Giant snakes and a BBQ

So much has happened in the time I've been here, but I'll rewind and include the highlights. (I'm finally figuring out why so many people who study abroad have such a small collection of photos - they're too busy living them!)

During the first week of orientation we experienced Market Day, where all of the clubs and societies set up stations and tents on the Great Court to advertise what they have to offer to the students at UQ. Lauren and I were a bit over-zealous, and in our excitement we signed up for PLENTY of clubs; I chose the Mountaineering Club, Students Against Human Trafficking, Beer and Rum Club (because they gave us a discount card to many restaurants in Brisbane), The Healthy Veg Society (because they gave us a discount card to many of the grocery stores), The Bridge (volunteer society), and QUEST. So far, QUEST, the exchange student club, has by far had the greatest number of events and benefits!

The first QUEST event was a night out at a Pub called Birdees. Lauren and I met up with Emily and our roomie, Christian, joined us as well along with a few of his friends. It was a long but fun night.

The fun continued the following day when QUEST brought a bunch of Australian animals to campus for us to pet and play with. The giant snake was beautiful, but it hissed as it constricted my arm - I didn't hang onto it for long...

There were cuter, more friendly animals like bearded dragons and this marsupial whose name I can't pronounce.

QUEST had also provided a barbecue the day before when they gave us free bread and sausages (a grill is a BBQ). I was so inspired by the delishousness of grilled food, that I decided to buy a BBQ myself! That day, I went on Gumtree (Australia's Craig's List), and found a nicely priced, beautiful BBQ. Susana's good friend Marti, who had a car and arms big enough to help me pick up the thing, took me to the seller's house a few minutes away. They were so kind and friendly, and they only sold it because they wanted something smaller for their apartment.

The next night, we broke it in. I hosted a barbecue here at my own house! Lauren and I bought the meat and Christian got some veggies and sides, and I grilled everything! Our guests loved the food and gave so many nice compliments about my cooking (little did they know, I'd never cooked half of that food on a grill... maybe a chicken breast, but that's it). It was wonderful to be able to play hostess and still relax at my home with amazing company.

Only one days later, we attended a party, but this time it was bigger - MUCH bigger. In fact, it was actually the biggest toga party the world has ever seen! There had to be well over 5,000 people there along with the multiple DJ's, dancers, free cups of Red Frogs (the worlds best gummies that are similar to Swedish Fish), refreshments ;) and popsicles.

Lauren was a pro at getting us to the front of the crowd and right up against the stage to watch the performance. Lucky for that, we were also sheltered by the stage roof from the pouring rain that soaked about 4,000 white togas.

A free shuttle took us to the "after-party" at Birdees once again, and we all split a cab home.

Only one day later, the pub crawl would commence.

An eventful two days

Lauren and I enjoyed an extremely productive Friday morning and afternoon at the Uni. After stumbling upon the office for student ID's, we continued on to get our bus passes, find our classrooms, establish a local bank account, and take a quick look around, all before lunch!

The campus is stunning. One of my favorite places so far is the Great Court, which is a large green area smack in the middle of the main loop of buildings. The architecture is great as well... even if it was lurking with spiders TWICE the size of my hand...

After lunch, we took yet another grocery trip and finished off our lists to hold us over for quite a while. It was great going somewhere on our own and finding our way around. The transportation here is AMAZING and surprisingly cheap with a student ID.

Saturday, we met up with Emily who I met shortly after landing in Brisbane (the two of us shared a taxi from the airport). All of us decided to be tourists for a day and visit the beautiful area of South Banks. After racing down the river in the ferry (also very inexpensive and we can use the same bus pass for this), we hopped off at the dock and went straight into the line of street market vendors. There was everything from clothing to food to massages, and, as you might be able to tell, I was too excited to take pictures!

When all of our shopping and looking made us hungry, we wandered until we found a fantastic burger restaurant called Grill'd. It had lamb, chicken, beef and veggie burgers, then several different styles of burgers unique to each type of meat. Bonus: they had gluten-free buns I could enjoy!

