September 29

**The top picture is the place where I will be working, cute!! The bottom picture is of the outside of Lindsay's new job**
We have JOBS!!! My new boss called me yesterday to tell me that I've got the job at Lalo Treasures and I start next week. I was asking him about hours and schedules and stuff & I learned that the dress is very casual. Like "people expect to see thongs (sandals) in Byron Bay, so don't go out buying anything fancy". hahah, I love it!! I'm going to be working every Saturday for sure and probably 3 days during the week other than that. Fantastic! Not too much, not too little. Also, they open sometime between 10-11. Everything's so 'cruisey'.
Lindsay's been working the last couple of days at her job, Citrus Deli. She says it's intense and she keeps cutting herself, but she hopes that it will teach her a few things about a kitchen. They basically assume she knows what she's doing and keep asking her to do things like 'flower these green onions'. Ya, ok, whatever that means! What a trooper!
While Lindsay's been working I've been working hard... on my tan. The beach is fantastic & the water's getting warm enough to swim in too. The walk from home to town/beach isn't so bad either, but I'm considering getting a cheap bike from the 2nd hand store (I can sell it back to them after).
It's Saturday night! We're planning on going out. Get ready Byron Bay!

September 27

**This is our new home. Isn't it beautiful?**
Yesterday, Lindsay and I were on our way to find our dream jobs but we couldn't find anywhere to print out our resumes!! The Internet was down in the whole town and there was no other way of getting them printed. So, for the morning we just walked around and looked at places where we thought we would like to apply. There are some really nice shops around here. In the afternoon our landlord Kaylee picked us up from the hostel. We got settled in here, it's SO nice to be able to unpack our things and not worry about having to pack them up in a few days. We have a nice big closet that looks VERY empty with our few belongings in it. The room is just 2 single beds and a closet. It's pretty empty, but so much nicer than having to share a room with 4-10 people. I tried to go for a walk out back, but the forest is SO dense that you can't walk 5 feet in! Plus I'm afraid of snakes and spiders which are definitely back there. We made a stir fry for dinner (again) and watched 'Lord of the rings' before bed.
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Today We were up and out the door to go job shopping. Lindsay got a pretty promising offer from a little deli called 'Citrus'. She's worried because she has to make sandwiches for people and judging by the one she made for herself today that completely fell apart... well, I know she can do it! I was getting pretty frustrated at first, but I may have a job at a little artsy store called 'Lalo Treasures' The guy that I talked to when I went in told me that it was his last day, so I immediately called the owner and asked for the job. He drove out to meet me and I think the whole thing is set up once I give him my Tax number tomorrow. I don't want to get too excited though, I'm not even sure how many hours it's going to be. We spent the rest of the afternoon looking for new work clothes for Lindsay and then we celebrated our success by sitting by the beach for a while. We're back home & who knows what we're going to do tonight.

September 25

**This is coffs harbour, so nice!!! But we left, hahah, & now we're in Byron Bay**
Lindsay & I are perfect travel partners because: 1 I like the top bunk and she likes the bottom bunk & 2 we like playing little games like 'Name that tune' or 'how many disney lyrics can you sing'. We've got a nice little routine going on these days with our morning tea & cereal and daily walks around whatever place we happen to be in.
When we got up this morning, we immediately ventured out to find a place to live. Byron Bay is SO nice, we really like the beachy feel of everything. We were looking at a poster-board full of places and called one of the ones that was $100 per week. It turned out that the guy I called was sitting 5 feet behind me so we talked and he gave us a ride to the place. The location was PERFECT, sitting 5 minutes walk from 2 beaches and very close to the shops and restaurants. The place was not so nice. It was so run down and ugly and it smelled bad. We left thinking that we might take the offer because it was one of the cheapest one's we saw and the location was so nice. We called another place after and the girl who owned it came to pick us up. (can you imagine? everyone's so nice!) We took one look at the outside and knew it was the place for us. GORGEOUS!!! The back yard is basically a rain-forest. The inside is SO nice & clean and pretty. Big windows everywhere, it's so bright and inviting. There is just one room for the 2 of us, so we're sharing $160 per week (only $80 each, cheaper than the last place!) It's about a 20 minute walk to the main drag but we don't mind. I'm excited to take pictures and show you!!! We're trying to find a job, it's tiring. We made stir-fry for dinner and went out to a bar called Cheeky Money tonight.

