Comedy Festival and Coffs Harbour

Hey everyone!

Well last Thursday we went to a comedy festival in Bangalow. We went and ate a really good dinner first and had a couple drinks at a nice restaurant and then headed over to the comedy show. There were a couple different comedians and they were pretty funny! One of them had a puppet of a monkey she used for he whole show and I have never seen someone so good at not moving their mouth when they were talking. Overall it was definitely a good night!

Friday me and a couple people went with our Aussie friend Jess back home for the weekend. She lives in Coffs Harbour. We stayed at her house all weekend and her whole family made us feel so welcome. They cooked us meals and we chatted with them for a long time. Friday night we went out to Coffs Hotel which is a bar/club and it was a lot of fun.

On Sarturday Jess took us to this tourist attraction called The Big Banana. It was pretty funny. It was a theme park where they had all different kinds of food and rides and stuff that of course, had to do with bananas. Afterwards we went shopping for a while at the mall and then went back to Jess' house. That night her parents ordered pizza for us and we stayed in and watched movies. It ended up being really nice and relaxing. Their house reminded me a lot of home and it was nice to escape the flats for a weekend and actually be in a house. It did make me miss all the comforts of home for a little bit though.

On Sunday Jess took us to this place called The Promise Land which was a water hole with a rope swing and it was a lot fun. The water was FREEZING and it started to downpour but I decided to go on the swing anyways and make the best of it. After that we went back to her house and said goodbye to her parents and came back home. The drive was about 2 and a half hours one way so it wasn't too bad.

It's Monday now and has been raining ALL day!!! Luckily we are headed to Cairns on Wednesday to snorkel and The Great Barrier Reef and I booked my skydiving for Thursday so everyone wish me luck!! I will let you know how it goes when I come back!! Hope all of you who are going to the Britney Spears concert on the third have fun!! And Hope the floods aren't getting too many of you!!

Love you guys!

Keegs

Meebunn-Bia Trek through the Bush.

Hey everyone.

Well, I safely made it out alive from the Australian bush! That trip was no joke. We hiked with our huge packs on for hours and went up really steep hills and climbed through tall grass and all sorts of stuff. Overall, it was a ton of fun.

On the first day we woke up and got the bus at 7:00am. We arrived at Meebunn-Bia around 9:00 and played a few games to get to know every one's name in our group. Once we got our stuff together we started the hike. Initially it wasn't bad at all until we got to this huge hill they told us we were climbing up. It was pretty steep and more like a cliff than a hill. It was an awesome work out and we were definitely tired after. Once we got to the top we stopped for lunch and chatted a bit then we continued the hike. We got to the first campsite and set up our tents which are tarps with rocks and boards holding them down. The first day we also got the chance to do some ropes courses that were a blast. That night we all gathered around the campfire and the showed us how to use the cooking stoves the provided. We saw about 3 possums and were pretty freaked out considering we heard some girl had one crawl across her face in the night the week before. Luckily we didn't have a problem.

The second day we did our navigation exercise. We split into groups of four and were given a map and compasses and had to take bearings and find our way through the bush from marker to marker. It was a lot of work and proved to be harder than it seemed but in the end we made it. We had a little trouble finding our way in the middle but found that the only way to keep a positive attitude while trekking through the weeds that were up to our waste was to laugh and just enjoy it. I have a few battle wounds, scrapes and bruises. I got into a fight with a thorn bush and it won haha. Nothing too serious though. Afterwards we did a few more ropes courses and an awesome zip line I have a video of, I will have on my facebook. They were a lot of fun. The second night we went to another campsite and once we got there we climbed yet another hill to watch the sunset and it was pretty amazing. It definitely made the trip worth all of the sweat, blood and hard work. No possums the second night either, although there were a ton of them around the campsite.

The third day we did a team ropes course along with a free fall exercise which was awesome! It made your stomach drop but it was a ton of fun. Then we started the trek back down to catch the bus and ate lunch along the way. Once we were on the bus we were all happy to be able to go home, take a shower and finally relax. Overall it was definitely a trip to remember.

This week I don't have any huge plans. Class and laying by the pool I'm sure...the usual! Hopefully this weekend we are going to Byron Bay for a night or two. Cairns is fastly approaching, we leave Wednesday morning and I can't wait to Snorkel and Scuba at The Great Barrier Reef!! Hope all is well! Miss you guys!!

Keegs

St. Patty's Day.

Hey everyone!

St. Patty's Day was a blast. A bunch of people hung out around the flats and played games until we went downtown to Mary's, the only Irish pub in Lismore. It was pretty packed and ended up being a lot of fun.

Not much else to report. Our outdoor ed trip is tomorrow. We leave at 7:00 AM and I am hoping for nice weather. A few of our friends have been on the trip these last couple of days so hopefully they can fill me in on what I need and don't need. I ended up buying a camping backback so I can carry all my stuff and it will come in handy on our New Zealand trip.

We decided to do a Contiki tour which is a 7 day tour around the South island. We're hoping to white water raft and sky dive and do a glacier walk while we are there. We haven't booked it yet but I will keep you updated. We were also hoping, depending on the money situation to go to Fiji for 3 days after New Zealand, keep your fingers crossed! Love you all!

TJ's Birthday and Surfer's Paradise

Hey everyone!! Sorry it took me so long to update this, it's been a pretty busy week and weekend.

During the week nothing too exciting happened. Went to class, layed by the pool, pretty much the same ol same ol. We did play sand volleyball one night and it turned out to be a lot of fun. We're hoping to make it a regular thing so we can all cure our bordem of being stuck in the flats with no cars.

