My Final Days...

Hey all! I can't believe I have less than a week left...it went by way too fast! I can't even comprehend whats happening to me...I love it here so much, but I especially love the people and amazing friends I've made here! Its just not fair that I have to say goodbye to them...I've already had to say goodbye to like 20 people, crazyness. Its made these past couple weeks really bittersweet. I'm taking advantage of every second I have with everyone and taking in all I can of my beautiful Newcastle! I've been balling my eyes out and my besties haven't even left yet...Betsy and Stacy leave Friday...thats gonna be awful.  I don't know how I'm gonna handle it. Thank god Charlie, Pat and Itai will still be here cause I'm gonna need them to keep my spirits up...then all of us leave on Sunday...I'm going to Brisbane and they're going to Sydney. I don't even want to think about it anymore so I'll just tell ya what I've been up to.

This past week and weekend have been one of the funniest best weekends since I've been here! We've been partying it up everyday pretty much.  Everyday has been a shitshow, I love it! Drinking and going out to clubs and having farewell parties at friends' houses...My friends Steph and Kristy had a pretty great party with beerpong and the like...then went out to one of my fav bars, Finnegans, then left and went back to our friend Kyle's place and chilled/drank their til 5ish when me, Charlie, Kyle and a friend of Drew's decided to walk down to Nobbys Beach to watch the sunrise. The entire way we walked there, Charlie and I were doing shots of goon...disgusting. Finally got there and it was still dark, but it didn't take very long for it to start lightening up. Charlie and I were goofing off like usual and we had our jeans rolled up and legs in the water, well one thing led to another and we started wrestling and we both lost our balance and fell into the water completely...we were soaked! Not one piece of clothing was dry...so you could definitely say we were frickin cold! But it was probably one of the funniest moments ever! And to make it worse, I'm retarded and ate it again and fell in the water...good stuff. 

The only thing that was kinda lame was that it was really freakin cloudy so when the sunrise finally came we couldn't even see the sun haha, whatever though, worth it. We didn't stay too much longer cause we were freezing so we headed back to Charlie's and on the way we passed the train station and ran into our friends Julie and Kira who were catching a train to Sydney so they could catch their flight home...major bummer! I didn't think I was going to be able to say goodbye so I was totally stoked to run into them! After saying some more goodbyes, we finally headed back to Charlie's, took showers and went to bed...it was probably around 9am by the time we were able to go to sleep...we were obviously exhausted so we literally ended up staying in bed til 6pm...wtf...normally I would hate this, but I figured it was a well deserved rest. Anyways, we ended up drinking some more that night cause our friends Alissa and Melissa were leaving at 4am, so we drank and stayed up with them til their cab picked them up...thats probably the night I've cried the most so far...it was awful seeing them leave.

Lets see, what else...uhhhhh, this week we just continued with the parties and drinking! I've seriously spent way too much money because of alcohol, but I figure I don't have much time left so why not?! Anyways, last night Bieg's (Pat and Charlie's other roomie) mom came to town...shes awesome! Just chilled and drank with us, even came out to the bars with us for a little bit, she made me miss my mom cause I know all of my friends here would love her too! Anyways, we had a huge BBQ, such great food...my compliments to Pat who is the MAN! Then we went out for our last Wednesday night on the town...of course we followed tradition and went to good ole Customs! It was a blasty blast like always. There was some serious tussleing wars going on...if you don't know what that is than I'll explain when I see you, but basically its the best game ever besides Cheers to the Govna and Fuzzy Duck.

So yeah, tonight is my last night with Betsy and Stacy, they leave tomorrow for Sydney to go home...I'm gonna be so sad! We're going out to dinner and then drinking as a last HOORAH! Ughhh, this seriously blows. But I'll be booking my ticket to Minnesota as soon as I get back home to Florida yayayayay! Anyways, I've got to start cleaning my room and shit cause I leave soon too...this sucks balls...I wish my mom was here to help me clean and pack, oh well, I think I'll be able to do it on my own. Okie doke, peace out all and talk to you later!