September 24

**What do you think of that view????!!!!**
On Sunday (Happy birthday DAD!!! I'm so sad I can't be at home to celebrate with you all. I feel SO homesick!!) Lindsay and I got up to a beautiful sunny day. After breakfast, we took a walk down to the harbour to see what this place is like. It's so nice that we were considering staying, but it's only the first stop so we're going to look to see if we like the next place we go to. We were walking down by the sailboats along the harbour and noticed a poster-board full of different job opportunities for boat crews. (I know, you're thinking that we don't exactly know much about working on a boat, but there's no harm in trying!) So we called one of the people and he was glad to have us... but only if we could make it down to Sydeny because he had already left Coffs Harbour. Well, that wasn't going to work out, but while I was on the phone with him, a couple of guys came up to us and started asking us why we wouldn't want to go to Sydney. We told them it was too city and thought nothing of it until they left and the guy working there told us we should get on a boat with them because they just won some award for fastest boat (or coolest boat, or biggest boat) or something. So, being too embarrassed to go back to talk to them we stayed around for another ten minutes until they came back to us and asked if we wanted to join them on their sailboat. They were headed to Sydney and were going to arrive there in a day and a half. We talked about it and finally decided to go, but once we got back to our hostel and started getting ready, they called us and told us that 'something had come up' and we could no longer go. We were disappointed, but there are also plusses: 1 I get SO seasick that I might not make it. 2 my mom & dad didn't seem too impressed saying it wasn't that safe (very true). 3 we would have had to find our way back to Coffs Harbour because we don't want to be in Sydney again. It would have been fun though? Maybe next time.
So, instead of sailing in the ocean, we took a walk around this place to see the sights. We walked downtown. We walked out onto some huge hilly/mountain (that took forever & was hard work but was worth it for the view) And then down and across the beach. Once we were cold enough, we went back to the hostel to make ourselves dinner. We noticed a bottle-shop by the hostel that was selling cheap wine and picked up a bottle of 2002 Shiraz for $3.99. It wasn't that good but during dinner, we realized that we met eachother in 2002. What a touching story!! hahaha. Anyways, Noddles & veggies. It was a pretty great meal. Played cards all night. Reading before bed.
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Last night, I trimmed my bangs (& did a pretty great job, actually) Lindsay liked what I did so much that she decided she would like the same thing. So this morning I cut her a new hair style. It looks great! I'm pretty sure she likes it too, it's a bit of an adjustment having bangs though, they're a little more work. We took a walk today down to the end of the beach. We knew it was going to be far, but didn't realize it would be a four hour walk! By the time we got back and laid in the sun for another hour we got a pretty good sun burn. It's not too painful though & we've got some aloe to cool it a bit. During our walk we saw some lizards on the rocks, they were afraid of us, but we got really close. The birds here are awesome too. We saw parrots here as often as you'd see robins in Canada. I think there were a few cockatoos too. We had some sweet potato burgers for lunch, they put beets on everything here! The bus to byron bay comes at 4:00 (it was late so we got on at 5) and we are on our way to Byron Bay right now. It's a 4 hour bus ride.
We've arrived in Byron Bay and we're exploring the hostel. This one's pretty nice! everything's outside, even the kitchen. The city looks nice as well, but we didn't see much of it because it's night time. We're excited to explore again tomorrow!
----> keep reading!! there are 2 new posts!!! <----

