go home just yet. Instead, I had a meeting with TSA, which was OK.

Exhausted, I headed home and was supposed to study, but instead procrastinated a bit, cooked dinner (tried to make a lime cilantro cream sauce for my chicken, but it wasn't as great as I was expecting). Then I passed out around 10pm. haha!

May 2

Just one of those days...

So yesterday, my last day in Melbourne I woke up with some bumps on my neck. Wasn't really sure what they were, but continued through the day and then boarded my plane for Brisbane. One the plane, I noticed more bumps on my arms that looked like bites and were very itchy. I pretty much freaked out the entire plane ride that by the time I got off, I just felt rather diseased and didn't want to touch anything or anyone. I took a cab home, not wanting to struggle through the bus. I immediately took a shower and unpacked all of my clothes into the laundry. Then I researched what this could be, ruled out through photos and text the following: Measles, Mumps, Scabies, Shingles (and Chicken Pox; I've had those twice!), Hives, Allergic Reaction, etc, etc. That left bed bugs. And the photos of milder cases matched. (Man, some people have thousands of bites, I have <100!) I called my mom and she agreed that it was most likely what it was and she had seen the bites on my neck, so she was able to visually identify it, too. She told me what I had already researched - to wash everything to make sure that I didn't bring any back to my house. She also said that if the bumps don't seem to spread any more, then it's probably that and not something else.  I spent the rest of the night researching all about them and tossing and turning in my sleep, scared that I was feeling more bites.

Today, I woke up and searched for more bites - same number as yesterday. Phew! That means there probably aren't any in my bed (and they shouldn't be because I showered and didn't let anything touch my bed from the trip. I did laundry all day, tried not to itch the bites, etc. I told my boyfriend which was a mistake because it's his worst fear and he ended up freaking out about it, which made me feel a lot worse. I already feel pretty disgusting, stressed about getting it taken care of, etc, but he just added to it.

Because everyone in the house has been on vacation, there's no food, so I headed off to the grocery store on the bus, which is always an ordeal with the bus schedules. Got all the way there and discovered that it was closed for Labor Day! Even other Aussies were shocked and said it's usually open except for Good Friday and Christmas. UGGGH. This day was turning from bad to worse. The only store that was open was the expensive IGA in Milton. The IGA is also a lot smaller, so I couldn't get half the stuff I wanted nor could I get anything to help with the bites. Even the pharmacy was closed! So I headed there with now an entire hour to kill before the next bus comes. The IGA was super crowded. You couldn't even stand in one place without being in someone's way much less try to move because there were so many people trying to get things or get passed you, etc... Very aggravating. I tried to tell myself to take my time, but I still had about 20 minutes to wait at the busstop with all of my bags of groceries. And that busstop is always crawling with ants - my biggest fear. I sat there trying not to pay attention to them because they make me freak out and itch all over (just what I need - more itching!). A couple other things happened that aren't big enough to mention separately, but added to the increasingly bad day. 

Got back and it was already late afternoon. Hoped to talk to my boyfriend on skype for the first time in WEEKS, but of course he was busy at the time we had previously agreed on, so I waited for him and worked on school stuff. By the time we did talk, I was already expecting something to go wrong or for him to say that he was too tired, so of course that happened. He made a joke that I wasn't in the mood for considering my already hard day. I tried to teach him a lesson by taking it seriously and hanging up, but that didn't really go over so well because we're both stubborn and waited for the other to call back. Then, his internet failed, so I didn't get to talk to him! By this time, it was getting pretty late for him, so we talked over the phone for about 30 minutes. Throughout the day, I was trying to distract myself by talking to him, but the bug bites were on his mind so it kept being brought up which just made me feel worse about the whole thing. So, a not very good call and everything else that happened today just made me crumble. I tried to call Jillian back (I reached out to her and she called me while I was on the phone), thinking maybe a girl would understand more and make me feel better, but her phone was out of service.

It was already dark and only half my laundry had dried. I hung the rest in the guest room and put the rest away then made some dinner, turned on some music to distract myself. Now off to do some preparations for my group meeting and long day of classes tomorrow. UGH.

Sometimes life is too hard! And it's funny, because I was sitting at the bus stop trying to tell myself that I shouldn't be frustrated and on the brink of tears for such stupid things. After all, haven't I experienced much WORSE days, where more catastrophic things have happened? But I guess for the same reason you can't compare your hard times to others, you also can't do it to yourself. Sure, those were "worse" in terms of scale, but that doesn't negate how hard today might be. Today still might just be that combination of things at the wrong time, when you're feeling a bit more vulnerable and it just gets inside you. It's all relative; it's hard because it's happening now. Difficult to explain, I guess. Whatever the reasons/causes, whether they were big or small or whatever, the point is - it's been a rough day.