Who Am I!?!? Seriously.

Alright seriously, who the AM I?!? I'm a complete moron here, but I love it...sometimes. I bet you're wondering what mess I got into this time...well, lets see...me, Charlie, Pat, Fitzy, Stevo and Bobby decided to take a last minute/random trip to Sydney on Friday to go to a comedy show at the Opera House. None of us had anything going on so we figured why not? So they call me up round 4pm and are like "Ok, we just bought the tickets...try to get to town as soon as possible because we've got to catch the train to Sydney and the show starts at 930pm." Good thing I'm not much of a girly girl cause this probably would have caused others some problems, but I hauled ass and left my dorm by 430 to catch the train from Uni into town and met up with the boys on the train at Hamilton Station...for some reason there was being trackwork done so it was going to take the train an hour longer than usual so we were going to make it to the opera house either at 930 on the dot or a little later.  To save some time and to make the train ride less boring, the boys brought along some alchy...thank god. We had to be pretty stealth about it though because you're not supposed to drink on public transport...and there were definitely transit cops at one point checking our tickets and I'm pretty sure they knew, but the one guy was cool about it and basically just gave us a warning instead of a fine, so yay! 

We finally make it to Sydney and we're all feeling pretty good at this point so we have to haul ass to the Opera House where we met up with a friend, Monica, who lives in Sydney. Oh and I totally forgot to mention pretty much the most important part of this story...because I had ZERO time to get ready, I threw my makeup bag and a nice shirt in my purse so I could change and get ready along the way...which I ended up doing so it worked out well, but we'll get back to that later. Anyways, the Opera House was SICK! It was gorgeous inside and the comedy show was pretty freakin good too so all in all it was great time! The best part was that the Opera House was doing the lighting show which is when they change the colors of the house to all these crazy-awesome designs...it was absolutely beautiful!! I was obsessed.

Okay so, this is where the night gets fuzzy...everyone is completely drunk at this point and somehow me and Charlie got separated from everyone else so we just go on our own around the city for awhile til we finally give them a ring at around 145 am...well, they answer and we're like "where the hell are you guys?" and they respond with "we're on the train now going back to Newcastle...we all said we were meeting here at this time..." So basically we were like shiiiiiiiiiit...oh well! Charlie and I explored Sydney for another three hours then caught the next train to Newcastle at 445 am...slept pretty much the ENTIRE time, it was awesome...except that when we finally woke up and got back to Newcastle it was 8 am...ughhh, so we went back to bed for 2 more hours and woke up around 10ish to meet up with Fitzy, Bobby and Stevo again to watch the Stanley Cup Finals (oh and btw, those boys got back to Newcastle at 445 am and never went to bed, just kept drinking, so obviously they were hilarious at this point). Anyways, so when I woke up I was going through my purse when I realized OH SHIT where the in god's name is my makeup bag/extra shirt?!!? Yeah, thats right...I somehow lost ALL of my makeup while retarded in Sydney, it must have just fallen right out of my purse...damn. So I had to buy some temp makeup at this discount cosmetic store hahaha awesome! So once again, who am I!?! Is this my life?!? Seriously? 

So yeah, pretty much the day continues with drinking and fun in Newcastle...there were some great memories made and pictures captured and I just figured I'd let you all know I'm still enjoying myself here and everyday with my friends here makes it that much harder to come home!! But I am, so calm down. Okie doke...I'm tired and need to sleep like a normal human being for once this week...off to bed/off to watch That '70s Show...night all, love and miss! 