September 22

**Us during our long windy walk. t-shirt, 2 sweaters & a jacket couldn't keep out the wind!!**
Lindsay and I got up on Wednesday and ran a few errands before getting on the bus to go to Bondi beach. When we finally caught the bus we needed, it was the travel experience from hell. First, Lindsay is about 4 people wide when she's got her backpack on, and my suitcase is SO clumsy. Actually, I should say that I'm clumsy with the suitcase, hhaha. So the bus was packed, so we head for the first available spot to stand where we're not in anyone's way. We had to take a transfer, so off that bus and onto the next. The next bus was packed to CAPACITY! Lindsay somehow managed to get the spot right in front of the door where every stop she had to maneuver herself so that someone could get off. It was tedious and tiring, but eventually we made it to the beach. Lindsay bought me a lolly-pop to make me feel better. After unpacking, we headed to the frigid beach for a nap. I was SO cold!! We lasted for a while, even though it was freezing. At night, we went to one of the local pubs and lucky us (not really lucky at all) it was Backgammon night. So the main guy came over and gave us a long intro to the game and we played until we got bored and left. I think he was disappointed that we weren't interested, but invited us to join the 'Bondi Bi-weekly Backgammon' group on Facebook. Ok, sure.
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Thursday we were up early only to find out that it was the coldest day here yet. We trudged through, and ended up going for a long walk from one end of the beach to the other. I suppose it takes about an hour each way with lots of great scenery to look at. It was so windy and the waves were huge, but there were still surfers. We did a little shopping too. The sandals (thongs) that I bought last week were KILLING my feet so I needed some new ones. I ended up finding some really comfortable ones & Lindsay's sick of me telling her just how great they are. Lindsay's purse is falling apart, so we found her a new one of those as well. We went to an Italian place for dinner and when we left it was pouring rain outside! What a wet walk home. We played pictionary together for the rest of the night and read our books. At the hostel in Sydney, they have a book exchange where you can take one of their books as long as you leave one there. I left my old book and got the Chronicles of Narnia. I know, I know, it's a kids book, but I'm really enjoying it! It's an easy/interesting read.
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Yesterday we were up and out of the hostel by about 11 (with a slight hold up because of a fire alarm). The bus ride back was much less painful than our ride here and we went to check into the YHA hostel (the one we have a membership to and have been staying at the whole time. They have hundreds of hostels all around Australia). It was full, so we went around the corner to the 'wake up!' hostel. Thinking we'd be smart and save money, we opted for the 10 share room since we had to be up by 5:30 in the morning anyways. We tried to get up to the floor we were staying on but once we got into the elevator, there was a swipe card thing that only let you onto the floor you were staying on. We tried for 10 minuites, going up and down and up and down, but our cards wouldn't work (or we couldn't figure the system out). Finally we made it to our room... and no kidding.... it was full of sleeping boys. sick. As if that wasn't bad enough the lockers in this hostel are designed so that you can only fit small things in them with pointless little shelves everywhere (in the other hostel I could fit my suitcase, laptop case and more). So, since there was no way we were hanging out in that room all day, we had to leave our luggage on our beds (we felt a little uneasy about it, but the only thing that went missing was Lindsay's book.. which was mine & I let her borrow, but I didn't care because I was done reading it). We filled the afternoon by going to lunch (I had smoked salmon because according to Lindsay the health expert it's bad to have tuna every single day, hahahaha), then we went to the Hyde Park Barracks Museum. It was great! We had a little introduction from a historian at the beginning who gave us an overview of the place, and then learned all about how Australia came to be. We saw a bunch of old record books with names and offences and terms of sentencing. It was all very interesting. Some of the convicts were as young as 10 and a lot of them were over there because of stealing 10 shillings or something. They all got life... So scary. We got to lay in some of the convict hammocks too, the whole museum was inside the actual place where the convicts stayed. After the museum, we went to the theatre and watched 'Hairspray' (which I totally recommend, it was really funny). We tried to stay out of the room as long as we could so that we didn't have to spend much time with all the random people. When we went back to our room and went to sleep, there was just us and 2 other girls sleeping. In the middle of the night a pile of guys came yelling and being idiots and one of them came over and stepped on Lindsay's bed. It was basically a nightmare. We couldn't wait to get up at 5:30 and be out of there.
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We're in better spirits now that last night's ridiculousness is just a memory. At least now we know to ask weather or not the rooms are co-ed. I'm not sure why we never considered it. We're excited to be out of the city for good and things are feeling a little more like we're in Australia. The scenery here is beautiful!!! Once we arrived in Coffs Harbour, our day became a whole lot brighter. We were worried because it was pouring rain and we weren't sure how to get to our hostel, but as soon as we got off the bus, there was a shuttle waiting for us and brought us there straight away. Once we got to the hostel we got a 6 share room all to ourselves which was perfect! We unloaded and went for a quick dinner. After, we borrowed a movie and went to sleep.

