Well there is officially a little less than 4 weeks of school left and I am starting to feel the end-of-semester pressure. But I will not bore you with the details of assignments and exams. Instead, this blog entry will focus on my fabulous time in New Zealand over the break! My friend Zoe – an exchange student from England – and I decided to spend a week in the South Island of NZ for the midsemester break and it was one of the best experiences I have ever had! The South Island is breathtaking: with its snowy mountains (the Southern Alps!), turquoise lakes, and emerald-coloured plains dotted with the fuzziest and cutest sheep in the world! Kiwi-land also has some of the friendliest people in the world! Their accents are also quite different from the Aussie accent…it is so funny to hear!

We started our adventure in Christchurch, which has a quaint town square and beautiful botanical gardens. Since there was a big earthquake in Christchurch several weeks ago, we examined the damage done to the town. Most buildings were fine, although others were completely demolished. It was very eerie. The day after our arrival in Christchurch, we took the TransAlpine train, which travels between Christchurch and Greymouth (East to West) via Arthur’s Pass. The journey featured beautiful landscapes, which we enjoyed while drinking hot chocolate and eating yummy scones with jam and cream.

The next day, we took a short flight to Queenstown. Stepping off the plane, I was amazed at the views surrounding me. Queenstown is positioned in a valley full of lakes and rivers, with snow-capped mountains completely surrounding the town. It was amazing. The town itself is quite small, and very touristy. We settled in to our hostel – X Base Queenstown – which was one of the best hostels I have ever stayed in. We explored the area right away by taking the gondola to the top of a mountain and enjoying the 360 degree views. Later that afternoon, we went to the hot pools overlooking the infamous Shotover River. The hot pools were so relaxing! We put mud masks on and enjoyed the warm water in the brisk air.

The next morning, we tried white water rafting. It was so much fun! The water was freezing cold, but we enjoyed paddling down the Shotover River and experiencing the level 4 and 5 rapids. After 2 hours on the water, we head back into town for a hot lunch. In the afternoon we were quite tired from rafting, so we took a walk through the Queenstown parks. The next day, we had to get up very early as we had a daytrip to Milford Sound. We were picked up in a small van, along with around 10 other people. We travelled through the mountains, stopped for a few bush walks, and enjoyed a coffee in the town of Te Anau. We continued our journey, but had to stop for about 20 minutes in the snowy mountains because a bus broek down in a tunnel that we had to go through. After throwing a snowball at my friend, we started playing in the snow like children. It really reminded me of Canada. I can’t believe I’ll be going back home to snow in 7 short weeks! Finally, we arrived at Milford Sound and boarded our cruise. After having a quick lunch, we headed out to the decks to admire the views of the fiordland. Unfortunately, my camera could not capture the views we were admiring. It was unbelievably beautiful! After a couple of hours, we went back into the van for the long journey home. I’m going to be honest: I slept most of the way home! I was already exhausted after 5 adventure-filled days in New Zealand!

The next morning, I woke up to begin the craziest experience of my life: skydiving. Skydiving. Was. AMAZING. I really don’t know how to put it into words. While driving to the site, I was really nervous. But once I put the skydiving suit on and walking towards the small aircraft, my adrenalin took over and I experience a surge of excitement. The plane took off and quickly climbed to 12,000 feet. My skydiving partner, Greg, strapped himself to my back and soon the plane door opened and I was overlooking the Southern Alps, which looked like small peaks below me! Seconds later, we were tumbling through the air in freefall and I had no idea which way was up or down. It was so exhilarating! I was screaming but laughing at the same time! Soon after, Greg pulled the parachute and I was launched into a vertical position. It suddenly went very quiet and we slowly drifted downwards. Minutes later we landed in the soft grass and Greg and I exchanged high-fives. I couldn’t believe I just jumped out of a plane minutes before! It was such a memorable experience and I can’t wait to do it again!

Still on a high from skydiving, I met up with Zoe and we decided to do a local hike in the afternoon. On the way up the mountain, I soon became out of breath and I was exhausted. Luckily, Zoe is an experience hiker and she graciously carried my jacket and other belongings. About an hour later we reached the top and admired the views of Queenstown far below us. I was quite proud of myself for skydiving and hiking a mountain all in one day! That night we were exhausted so we went to bed pretty early. The next day was our last day in New Zealand: we took a bus from Queenstown back to Christchurch via Mount Cook. It was a long day, but we sat back and enjoyed our last views of the beautiful country that is New Zealand. So here I am back in Brisbane and frantically trying to catch up on schoolwork. I will definitely always remember NZ and I miss it already!