I elected to get the "Honest Hombre" chicken burger, topped with black bean chili, red onions, a giant corn tortilla chip, and fresh guacamole! I was full with the first half and supremely satisfied with the second.

We discovered that they also had one of our new favorite beers on the beverage list, called Stonewood, and Lauren got one and I sipped off Emily's. It's a rather sweet beer with a floral and fruity flavor (I have never described a beer like this before). Perfect on a hot day.

Afterwards, we walked and digested along the boardwalk then ventured over to the pedestrian bridge.

The suspended bridge has the illusion that it is rocking or tilting to one side because of the angle of the supports. Across the river, on the other side, was Queen Street mall, which has over 700 shops! It's a wonderful outdoor mall with everything you could imagine. We even stumbled across the bar we visited on our first night out (not the RE) and where we initially discovered Stonewood beer.

Our final stop was at the artificial beach in South Banks, where we took off our sandals and dipped our feet for a while before getting back on the ferry.

The rest of the day was spend relaxing and I took a short run before dinnertime. I took a different route this time and encountered a lovely view of the city from atop the hills of the suburb St. Lucia. Dinner was a hash with brown rice, sweet potato, eggs, spinach, carrots and more. I dipped a Weet-Bix square in my sunny side-up egg and found it to be delightful :)

Arriving in the land down undah

Quick info about travel: Huge double-decker plane with some of the best meals I've eaten (and endless snacks and, ahem, beverages), but the flight was shaky and rough with the winds blowing 180 km/hour and slapping us around. I arrived in Brisbane at 6AM Wednesday.

My home is absolutely beautiful and I've attached a few pictures so you can take a lookie. Let me point out the good-looking job I did with the chair using my fitted sheet since it didn't fit the bed which is a "king single" (what the heck?) :P 

The girl roomie is Australian and her name is Susana. She was so sweet to take me and Lauren shopping for everything from toilet paper to food to pillows and towels. She also took us out last night for the first time and we had a blast! It was an old hotel type thing that was turned into an outdoor night club/bar. The nightlife for people my age was nothing like I've ever seen before! There had to be hundreds of people at this outdoor bar we went to, and the guys were polite and the girls were obnoxious (not Lauren and Susana). We got in very, very late but somehow woke up early this morning to do absolutely nothing all day long ;)

Oh yeah! Dinner last night was awesome… it was kangaroo! Susana  cooked the 'roo and I made quinoa and a pretty salad to go with. All of us talked and ate together and it was wonderful spending time together all day. I think we're going to get along great! 

This morning I had what's called Wheat-Bix for breakfast in place of my shredded wheat biscuits. They're biscuits that remind me of a crunchy yet flaky pastry but without sugar, and they're AMAZING! I let them soak in almond milk and added a bit of sweetener and it turned into an amazing porridge kind of. SO glad I bought a box (and will probably take some home come July when it's time to leave). I had the rest of my usual greek yogurt and nuts and such but didn't have coffee today (GASP) because we forgot to buy filters. Somehow I made it through today with loads of energy and even went on a baby 10-minute run (super short because I'm trying to ease my knee back into it) and did a few minutes of yoga. Dinner was Basa which is a lot like tilapia but it is trickier to cook because it falls apart or gets mealy if cooked even a few seconds too long. We don't have Pam and I tried olive oil, but the whole thing was a sticky hot mess especially because I tried to be fancy and bread it in almond meal before frying it. It still tasted great and I added a bunch of tzatziki sauce that I was also using as a dip for my lentil-eggplant meat-less balls I had on the side (a yummier, more flavorful version of falafel). I had a bowl of lychee fruit for dessert (AH YUM) and spend the rest of tonight prepping things in containers for breakfasts and lunches ahead of time since Lauren went to bed early and everyone's asleep in America. 

No chocolate this Valentine's day and my valentine is across the sea, so it was the least valentines-y valentine's day I've had yet. I don't think I even ate candy… woah….

Tomorrow we plan to get Lauren a phone and get ourselves bus passes and check out the campus at the Uni. 

Although I'm doing great with jet lag and have managed to escape it, I think I might go to sleep early (by 10) and get up early as well. 

Cheerio! 

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