September 22

Hi Everyone! Lindsay and I arrived safely in Coffs Harbour. They don't have wireless internet here so I can't use my computer and my whole blog is already written out on there. SO as soon as I can find wireless I'll add more. SOON!!!

September 18

**This sign made my day! The Wildlife place was heaps of fun**
Yesterday was such an awesome day! Lindsay's flight was a couple of hours late, and I was so excited to see her when she got off the plane. Her flight was terrible though, poor girl had so many delays on the three planes she had to take. We went straight to the hostel and got our room settled then to the Aquarium for most of the afternoon. We saw some pretty amazing sharks, seals, sting rays and tropical fish. We took a walk down to the Opera house and to see the Harbour bridge. We had Thai food for dinner, then back to the hostel for a card game, then sleep.
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We were up early this morning and started sorting out what we would like to do for the rest of our stay. After a lot of deliberation, we decided to book a 'hop on, hop off' bus tour. This bus will take us all the way up the eastern coast to Cairns, which is in north east Australia and right by the Great Barrier Reef. We will be able to get on the bus and off as many times as we would like and stay as long as we want in each place, all for one prepaid price. We've got 6 months to take this trip, so we can stop off in a town/city for as long as we want, to work for a little while and then move on whenever we want to. It feels good to have this concrete plan, and I'm excited for the adventure. We're going to head out to Bondi beach tomorrow morning for a couple of days, and then we're going to get on the bus on Saturday morning to head to a place called Coffs Harbour. The bus ride is going to take 8 hours... we leave at 6:30 in the morning. How exciting!
In the afternoon, we went to see the contemporary art museum. This one was VERY different from the place I went to last week. For one exhibit, there were some sticks glued to the wall and some rocks placed on the floor. Another was some apple crates in the middle of the floor. We didn't stay long, we must not have had the 'eye' for that kind of thing, haha. After, we headed for a 'Wildlife Adventure'. This place was great! I forgot my camera.. too bad. There were kangaroos & Wallabees, wambats, koalas, parrots, snakes, spiders, etc. We saw all of Australia's most poisonous spiders and snakes, scary! In the Koala part, there was a mother and baby (don't remember the name of them.. cub?) sitting in a tree hugging, asleep. So cute! The snakes were pretty gross, the spiders too. After the Wildlife place, we headed back to our room. It was a far walk, we have sore feet. We relaxed for a bit and then went to one of the bars that I've been to for a glass of wine. We ended up getting a bunch of free drink tickets at that place because I had won that pool tournament and didn't use up all of the money on the $50 gift card. An Australian guy and his friends were talking to us and we ended up going to another bar called The Gaff. I've been there before too! It was a fun night and we were back home a little after midnight.

September 18

**Lindsay and I. We asked a girl to take our photo infront of the opera house but she missed it entirely... it's to our left**
Lindsay finally made it!!! we're having a great time. I picked her up at the airport yesterday morning. She was such a trooper, no naps needed at all. We spent the day touring the city. We went to the Aquarium and saw tones of sharks, it was an awesome (but very cold) day. Today's pretty cold too but we've got lots planned. I'll wirte more when I have a little more time..