Thursday was TJs birthday and his roommates made a whop so we all went over to his flat to celebrate. Overall it was a pretty good night.

Friday we realxed and watched movies and got ready for our trip back to Surfer's Paradise.

Saturday we left for Surfer's and once we got there we did a little shopping and sight seeing again. The beach there is so amazing and there is so much to see and just people watching is very entertaining. After that we went back to our hostel. We had two roommates from Sweden who were pretty cool.

A little later on that night we went to this Irish Pub that we like called Waxxys and had appetizers and listen to the live band. It was a lot of fun.

Afterwards we all went out to the clubs and danced the night away until we came back and finally went to bed.

Today is Tuesday (St. Pattys Day) and a bunch of us are going to go into towna dn eat Sushi for lunch and then we're going to run errands for our Outdoor Education camping trip we have on Thursday. It should be a lot of fun! Hopefully it doesn't rain (cross your fingers). We hike during the day and then camp out at night so it should be a fun experience. I am really excited for the ropes courses and other things we are going to get the chance to do while we're there! I will update you guys on how it went once I am back on Saturday night.

Later tonight we're going to the Irish Pub downtown called Mary's to celebrate. As of right now that is pretty much all that has been going on. School is the same, pretty layed back, mostly have to teach yourself and go from there. Digital photography is a class I am really starting to enjoy. I can't wait til we can actually take the cameras with us on trips and take some really cool pictures! Hope all is well for everyone! Miss you!! Good to hear the weather is warming up!!

Keegs

Uni Bar, Ballina, Nimbin

Hey everyone!

Hope all is well for all of you!

This week flew by, nothing too exciting happened during the actual week, pretty much the same routine, class, lay by the pool, class, pool...you get the idea ( pretty rough life, i know! )

Thursday we went to the Uni bar, no theme this week just went to have fun and dance. It was a pretty good night overall.

Friday we decided to catch a bus to Ballina which is about a half an hour away from Lismore. We caught the bus and again, met some crazy lady who flicked us off because we were American. I'm slowly realizing people either are extremely nice to us or are extremely rude, there's never really an inbetween. It's pretty entertaining because most of the rude ones seem to have a few problems of their own.

But anyway, we ended up getting off the bus too early and kind of got lost and had to call a cab to finally get to the beach. It was a pretty funny experience. But we finally got there and the beach was really pretty and we ended up having a lot of fun.

Friday night we all just hung out and layed low. Watched some movies, thank god my One Tree Hill DVDs work over here, none of my other movies work in Aussie DVD players so I'm getting everyone obsessed with it. haha.

Saturday we went to a town called Nimbin which is like 45 minutes or so from Lismore. It's this small little town that was basically put together by hippies so there is all sorts of crazy shops and crazy people walking around talking to you. They are HUGE Obama fans and a couple of them were talking to me about him and how happy they are here's in office and all that. It was pretty funny to see all the people with dreads and just a care free attitude.

Today's Sunday and I will probably try and clean up the flat (apartment) a little bit before they do their monthly inspections and then hopefully I will get some laundry done and possibly lay by the pool...again another rough day in Ausrtalia!!

Hope all is well! I miss all of you!! Keep in touch! Email me and catch me up on what is going on in your lives! I wanna hear about it!!

k.shoutz.10@scu.edu.au

Keegs

Toga Party, Surfer's Paradise, And Lunch

Hey everyone, How you going?? (Aussie greeting)

Well I have been pretty busy these last few days....here is a recap of what I have been up to!

The toga party at the Uni Bar was Thursday and it was a lot of fun. A bunch of us got all dressed up and went out and had a blast dancing and looking at everyone's awesome togas they put together.

On friday, we took a bus to Surfer's Paradise which is on the Gold Coast, about an hour and half or two hours from here. The bus ride took about three hours with all the stops they made but it was definitely worth it!!

When we got there we all looked around and went to all the different shops and then hit the beach. It's a really beautiful city with a lot of interesting stuff to see and people to watch. It reminded all of us of Vegas in a way, except way smaller. Definitely an awesome place to go.

We met three really cool girls that stayed in our Hostel with us. Two of them were from England and one was from Ireland. We ended up talking to them most of the night and exchanged emails so hopefully we will keep in touch!!

Saturday we took a bus from Surfer's to Kirra Beach where they had a Quicksilver surfing competition. The water and the scenery from Kirra Beach was amazing! They ocean was so many different shades of the blue and the surfers were awesome! Kelly Slater was there ( an american pro surfer) so it was fun to watch him and all the other guys tear up the waves. Afterwards we took a bus back to Surfer's ate at the Hard Rock Cafe' and then took a bus back to Lismore.

Overall, definitely a great weekend!! Going back to class this week is going to be very difficult. It was very hot today, around 85 or something like that, very humid as well. I'm sure you're all wanting to exchange that for all the snow though :)

Today (Sunday) my friend Jackie and I went on a lunch which was set up by the school. We got picked up by two younger Australian's and they took us to their house right by campus and they cooked for us and we hung out for a while. They were both really nice but then they started talking about religion and asked Jackie and I if we knew whether or not we were going to heaven and what have we done for the Lord and all this awkward stuff. Needless to say we were happy it only lasted a few hours, we were ready to get the hell out of there and go to everyone our crazy story! It was definitely an experience unlike any other, I can't help but just laugh about it!!

Well, I will keep you all updated on what else is new! Hope you enjoy some of the pictures from toga night and surfer's!! Miss you all!!