As an exchange student, one of my main goals was to experience the city of Brisbane as much as possible. After walking the streets of Brisbane for two months, my friends Anna and Morgan and I decided to explore Brisbane from another perspective: by climbing the Story Bridge. We decided on the Twilight Climb in order to see the change of day to night…we heard that climb displayed the best scenery! We took two buses to Kangaroo Point and (after getting lost) checked-in to the office. We were joined by nine other people from all over the world: France, Ireland, and Taiwan. After getting into our climbing suits and attaching our radio headsets, we set out for the bridge. After climbing for about 20 minutes, we reached the highest point of the bridge. As it was still quite light out, our guide pointed out many landmarks in Brisbane as well as the surroundings. I thought I was going to be scared at the top of a bridge, but I wasn’t at all! It was not as high as I expected, and the climb was not challenging at all. As we continued our journey, day turned to night and Brisbane was soon lit up by its’ many city lights. The view was amazing! Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to bring any loose objects (including our cameras) so we couldn’t take pictures! However, there were three “photo points” where the guide took pictures of us. I kept thinking how cool it would be to do a modeling shoot up on the bridge…what an amazing backdrop that would be! It was such an amazing view. We looked down and the traffic below us was a blur of white and red lights. The bridge was also lit up and it was very pretty! We could also see the Eye of Brisbane (the Ferris wheel) in South Bank from the bridge and it looked so small in comparison to how high we were! After more commentary on the history of the bridge, we commenced our descent. The entire climb took two and a half hours and by the time we reached the bottom I was exhausted! It was definitely a cool experience and a different way to see Brisbane!

On Saturday, I went to Riverfire with my friends. We found a nice spot near the river at Southbank and joined the crowds to wait for the fireworks. Riverfire marks the opening of the yearly 3-week Brisbane Festival.

When the sun went down at 7 pm, the celebration started with the infamous F-111 strike jets streamed across the sky. What followed was an amazing display of fireworks all along the river, coordinated to both old-school and contemporary hits. The fireworks were incredible….there were many oohs and ahhs at the beginning, but after while everyone just shut up and admired the awe of the pyrotechnics. I realized that watching fireworks are a great way to distract you from upcoming midterms!

It was very relaxing. The stressful part was yet to come: getting out of South Bank. There were so many people there! Along the river, there were about half a million people. Not to mention the crowds of people on their balconies admiring the view below them! After the show, my friends and I tried to get home to Toowong, but there were so many people waiting for buses and trains that we decided to walk home. This ended up taking us 2 hours!! We were exhausted when we got home, but we were still in awe over the best firework display we all had ever seen. I wish I was here to witness it again next year!!

This weekend, I went to Byron Bay with Quest Society – a group for exchange students at the University of Queensland. One hundred international students met on Friday morning and boarded two buses towards Byron Bay. On the way, we stopped at Mount Warning, where we had 2 hours to hike as far up the mountain as we could. It was fun to walk through the rainforest-like atmosphere and take pictures along the way up the trail. Soon we had to turn back, and we finally returned back to the buses out of breath and tired. So tired, in fact, that everyone fell asleep on the bus!

Next stop was the town of Nimbin, which is one of the oldest hippy towns in Australia. We were all laughing as we roamed the streets of this old, artistic town where Bob Marley music seemed to be blaring from all the shops and restaurants.

By dinnertime, we had arrived at our hostel – The Arts Factory – in Byron Bay. My friends and I had formed a group of 10, so after checking in, we were led to our room, which we discovered was actually a tipi! While everyone else had rooms in the main building, we had a tipi with 10 beds formed in a circle around a small fireplace!! We then discovered that the hostel had run out of blankets, so we had to sleep in sheets only. As we had no door, the cold night air made us all freezing that night, and I think we all only slept a few hours. There were also “hippies” playing the acoustic guitar and singing right outside our tent until the early hours of the morning. I didn’t want to hear songs about love and happiness when I was freezing my butt off and trying to get some sleep! At the time, we were all furious, but the next day we were able to laugh about it!

The next day, my friends and I decided to go whale watching. As it was migration season, we were guaranteed to see humpback whales. We were a group of only 9 people, and our tour guide first drove us up to the infamous Byron Bay lighthouse. Driving up the winding road, we were amazed at the wonderful views of the most easterly point of Australia. The bays of turquoise water were amazing and we could see groups of surfers trying to catch waves. After returning from the lighthouse, we were led to the beach where we boarded a small motorized boat. We sped off into the ocean and we soon spotted our first group of whales!! It was amazing! Our small boat allowed us to get relatively close to the whales, and we enjoyed watching them breach the waters and slapping their tails playfully. We even got to listen to them sing “songs” underwater…it was unbelievable! After 3 hours on the water and after spotting several whales, we head back to land. Exhausted after our adventure, we spent the rest of our afternoon sitting by the beach while eating burgers and chips.