September 16

**Picture #1 is us at lunch with our seafood platter. Picture #2 is the view at Caves Beach**
This weekend was the best ever!!! On Saturday afternoon, Monique and Mark took me to 'the caves', a beach that has all kinds of caves along it. We couldn't go in because the tide was high, so they promised to take me back on Sunday. We also went to this random park-type place that had Kangaroos and Emu's all over the place!! They were in fences of course, but it was great to see my first Kangaroo. Those things are SO big! Then, for lunch, we went to a restaurant called 'Twist' with a few of Monique's co-workers. We ordered two seafood platters to share among the six of us. The food was fantastic!!! There were Prawns in the shell (eyeballs & everything. I accidentally cracked it and saw some brain, haha), Calamari, Battered fish, lots of oysters (I had my first one.. not too bad with cheese on it!), and finally crab (in the shells still, I had to crack it open and dig out the crab meat). I'm pretty sure it was the most fantastic lunch on the planet! I already really like seafood, but I've never had it fresh, yum! After lunch, we went back to Monique and Mark's and packed our bags to get ready to stay at their friends place for the night. The house actually belongs to their friends' parents, who rent it out to people for $500 a night. It happened to be empty this weekend so they had about 10 of their friends stay over. The place was gorgeous! Right on the lake, with a pool & everything! We went for Thai food that night (Monique and I shared after our big lunch) and went back to the house for drinks. Everyone was so nice, they all were interested in what I was doing and where I was headed next. They had some great insight into where I should go and the things I should see. It was a fantastic night.
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This morning everyone woke up early for a bbq breakfast. (apparently here they bbq everything, even fried eggs!) After, we all went to the pool and suntanned for most of the day. We also played a bit of volleyball (my wrist is actually bruised.. but doesn't hurt) and Mark took me out for a ride on the Tinny (tin boat). The water was great, we saw so many gorgeous fishing boats and pelicans. I think that pelicans look like they're made of plastic. They're huge! We left the place at about 3 and headed back to 'the caves'. The beach there is really nice. We took a walk through one of the caves, which scared me a bit.. haha, but I was fine. A lot of the rocks are covered with a bright green slimish stuff that looks kinda like shag carpet. It was really pretty there. I got some great pics. We headed back to their place & I got to have a bath (so relaxing) and then I tried to make dinner for them. Well, Monique did most of it and I merely helped. We had Thai red curry & rice. It was SO hot that none of us could even finnish our meals, haha, too much red curry. After dinner they gave me a ride to the train station where I'm heading to the hostel so that I can go and pick Lindsay up tomorrow morning. I am SO grateful to Monique and Mark for all they've done for me this weekend! IT really means the world, especially because I was really starting to get homesick and couldn't handle any more strange faces! It's funny because every time I thanked them for having me they just shrugged it off like 'of course we would have you, no big deal, you don't have to say thank-you'. What great people!
I'm so excited to see Lindsay! Her plane was supposed to arrive at 6:00am, but she called (I missed it cuz I can NEVER hear my phone!!!) and let me know that the plane is delayed and it won't arrive until about 8:00. So I guess I've got another 2 hours to sleep in, but I am SO EXCITED to see her! I can hardly contain myself! She's going to be pretty tired when she gets here too, but hopefully she'll be up for some of the things that I have planned for us for the next couple of days. I;m pumped, I sure am ready for this adventure to begin!

September 15

**This is the view that I had at the hostel in Bondi Beach, BEAUTIFUL**
I arrived safely in Newcastle last night at about 5pm. During the ride, an older Australian woman sat beside me.. for about half an hour. She imiediately was talking to me about travelling & where to go and stay in Australia (she could see by my suitcase and bag that I was a traveller.) By the end of our conversation, she was giving me her name, address and phone number to call her if I ever needed anything or a place to stay. Isn't that nice??! I don't think many people in Canada would do that, I was amazed. The train ride took three hours. Only cost $17. Not too bad at all! The scenery was nice & I even saw a Pelican! Those birds are huge!
Monique picked me up from the train station & showed me the travel agency where she works. I met some of her co-workers and realized that until now I had only been meeting travellers, and today I actually met my first Australians! The city of Newcastle is about the size of London. Much more manageable than Sydney! The drive to Warners Bay (the suberb where they live) was lovely, all along the beaches. There were still people surfing!
Monique and Mark have been so welcoming, it's very nice to be here. We had Lamb for dinner last night. It was very good, I had never had it before! We watched a game of football (a kind I had never seen before and can't remember the name of) but it was an exciting game and the men wore the shortest short ever. hahaha.
I slept last night like I had never slept before! It was so nice to have my own room & nice place to sleep.
Before I came out here, I was getting a little worried. Everything was so expensive and crazy busy in Sydney.. and to be honest it felt like just a typical city. It didn't feel very Australian. Coming here has been a great mood lifter! I'm excited to travel north and stay in a smaller city like this one. & Get the real Australian lifestyle. YAY this is great!