Random Canberra

Okay so I know its been awhile since I've blogged, but its been crazy busy here with school ending and travelling and trying to cherish our last few weeks in Australia! Anyways, so Friday night a couple weeks ago I was drinking with the usual crew and we were trying to think of something random and fun to do for the rest of the weekend. Pretty much everyone decided to do Sydney, but me and Charlie had already done Sydney a few times so we decided if we were going to spend money travelling then we might as well go somewhere we haven't been yet. The tricky part was that we didn't want to spend too much and it was last minute at like 12am when we were deciding this, so it had to be some place where we didnt have to fly there...and so we chose Canberra. Canberra is the capital of Australia and its a couple hours south of Sydney. Anyways, so it ends up that everyone else bails and decides to do Sydney, so just me and Charlie went. We didn't go to bed that night til really late cause we went out to the bars, so basically the morning came reallllly fast...was up and moving at 830 cause we had to catch the 920 train. 

Probably the best/worst part of the spontaneity of this trip was the fact that I had NO idea I was going to be going anywhere that weekend...so when I went into town that Friday night I only brought a few things with me considering I figured I would be eventually coming back to campus before going out again...well, I was wrong. We planned the trip right then and I just had to deal with wearing the same jeans for like 3 days straight...I did randomly have an extra shirt and underwear so THANK GOD, cause that would have been too gross. So yeah, I probably looked like an idiot the whole time, but its a good story I think. 

So we had to take a 2.5 hr train ride to Sydney and then catch a greyhound bus from there to Canberra. The bus ride ended up being like 3 hours...and it ended up being one of the most uncomfortable buses ever. No joke. I'm pretty sure Charlie and I looked like awkward giants trying to fit in the damn seats...no leg room, no good. And then they played The Knights Tale during the ride and I had never seen it so I decided to watch it...I dont understand how this movie was so popular...it sucked and none of my friends better like that movie, seriously. 

Alriiiiighty, when we finally got to Canberra we had no plan, obviously, so we just walked around the city center for awhile and got some info brochures.  It was close to 4pm by the time we got there so we didnt have many options on what to do for our first night. So we went looking for this huge lake...and apparently we're both retarded cause it took us over an hour til we finally found it...which means by the time we got there it was dark as eff...whatever though, we found a random dock and just took it all in for a bit til we started freezing. Then we walked around the city center some more...Canberra is not really what I expected. Its really pretty, but it doesnt feel like a city at all, which is kinda cool. Its not noisy and there aren't crowds of people everywhere...really chill. Not much of a nightlife, so pretty much that night we went to this restaurant/pub had some dinner and amazing Guinness beers...it ended up being one of the more hopping places, so good choice then eh? Didn't have too late of a night though cause we wanted to get up early on Sunday so we could actually do some Canberra stuff.

So when I say Canberra stuff I mean we decided to see the Australian War Memorials, which were pretty cool I guess, but the best part was the War Museum they had...it was huge...we didnt have time to go through the whole thing, but they had some pretty neat stuff there.  After the museum we went to the zoo haha. I know, you'd think we would have done some other museum or something, but Charlie hadnt been to a zoo here yet and that was unacceptable so we did that. Best/worst zoo ever. They had sweet animals and shit and there wasn't like anyone there so that was tight, but I'm pretty sure I could have climbed into any of the cages and done whatever the eff I wanted without getting caught haha...there was no one around, it was sick...its was as close to being a ghetto zoo without actually being a ghetto zoo...I dont know, I can't really explain it, just take my word for it. Oh! and we got to pet some dingoes while they we were out walking them...siiiiiiick. I'm obsessed.

So yeah, thats the Random Canberra trip in a nutshell. Words of advice, dont go there for more than 2 days and don't go if you want to party party party, otherwise, pretty cool place and fun trip! I'll try updating some more, but I dont want to write anymore right now so PEACE.

Drunk And Trying Not To Get Jumped!

Hahaha, so glad this moment was captured...lets just say Jess and I are laughing at my stupidity...
Laura, me, Stac, Bets and Emma out to dinner with Betsy's mom and step dad during their visit!
Me, Stac and Michelle before our dancing night out at King Street!
Me and Emma owning at beer pong.
Charlie made me laugh...I promise nothing came out of my nose.

Get Some! The Newcastle Way...