Later that night, all 100 of us ate at the Buddha Bar which was attached to our hostel. We had a delicious meal of steak, chips, and salad, not to mention $2.50 beers! It was one of the best meals I have had since arriving in Australia. Yum! Later that night, we head into town and watched a local band at a hotel bar before calling it a night.

The next morning, my friends and I head to the beach and took a nap in the sun before getting some lunch and heading back to the buses. 4 hours later, we were back in Brisbane and saying goodbye to all the new friends we made. Byron Bay was definitely an interesting and unforgettable weekend!

So what else have I been doing in these past few weeks? A lot actually.

Two weeks ago, my friends Zoe (from England), Anna (from the Netherlands), and Tanya (from Canada) decided to go to the Gold Coast for the day. A train, two buses, and two hours later, we all ran onto the beach at Surfer’s Paradise. It was an amazing feeling to see my first Australian beach, but as it’s still winter here, it was pretty chilly! But that didn’t stop us from trying to soak up a few rays of sun! We flopped onto our stomachs and watched a group of keen surfing students head out into the frigid waters for their morning lesson. After walking along the beach, exploring the boardwalk, and eating a tasty seafood platter for lunch, we decided to head home, vowing to come back again once the temperature started rising!

The weekend after, we decided to try our luck with the Sunshine Coast. This time, we headed to the coast with some other girls from our residence (Raymont Lodge). This trip to the beach was much more successful than the last! It was a clear, warm, sunny day and the beach was amazing! After reading a few magazines, I decided it was time to take my first swim in Australian waters! It was cold, and the waves were quite rough, but it was worth it. I felt so energized and happy that I was finally “living the dream” in Australia!

Since then, there have been many eventful nights, including bowling (Strike on Queen St. is awesome), going out (Down Under Bar on Ladies Night…enough said), and movies (has anyone seen “Inception” yet? It blew my mind.)

But let’s not forget the reason I am here. School. I started my classes a couple of weeks ago, and even though I am already under stress with how many assignments and quizzes I have, I really do enjoy my classes. Pursuing a marketing major, I am taking a course on international business and two marketing classes. I am also taking a religion class, specifically “The Introduction to the Islamic Tradition” and I love it so far! It is something I have always been really interested in and I never thought of pursuing the subject at home. I am starting to meet more people in my classes and the diversity of students really makes discussions more interesting.

Speaking of school, I should go read some chapters before I get too far behind! I’ll be sure to keep everyone posted on the fun things Australia has to offer…I can’t believe I’ve only been here for 3 weeks!

So I have been in Australia for 3 weeks now…but what better way to start my blog than with my first few days!

A 6-hour flight to Los Angeles. A 7-hour wait. A 14-hour flight to Brisbane. With a fat kiwi (New Zealander) sitting next to me. Needless to say, upon landing in Australia it felt more like I was in a galaxy far, far away as opposed to the land down under. An hour later, I was settling into my off-campus residence, which is quite nice, minus the fact that nights here are freezing cold. “But aren’t you from Canada?” is the question I get asked most frequently when I complain about the temperature. Yes, I am from Canada, and yes, our winters reach -30 degrees Celsius. But for God’s sake, at least we have heating! I reach for the phone to call the one person who doesn’t mind my complaining: my mom. That is, until I remember the 14-hour time difference between Brisbane and Montreal and realize that it is 3 o’clock in the morning there. [long sigh] What have I gotten myself into?

Four days later, I have attended the French Festival in South Bank, held a koala, sunbathed next to a kangaroo, tried vegemite (and will never try it again!), signed up for salsa classes, taken the “City Cat” ferry more times than I can count, and planned a daytrip to the famous beaches of the Gold Coast. I have also become friends with students from England, the Netherlands, Germany, China, Malaysia, the United States, and of course, Australia. Oh, and I LOVE the University of Queensland. The campus is amazing, with its sprawling lawns, colorful birds, and friendly staff. Not to mention the vibrant “college life” you see and feel as soon as you step foot on the campus. Maybe I will join a photography club. Or try out for the soccer team. Perhaps I can join the team of volunteers preserving the wildlife in the rainforests of Northern Queensland. Or maybe I will just take surfing lessons. Yeah…I don’t think my exchange in Australia will be all that bad…