September 14

The last couple of days have been great. Very relaxing, I've done a lot of just walking and seeing the sights. I walked around the busy main street of Boni Beach. There are a lot of signs in the windows looking for waitresses. I thought I would go out yesterday and give out some resumes, just to see what my chances are! I was talking to one of the women that work here and she told me that before I send out resumes I have to do a one-day course back in the city!! arg, it's annoying. This part of Australia is the only place that you have to do the one day course. In all of the other territories it can be done over the internet. SO, since I'm not going to be back in the city until Monday, I spent most of the day yesterday looking for graphic design jobs online. There are a lot of jobs to choose from in Sydney, (loads of JUNIOR positions, perfect) but I don't even know if I'd like to stay in the city. It's so busy, plus SO expensive. I suppose if the pay is good at one of these jobs then the rent wouldn't be so bad.
I love it here by the beach. So relaxing. I wish it was just a little bit warmer so that I didn't have to carry a sweater with me. It's almost hot in the sun, but in the shade it's chilly. There are SO many hills here. I can see why Australians are so fit, always walking up and down steep hills is great exercise. It would be nice to end up living near here, but I've heard through a lot of people that the jobs up north are better, and the rent is cheaper. I feel like I'm in a bit of limbo on what to do now until Lindsay gets here. We'll have to figure this thing out together!!!
Last night was great! I met a few people in the hostel (2 guys, 2 girls, all traveling together), and they invited me out with them to one of the local bars. We had dinner and were having fun and someone noticed it was 'Killer Pool' night. The guys were supposedly really good at pool, so we signed up. I signed up mostly because the highest ranking girl would win $50 as a bar tab. The rules of Killer-Pool: There are 50 people, they go down the list in order and everyone gets one shot each turn. You can shoot at any ball, but if you miss you get a strike. Three strikes, you're out. There were only about 10 girls playing and quite a few people watching. I was so nervous, but every time I got a ball in everyone clapped, hahaha. SO guess who the highest ranking girl was? yup, me. Cool, eh? so I just got 2 rounds of drinks for all of us. It was really fun!!
I said goodbye to everyone this morning and headed into the city. I'm just waiting for my train to leave here and head to Newcastle to spend the weekend with Kristal's cousin Monique and her husband Mark. I'm SO excited to stay with them. To stay with people that I know I can trust and get away from people being in my space constantly. Newcastle is about a 2.5 hour train ride from here. That'll be relaxing too. I just checked my e-mail and I got a letter from one of the places that I sent my resume to yesterday! She woman wants to see more of my work and said that if she likes it, she will want to see me next time I'm in the city for some freelance opportunities. Well, I'm not really wanting freelance, but anything is anything, right??!? nice.