Betsy and I doing the infamous thrusting picture...
Me and Stac apparently having a great time at a friend's 21st Bday party.
Me, Pat and Itai getting it in before Customs.
Me and my boy, PaddyWagon...Rack 'em, Rackbar!
Me and my buddy Charlie pregaming at his apartment.

The 'Real' Melbourne

So me, Stac, and Bets went to Melbourne this weekend and it was loads of fun! Once again, I fell in love. This city is amazing!! I like it way more than Sydney...nothing against Sydney cause its amazing as well, but Melbourne is just way way way more chill! We got into the airport late Thursday night and my friend Mark, who actually studied abroad at UF picked us up...I didnt know him beforehand, we had just randomly started talking through facebook right before I came to Australia and he offered us a free place to stay! Most people would find this sketchy, but he seemed totally normal so I figured why not!? 

Anyways, he and his friend Tom (totally adorable), picked us up round 11pm at the airport and drove us back to his house (he lives with his parents and older sister outside the city).  His family was AMAZING! None of them knew me and yet they were so welcoming to me and my friends! The second morning we were there, his mum made us coffee and cookies and brought them to us in bed!!! Wtf...how nice is that!?! And his dad, who was hilar, was my beer pong partner Friday night and wasn't too shabby...everytime I made one hed do a golf clap and say good girl, it was adorable! And his sister was the sweetest person ever and even dropped us off at the station so we could catch our plane on our last day in Melbourne...pretty much I fell in love with Mark and his family right away...it was home sweet home for sure!

Basically, we just walked around the city for a couple days...did some shopping and just took it all in...we definitely could have done some more sightseeing, but i wouldnt trade what we did in for the world...turned out perfectly! Oh and Friday night we decided to do a touristy thing...we went to the Penguin Parade at Phillip Island...gayest shit ever...it took almost 2 hours to get there, it was cold as eff and rainy, and there were asians everywhere, and it cost 20 bucks and you couldnt see shit...basically, the smallest penguins come swimming out of the sea and onto the shore every night at the same time and they walk to their burroughs or whatever...I mean they were definitely cute and all, but it took all of like 5 minutes and then i was like kkkkkkk now what? My advice, dont do it...not worth the money, still a funny story in the end though.

Lets see, the best night of all...Saturday...we got to go to 2 footy games (AFL...its different then rugby league or union). The first one we didnt even plan on going to, but we were waiting to meet up with our buddies David, Alex, and Jason and while we were waiting this random dude was like HEY! you want some free tickets to the game!? so we were like uhhhh yeah! And we did that and I pretty much love AFL now...so intense! Then we went to the casino for a bit with the boys, but then we hit up the night AFL game at the other stadium...Mark works at the bar there sometimes so we got drink the entire time...for free! By the end of the night, there was a 500 dollar bar tab between the 4 of us...can you say ridiculous and yet awesome!? I can. After that, we met up with the boys again and Charlie and Pat as well to go out for the night...I pretty much dont remember anything from here on out...and there are RIDICULOUS videos to prove it...lets just say theres one where Stacy woke me up after I passed out and I talk about Don Henley, Tampons, Helen Keller, a little dude and our friends hooking up...hahahahhaahahahaha I'm embarrassed and disturbed as HELL by most of it, but at the same time I've never seen anything so funny in my entire life!

So yeah, theres a lot more I could probably talk about, but thats all I really feel like typing so just know that Melbourne was amazing (just as much as the one in countdown county, FL) and everyone should go there at some point...miss and love!

Blue Mountains Pictures...

Okay, so you see the little 'castle' on top of the hill there...well, thats where we hiked to from here...loved it!
Me on top of the ruined castle...looking like an idiot.
Pretty waterfall...Katoomba Falls I think
The Three Sisters!
The group: Me, Drew, Betsy, Charlie and Stacy.

Mountain...mountain...UhhOOooo!

