Even the eggs are happy in Australia

Hi!! Since the last time I wrote here I've been up to a lot.  Last Wednesday we headed out to Byron Bay with Extreme tours as a part of your orientation.  And then after Byron Bay and one days rest, Helen and I went down to Surfers Paradise to party with a fellow Tillsonburger. I'm in love with life right now.  Everything has been perfect.

Making breakfast before our trip to Byron Bay... even the eggs are happy.  

So after picking up the other students at Gold Coast campus we went to Currumbin Wildlife sanctuary.  I took way too many pictures of all the animals, but I'll share with you my favourite pictures and you can check the others on facebook when I put them on there.

So when we got there, we went straight to the Koalas... cute little buggers!

This guy totally looked and me and posed, such a little ham. 

And they generally sleep about 18 hours a day... so this is what you see normally, which is just as cute as when they are awake!

Then I got to hold one!! And get a pro photo with one, which was worth the $18 dollars for the pictures, but also you don't feel bad when you know they money is going to wildlife preservation.  I forget his name but he was 5 years old, and each Koala only works for about a half hour.  He tried to bite my necklace so I had to turn it around.  The closest thing I can describe to you about how they feel is like a sheep...soft but thick fur.  If it wasn't so damn illegal and I had no morals, I would own one of these. 

This little one is a Wallaby. So gentle and so hungry.  And friendly!

Kangaroos!! I could have stayed here all day and hung out with these guys! I wore my moccasins in here, and now have all kinds of animal poop on them.  At least my moccasins will have some character I suppose.

Hanging out with the kangaroos still!

This is the beach right behind the hostel we stayed in.  Beyond beautiful!  The sand makes funny noises when you step on it... Helen described it as a sound a puppy might make when you step on it, hahaha.  Ok, thats not funny, but if you heard the sound it makes you would understand.  Seriously, it makes weird sounds.  We ran as quickly as possible to the ocean, it was warm and so clear.

Beach pose! So happy to be there!

Notice the Santa hats.  Some guy from Cheeky Monkey's (the bar we were going to later) was giving these out for free drinks because it was Christmas in July.  And it turned out every time they played and xmas song they gave a free beer away, and I only remember hearing them play two, I guess it was too successful.  This is the group heading up to the light house.

This is half way up the hike.  SO many stairs.  But every view was worth it.

Group picture in front of the lighthouse.  All international students!  There was something like 120 of us on the trip.

Lighthouse in full view!

The light house is.... well read the sign, lol.

US, Germany, Canada represent!

Looking down from the light house to the point.

Walking back along the beach from the light house to the hostel.  Yup, life is hard.

First night drinking at the hostel.  Sitting around the fire.  Fire smells different here, lol... I'm not joking.

Lightly slappin' the Goon!  Cheap wine in a bag and a staple of uni!

First night bar, with dinner, that I didn't eat because it came after I had a few.  Fun times!  There was also a video booth that you could tape yourself and send the email to others.  I emailed them all to myself... ridiculous.  These should not be allowed to be around when you are drinking!

Jenga!!  Jenga all around the bar.  Hilarity!

I got the case of the peace signs, which were in most of the Byron Bay pics.  Anyways, we went sea kayaking (hung over) and we spotted some dolphins that were pretty close.  It was unreal to see them that close and in the wild.  No sea world for this girl.  Kayaking was an adventure and a half.  So when you launch your boat you have to go over waves... some pretty big and you have to keep your nose straight so you can make it over the waves.  But our "steering" was broken, meaning we couldn't keep the damn kayak straight.  So we bailed... hard! We were both laughing so hard, so that probably didn't help out the lack of kayaking skills. But we managed to get it over the waves, but still had trouble getting the direction straight, we were also the slowest of the group!  Slow and steady wins the race right?!?  

This is one of the times we stopped to wait for the dolphins.  We were allowed to jump out of the kayaks and just swim around, which was beautiful and warm.  It was kind of cool above the water.  We landed our kayaks on a beach and had some Tim Tams and some Tea to warm up, which didn't really help but was yummy.  This time Helen and I launched our boat somewhat successfully.  Back to the water to head back to the beach we launched from and more dolphin searching.  So when heading back, we caught a sweet wave that brought us back to the beach... but the wrong beach.  There was no bailing, and we even launched by ourselves again without bailing... incredible, but no one saw it, so no proof.  So we relaunched and headed over to the right spot where open returning we hit a wave on the wrong angle... BAIL... HARD...in front of EVERYONE.  We loose our kayak and had to swim back to the beach with our paddles and everyone watching our sweet bail and someone else retrieving our kayak.  FAIL.  I think we should join the olympics!

Drinking night # 2.  Me, Véronique, Agata, Helen and Tim (tour guide) in the front. We had "punch" it was everything mixed together.  Not horrible, but not great.  There isn't that many pictures because of that reason... well there are some, but well, they don't need to be one here.

So those containers were filled with punch... and Max (tour guide) in the punch bowls.  We all went to a bar called Cocomangas.  We danced the night away.  Ridiculousness ensued!

So there isn't pictures from our last day, we were hung over.  But we did manage to go surfing, yay us.  We got to the surfing beach and we couldn't bring anything with us down to the beach, including our towels, just us in our bathing suits, because it was raining and it just made sense to leave it on the bus.  But SOOO COLD.  Plus we had to get in a cold wet suit, which made it worse.  But once we got in the water, it all turned out okay.  I love surfing, I'm going to try and keep doing it while I'm here.  Yes I bailed, but I also stood up a bunch of times, so first time was successful!!

So we came home friday and rested up.  We took a trip to Surfers Paradise... or mini vegas, whatever you prefer.  Absolutely ridiculous down there.  I don't think the partying stops.  We took the train to Surfers which the equivalent to Toronto from London (maybe a little shorter) and it costs less that $4.  So there will be lots of visits to our friends in the gold coast.  

The famous Surfers Paradise sign.

Fancy meeting you here Sean!  A friend from Tillsonburg.  Sean showed us some good 'ol Canadian hospitality, which means drinking and more drinking.  The bars don't close til 5am...we closed them down!  Dancing to 90s music all night long... its good for the soul!

One of these buildings is where we stayed.  These buildings featured a roof top pool / lagoon and bbq areas, grass areas to lay out on... another pool area.  Indoor pool, sauna, workout room, and I'm sure a whole lot more.  It's a nice place to live... especially if you go back and look at the pictures of what I'm living in.  

I just snapped this as we were waiting for the bus to head back to Brissy.  Across the way there are a bunch of huge ass houses.  I'm going back.

Bed time, early classes tomorrow.  I am going to school while I'm here... I swear!