May 1

On April 21st, I spent the morning packing for my mid-semester break trip and didn't go to class because I didn't want to have to take my suitcase to school with me. I headed to the airport and met my parents in Cairns.

Here's the trip in a nutshell:
Cairns - Scuba Diving! What a blast. Perfect mix of challenging and fun, my favorite kind of activity.
Adelaide - Beautiful parks all over the very manageable city, and nice day at Henley Beach.
Broken Hill - small, old mining town. Ghost Town of Silverton where Mad Max was filmed, saw the most amount of uninhabited space I've ever seen on the edge of the outback, didn't quite find any evidence that it was my grandfather's birthplace.
Sydney - Madame Butterfly Ballet at the Sydney Opera House and then fancy late night dinner at Aria with awesome views of the Opera House and Harbor Bridge.
Tasmania - This was my favorite part of the trip. It was so beautiful! Pure blue waters, tan cliffs, green eucalyptus trees, quaint town of Richmond, awesome natural wonders like Devil's Kitchen, Tasman's Arch and the Tessellated Pavement. Also a thrilling ghost tour of Port Arthur (old prison) under a fantastic starry sky!
Melbourne - Modern city mixed with old churches and sandstone buildings, watched the Royal Wedding from our hotel room and had Afternoon Tea at our hotel

I said goodbye to my parents and flew back to Brisbane, not quite ready to start school again and feeling not very rested after traveling to 6 places in 10 days! Ugh. I definitely want to go back to Tasmania. I think it's one of the world's best kept secrets. Here are some photos. The formatting is wacky, so I can't figure out how to caption them. You'll just have to figure out what's what.

Scuba

Mom at the reef:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 20

I woke up super early for a Tourism Industry breakfast. It was the Welcome for Queensland's new Minister of Tourism, hosted by the UQ School of Tourism and the Queensland Tourism Industry Council. I had been invited by one of my professors to represent the school and ask the new Minister an educated question. I developed two questions last week and sent them. One was about sustainable tourism with the increased cruise ship market at the Great Barrier Reef and the other was about helping Queensland tourist operators after the affects of the recent flood/cyclone. I preferred my first question, but wasn't sure if it was too pointed/attacking. Luckily, it was the one chosen. I dressed up and headed down to the convention center. Two other students were also asking questions (one classmate of mine and another undergraduate student) so I chatted with them for a bit. This "mingling time" was supposed to be a networking opportunity, but I ended up talking to students and professors the whole time. Whoops. I was really looking forward to talking with the professor who invited me, but he arrived late and left early, so oh well! I sat between the School of Tourism Coordinator and my professor from last semester (who will also be my final report advisor).

The breakfast was only OK - it was a frittata filled with way too many vegetables and onions, etc. And it had a glob of ketchup and mayo on top! Aussies are so weird. The Minister gave a speech and stumbled a couple times which took the pressure off of me! Phew. Then I was the last to ask a question. The others didn't really follow their script, so I tried to just "talk" through my question instead of read it verbatim. Probably a mistake since I felt like it stumbled a bit, but others probably didn't notice. I shouldn't have used the microphone because I can project my voice, but instead I held it just a bit too far away from my face, so it cut in and out. OH WELL! Whatever. Others asked some questions that weren't prepared just regular Q&A, then that was it.. We met the minister and took a few awkward photos where I think I ended up being in the center of the photo - haha!

I walked a kilometer to the busstop which was a mistake because my heels gave me blisters, then came home and changed clothes before my class. Headed off to class which was a short day! Whoo hoo! Then, I printed out my huge paper, the biggest paper I've ever written!! By that time, my parents met me on campus, so they came with me to turn in my paper and then we ate some lunch at the food court, visited the lakes and took the bus back to my house. I gave them a tour of my house, and we sat around for a bit trying to decide what to do with the evening. We decided to go to the movies and see Biutiful, so we headed to the Barracks and got some dinner. Lina took a break from studying and came over for some coffee and got to chat with my parents for a bit more, which was nice! Then we saw the movie. It was OK. Kind of a lot happening in it and all of the story lines were kind of shitty - nothing really good happened! =( I shared a cab back to my parent's hotel to drop them off and then took it home.

My mom tried calling me to make sure I made it home safely, but my phone was still on silent from the movie, so she kind-of freaked out and tried to get ahold of EVERYONE. Embarrassing!! Oh well.