So I went to the Blue Mountains with Stac, Bets, Drew and Charlie for the weekend. It was only like a 5 hour train ride or so, not too bad and nice and cheap.  We stayed in a hostel in a small town called Katoomba, almost as small as Airlie Beach, and just like Airlie Beach I fell in love with it! Its winter in Australia now btw, so it was even colder in the mountains (SURPRISE!), but other than that the weather was absolutely amazing, some of the clearest days we've had...we were very lucky! Pretty much everyone was telling us not to go cause apparently the weather would be awful, eff that, turned out perfect.

The first day we just took this small trolley tour thingy around the town and took some pretty pics and went to Echo Point, which is a pretty popular lookout point...it over looks the Three Sisters...pretty cooooool. Oh and if you wanted to know...the Blue Mountains are called that because theres this blue haze over them pretty much all the time, depending on weather, and its caused by the Eucalyptus...there ya go, some trivia for ya.  Anyways, we did that for a couple hours then got something to eat and then posted up with some beer and goon and got our drank on...pretty quiet night though. I know Charlie and I were a little disappointed by the hostel, not because it was gross or anything, but because no one was socializing or hanging out...it was pretty much he and I hanging out in the pool room til like 4...oh well, still good times.

Got up nice and early to check out and go exploring some more the next day. We did 2 crazy high gondola rides over the mountains...it was pretty neat, insanely cool views of waterfalls and the such.  Then we all kinda split ways...Bets and Stac went to a chocolate factory, old toy shop museum and the cascade falls (which i wanted to do as well, but didnt have time) and me, Charlie and Drew went on an 8 mile hike to go see a ruined "castle"...we could see it from far awar at Echo Point and it looked sick so we decided to do the 5 hour hike...it was crazy fun and strenuous and i probably ate shit and died about a million times, but it was totally worth it by the time we got there. The only thing was that it wasnt an ACTUAL castle like we thought, which btw I dont know why we would think it would be an actual castle in the middle of the blue mountains in Australia...doesnt really make sense so dumb on our part, instead it was HUGE rocks on the top of this hill...we definitely climbed to the top of them and I would say from the highest point it was probably like 6 stories to the bottom of the rock...SO incredible! We just chilled there for a good 30 minutes and took it all in.  I wish we could have camped there, but we didnt bring any camping gear with us because we didnt want to deal with it on the train, oh well, maybe another time.  And besides the views being awesome...one of the best parts of the trip was that we were surrounded by Asians and it brought us a lot of laughs...no worries, we werent rude, we just mimicked everything they said and we're getting pretty good at it now...Herrooo...hahaha, k I'm done.

 Either way, it was a freakin awesome weekend and there are some tight pictures, courtesy of Charlie and Betsy because I'm lazy and didnt want to take my camera out.  Anyways, thats all for now...going to the 'real' Melbourne, as Drew says, this weekend...stokageeee, ttyl, love and miss!!!

Cold Nights and Camping

Alright so, I've written about a million posts in the past week, but you'll get over it cause I figure you'll appreciate what I did last night.  So this past weekend was ANZAC day which is like their version of memorial/veterans/labor day kinda thing...its basically a reason for everyone to drink...so obviously I had an awesome night and therefore a rough morning on sunday, but thats not what this post is about...im just letting you know that I basically got like 5 hours of sleep over friday and saturday...which brings me to sunday.  

So obviously I want to do absolutely nothing on Sunday cause I'm exhausted and a bit hungover...so thats pretty much what I do for most of the day, absolutely nothing.  Well, Stacy was gone for the weekend to visit a friend in Wollongong and she got back late arvo on Sunday and long story short, she and I decide to make up for the loss of a weekend together by camping on Newcastle beach for the night...totally spontaneous.  Well, we tried recruiting all of our good friends, but pretty much everyone either couldn't or didn't want to so it was just me and Stac down for doing some 'illegal' camping on good ole Newcastle Beach ( I say 'illegal' cause technically you're not allowed to sleep on the beach, you're only allowed to at a beach called Stockton, but thats way further out of the way)...we figured no one would even know we were there and if the security did come by then theyd just make us leave and we'd just stay the night at our guys' place which is literally right across from the beach.

