Last week was pretty stressful with two mid-term exams, a report to submit, football matches and college ball. It's always hard to motivate yourself for the first assignments of the year, but it was particularly hard this time because I'd been getting really used to the Aussie "no worries mate" lifestyle! I managed it in the end so it's all good!
I'm still behind with blogging about my other little travelling trips from the past two weeks, so I'll start with Sydney.
I went to Sydney a few weeks ago to visit some friends that I've known since I was little. It was great to get away from College for a few days - I love it, but it's nice to have a break every now and again because it gets a little intense. It was my first time there and I have to say, it's an amazing city - I'm going to have to live there when I'm older! I felt it was a blend between London and Edinburgh; it had a great buzz and there's always stuff going on but it's not as crazy and manic as London which can get frustrating after a while. We went on a day trip to the Blue Mountains National Park which is a few hours north of Sydney which was so spectacular and totally gorgeous;
I wish I could have spent longer there and am considering doing a camping trip over my Christmas Vacation. It was pretty cold though - even snowed while I was there which was a bit of a shock to my system since I've grown accustomed to Queensland's flip-flop friendly climate. My friends did a 14k run from the city to Bondi beach with 40,000 other maniacs. I went along for moral support and chilled out on Bondi beach which is really cool area with lots of surfers knocking about. It's crazy that one minute you can be in a really built up business district and then end up on a beach within 10minutes - that's one disadvantage of Brisbane, it's not that close to the beach. If I had a car it wouldn't be a problem because the drive is only about 45mins-1hr but with public transport it can end being a bit of treck. So yeah, had a wicked time visiting Sydney but was happy to come back home to Brissie.
I also went on a biology field trip for my Marine Biology Class (which is full of international students for all the field trips) to North Stradbroke Island. The University has a research station over there and it's really beautiful. The area we were researching was pretty much empty apart from a local dog that wanted to help us collect data which was funny at first but got really annnoying because he chased the majority of marine life away. We split up into separate groups and worked on different projects and wrapped up the weekend with presentations on our findings. I enjoyed it because the phD students helping us were really knowledgable and great at telling us all about the different marine creatures!
Other College events have included 'Race Day', which was on a public holiday in the middle of August. Everyone dressed up (cocktail dresses for girls, suits for guys) and went to a horse-racing track just out of the city. I didn't really know what to expect but the place was rammed full of people - mostly students or people around our age and there were loads of bars, food-stalls, places to sit and chill, music, rides ... and then, the races! Unsuprisingly I didn't win anything despite some very near misses with some tri-fecta bets. Another eventful day was College Ball last weekend and it was soooo much fun. It was great to dress up and have a really nice dinner and the location was really lovely. I'm not usually one for enjoying lots of organised events but it's a blast when all your friends are there.
I've got three more weeks till my mid-semester break and lots of work to do before then because I'm going away for the whole week! This week is busy with lots of football training; I'm on the girls soccer team for my college and we have our last two matches on Sunday. We're doing pretty well in the inter-collegiate league and I think we're gonna come top if win both games on Sunday!
Anyways, better go - it's fitness training time. I'll leave you with a photo of me and some other Brits on a beach in the Sunny Coast after creating the Union Jack out of sand