Well everyone was telling us the entire time that there was no way we were going to do it, that we would back out, blah blah blah...well those that know me well enough know that saying that will just piss me off and make me want to do it even more just to prove a point...so thats pretty much what happened. Stac and I posted up at Newcastle Beach round 830 pm...brought a couple blankets, some water, tim tams, and some goon (that was for Stac cause she didnt have a drunken weekend like I did, I was still recovering). It was a perfectly clear sky, just a little cooler than we thought (cause btw, its winter here now), but otherwise perfect.  We just chatted and rocked out to disney music for a couple hours...then, of course, the boys that live across the street (Pat, David and Chase...Pat and David came on break with us) cam down to the beach for a bit and threw the football around and kept us company...but then they went back up and Stac, me and David just hungout for awhile...then our other buddies, Charlie and Drew, showed up to say HEY! They were pretty much like wtf...why are you sleeping on the beach? Our response: why not? Oh and throughout the night, our fav aussie boys, Sam and Thor, kept calling us to 'check in' and make sure we were ok...well atleast thats what we thought.

Well like around midnight we look over at our stuff and there are these 2 random-ass dudes staring down at our shit, so stac and I run over to be like wtf, why are you near our stuff? go away.  Hahaha, turns out it was Sam and Thor and apparently they had been at the beach for like a half hour trying to scare us and get out attention, but Stac and I are effing oblivious...so funny! They were pretty bummed though...oh well.  So we just chilled with them and Charlie (everyone else had left by then and everytime someone left they tried to convince us to stay with them, everyone was worried about us being alone and cold and shit, good friends here) til like 2 am, freezing by this point. Well Sam and Thor being the best kids ever, I'm not kidding I consider them my brothers, they surprised us with cookies, water and extra blankets!! How nice is that?? They drove all the way from Uni just to take care of us (and scare us haha), love them! And thank god they did cause we definitely needed those extra blankets!

It ended being a low of like 60 or something, but we were on the beach too so obvi it was windy as eff too...our bad, didnt really plan too well.  Whatever, Stac and I were bound and determined...so we made up our bed on the sand as the boys left us for the night and went to bed...haha within like 5 seconds of the guys leaving we saw like 2 sketchy people and we were what the HELL are we doing hahaha, but oh well...if we die, we die in Australia so thats cool. So we're curled up in balls staring at the stars and trying to sleep and literally like every 30 or so minutes for the rest of the night one of us would turn to the other and be like "are you cold?? I'm freezing..."and the other would be like "Yeah, I'm cold..." and that would be it haha, back to trying to sleep. 

We finally just woke up for good round 430 am to watch the sunrise...and, as always, it was AMAZING! We were definitely frozen by this point, but it didnt matter...the start of a gorgeous day...there were already people jogging by us (looking at us like we were crazies or hobos) and some boarders and kayakers in the water, so we were watching them and the sun and to top it all off...there were dolphins! It never gets old...basically, it was worth being ice cubes the whole night and it makes for ridiculous memories and stories! When we got back to campus round 730 am, looking HOT of course, tried to defrost in our rooms...we got messages throughout the day from everone being like "I thought for sure I'd wake up and you 2 would be sleeping in our apartment" or "how was it? are you alive?" or "did you sleep at all?" etc...the last one was def Charlie who was that night before he left was like, "yeah, theres no way you're sleeping tonight Adriana...you're not even drinking...you're gonna be too cold." Hahaha turns out he was 100% correct and I told him so, but whatever, it ended up being one of the most random, spontaneous nights ever and I loved it! Thank god for Stacy...someone else here who is as crazy and weird as I am...love her!

Okay thats my randomness for the week...love and miss everyone and just wanted to let you know that I didn't die...wooooooo! 

More of Fraser Island...

The amazing Lake McKenzie on Fraser Island...prettiest water and sand ever, I thought it was better than Whitehaven Beach in the Whitsundays.

Our 4wd...effing disgusting and smelly, just look at it.
Our views for the 3 days of camping...no one around except for other campers and dingos.
The Champagne pools...this pic doesn't even come close to what it was really like.
Driving down the beach where we weren't supposed to...oh well.

Adventures on PowerPlay:

Stac and me chillin on the shores of Whitehaven Beach.
The gang hangin at Whitehaven (voted 2nd best beach in the world)!
Dude, sick az jumping picture! Can you say next ad??
Sunset at Manta Ray, beautiful.
I just James Bonded the shit out of that flip into the water...

Great Barrier Reef Pics:

Just a pretty reef...
A giant clam...although this pic doesn't do its size justice.
Another sick looking reef...
Nemos!
One of the many sea turtles I stalked...

I'm on a Boat!! The Whitsunday Islands and Airlie Beach

Alright, so the last little bit of the best 10 days of my life ends in Airlie Beach and the Whitsunday Islands.  We took the long ass bus ride to Airlie...the ride wasn't bad at all, just kinda listened to music and tried sleeping for most of the time.  We got to Airlie early in the morning, probably around like 8 or 9 am...it was a beautiful day, definitely appreciated after the rainy camp nights and long bus ride.  So we got our bags and checked into the travel agency where we confirmed our boating trip which was leaving at 12 that arvo (afternoon).  Seeing that we had a couple of hours to spare, we went exploring around Airlie.  Its pretty much one road that makes up the entire area...obviously very touristy, but so quaint and cute.  We got a dank breakfast (that was actually pretty cheap too) overlooking the water.  Airlie also had a sweet public pool thing like Brisbane did...they're everywhere in Australia apparently, pretty cool eh?  After Brekkie me and the girls headed off to do some shopping then went to the marina and got some last minute supplies (the very necessary goon, mmmmm).

The marina was absolutely amazing, of course.  I fell in love with this little town right away, I'm not kidding...if I end up moving to Australia (which is a good chance) I want to move to Airlie.  Anyways, so we met the crew and the rest of the passengers (18 ppl altogether, including us) and got to boating. Our boat was called the PowerPlay...it was so tight! We had a salt water hot tub at the front...like wtf, how lucky are we? We drove out for a couple hours then posted up at one of the islands and got ready for our first snorkel dive of the day.  We had to wear the AWESOME looking stinger suits again, and by AWESOME I actually mean AWESOME cause I thought they looked pretty badass.  We saw so much stuff...it was the Great Barrier Reef again, but I thought these dives were way better than the ones we did in Cairns.  Over the course of the three days on the boat we probably dove like 6 or so times, I can't really remember exactly.  All I know is that we saw like 4 sea turtles, a white reef shark and a lemon shark (yayaay), some sting rays, TONS of jellyfish, and obviously a ridiculous amount of fish and coral, including nemos! 

At my favorite dive spot on the second day there were literally thousands of jellies everywhere! It wasn't bad though cause they didn't sting at all...no one knew this at first, but I just started swimming and because there were so many of them there was no way to not glide past them with hands, feet or face...and since nothing was happening I was like what the eff, they must not sting so I just started playing with them, so cool! The best part was that all of our guys were scared out of their minds and us girls didnt give a shit...they wouldnt touch the jellyfish for the longest time, we would catch them swimming with their hands out of the water...it was hilarious! Obviously they got over it when I started picking the jellies up, it was just a funny moment.  

Another fav of mine was also on the 2nd day.  It was the first of the sea turtles we saw.  Me and my buddy Alex literally followed the thing forever...we went passed where we were supposed to swim, but we were obsessed with it.  Its mesmerizing watching them glide through the water. I was talking about it with Stacy and we were saying how small we felt being under water, just surrounded by all the reefs and fish...it was a crazy feeling.  Kinda like what I was talking about before with Fraser Island...being alone and away from civilization, such an amazing feeling! If theres anything I take back home with me after my 5 months in Australia, its that feeling.  Because of that, I'm definitely getting certified for diving and I'm pretty sure I realized that doing criminology was the wrong major and I should have done Marine Biology like I had planned before...oh well, I'll just get a job on a boat for the rest of my life...I would be the happiest person alive to just live on the water for days on end.

Alright, I know I know, pretty sappy...so on to other stuff! The crew on PowerPlay was awesome! I'm in love with them all! The skipper (capt), Nick, came off as really serious at first, but he was the man...me and Stac would pretty much bother him for hours on end everyday...just hanging out on the top of the boat with him while he drove, I'm pretty sure we were his favorites, but thats not surprising huh? haha JKKKKK...but yeah, he was telling us some insane stories...he was saying how one of the craziest things hes ever seen while out boating in the Whitsundays was when this dolphin was chasing after this flying fish and almost got it, but just missed it at the last minute and the flying fish took off and right when it was about to lift complete out of the water, out of nowhere another dolphin jumps out of the water and almost nabs it again, the flying fish freaks out and takes off into the air and just when it thinks its safe, out of nowhere again a massive sea eagle swoops down and grabs it...all of this happened in like a matter of 30 seconds...I thought it was a pretty cool story. Anyways, there was also the Dive Instructor dude, Duncan (from the UK and like 25 or something), who I totally had a school girl crush on...he was the funniest person ever and cool as hell, so laid back! He kinda looks like Chris Martin, weird right? But yeah, he was the crazy, cool, fun one who was really passionate about diving and the like and also did a pretty good Borat impression...amazing...and he got along with us loudass Americans, good times.  Then there was Jake who was also young and SO adorable...he was the hostess for our trip, meaning he cooked all the meals (which can go down as some of the best meals I've had since in Australia).  He was chill as hell too, totally fit in with our group...and lastly, there was this trainee, crap, I forgot her name...I wanna say Alisha or something, anyways, she was really really nice and outgoing and once again, I loved her too! After our last day on the boat, we met up with the crew peeps at a bar called Beaches which was right near our hostel...good times for sure. However, this was the first of 2 nights where I was a complete retard and lost everything I own...really though, I lost my drivers license and debit card and all my cash...sweet right? I'm thinking it somehow got thrown away or something, who knows...then the second night we all went out again and did some bar hopping...I don't think I've danced so much in my life...me and the boys were tearing up the dance floor and good ole Stac was documenting it all, no joke she probably took 60 pics of us dancing and several videos...and I'm so glad cause theyre beyond funny! Anyways, so this night I took my effed up passport with me (water damage from Fraser Island) and my Uni ID and ISIC card ID just in case they thought my passport was too ridiculous...I literally had it attached to me hand the ENTIRE night...its in every photo with me! So I have absolutely NO idea how I couldn't find it the next morning...either way, I was pretty upset for awhile, but oh well...I'm in Australia, life goes on...

Before I finish talking about Spring Break 09 what whattttt...I'll tell you about the number 1 best night.  It was on PowerPlay the first night...we anchored right off another set of islands...it was perfectly clear skies, the perfect weather...we had the best meal and me and stac were just chillin on the skippers deck looking at the stars for hours and out of nowhere 2 dolphins just show up next to our boat, and when I say next to our boat I mean we could reach down and touch them...they were hunting loads of fish by our boat...you would see them just take off through the water and do crazy spins, I've never seen anything like it and I think thats saying a lot being that I live in FL and we see dolphins pretty often...I've never experienced anything like it...they hung around our boat for literally hours, so cool! Even the crew said they'd never seen anything like that while out on the boats.  Its just crazy how pretty much everything that could have gone wrong with me did go wrong and yet it didn't come close to ruining the trip...it still ended up being the best 10 days of my life!! I wish you all could have been there with me cause there are just no words...