September 11

On Tuesday, I went to St. Mary's Cathedral in the morning. My grandma passed away & I wanted to light a candle for her. It breaks my heart that I'm not at home for my family right now. I wish the I could be home for the funeral. My family is in my prayers this week. After lighting a candle for grandma and going to mass, I went to The Sydney museum. The museum was filled with interesting facts about Australia.. The animals and minerals and tons of other things. I left there and went to the Art Gallery. It was nice as well. Lots of statues and weird contemporary paintings. I spent the day by myself & stopped on the way home for dinner. I couldn't find any food except for Chinese, so I ate fried rice with prawns. I felt kida sick after, but didn't think much of it. I was in bed early that night.
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Yesterday morning, I checked out of my room and travelled to Bondi beach, where I checked into the hostel for 4 nights. I like it much better out here, it's so much more relaxed and easy-going! Well, so far anyways. I'm sure it will get really busy out here once the hot weather comes. I spent the day walking on the beach, looking at the stores and I finally got some new sandals!!! YAY!! My stomach was still hurting a bit all day, but it was a dull pain so I assumed it would go away soon. I felt better by dinner, but the time I went to sleep I felt like my stomach was revolting against my body!! I was awake all night, getting sick. I thought I was going to have to go to the doctor or something & I could tell I probably had a bad fever. I waited until morning to go and get some medication from the local pharmacy (or CHEMIST as they call it here) That made me feel better, but not really great. I slept until about 3pm, It's too bad too because today was a beautiful day & I missed it. I went for a walk later, and watched some movies in the movie room here. Today was basically a lazy day. My stomach still hurts. I hope I can sleep better tonight!

September 8

2:00pm
**LOOK where the steering wheel is!!! Check out the scenery too, beautiful,**
James & I took the car out again yesterday. We drove North this time. All the way up to Shelly beach. We were lost pretty much the whole time. It was fun though, we followed the coast most of the way & the scenery was fantastic. We stopped off at a bunch of different beaches too. While we were on the highway, we were traveling through some mountains/big hills. It was so nice! Trees everywhere, lining all of the cliffs & fog or mist coming out of the forests. Once we were out of Sydney, we went into a parking lot so that I could drive the car. What a strange experience. It's like trying to write with the wrong hand. I gave up after about 5 minutes. We watched some more surfers and I found the prettiest shells on the beach! They looked like really large (golf ball sized to dime sized) snail shells except they were bright white with bright blue stripes. There were sick little dead slimy things in them so I pried them out with a stick and put a few of the shells in my bag. This morning I was getting dressed and suddenly smelled the most awful smell.. I searched & searched and then remembered the shells. I don't know what was inside of them, but it was dead and rotting. I had to get rid of them because the smell wouldn't come off. I'm sad, they were so pretty. You would have liked them. It got dark around 6 yesterday, so we decided to drive home. I've never been so lost and almost out of gas in my life!!! First, we got lost for a while.. but then found our highway. Then we realized we were almost out of gas. So we took the next exit and I SWEAR it said there would be gas there. Suddenly, we were on some scenic route out in the middle of no where. Going up a mountain and winding, winding, winding. Probably no one for miles. I was envisioning running out of gas and having to sleep in the car & James was mentioning how the whole thing seemed like a horror movie because it was pouring rain in the middle of a forest and neither of us could call out on our cell phones. I was scared out of my mind, just waiting for the car to run out of gas (or petrol as they say here). BUT don't worry, we made it out ok & found the highway and even a gas station. I won't put myself into that kind of situation again, though. (Mom, don't worry, I'm Fine!!)
We were out on the road for 12 hours! It was a long day of driving so I basically went to bed once we got back.
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This morning, we decided that since we have the car for one more day we would drive out to the blue mountains. We got started on our way there and got super lost, not even out of the city yet! That was pretty much the breaking point, especially having been lost for hours yesterday. We immediately took the car back to the rental place and washed our hands of the whole situation. It was a blast having the car, but honestly I'm glad to not have to worry about it anymore.
On our walk back to the hostel, there were helicopters hovering in the air everywhere! We followed a mass of people down the street and came across a major anti-war protest (because of the summit meeting & President Bush being here). There were lines of police everywhere, it was pretty impressive. I've never seen a protest before, & this one was MASSIVE. It seemed a little frivolous though. I wonder if they realized that President Bush probably doesn't care what a bunch of Australian's think, whether or not they're blocking the streets. Besides, I have a feeling he was no where near any of this unrest. They were pretty rude though, I mean the police were standing on the edges of the streets, making sure nothing crazy happened and the protesters were shoving stuff in the officers' faces and acting like a bunch of monkeys. I mean why fault a guy for doing his job? He's just there to keep everyone safe.
I came home soon after that. I'm not sure what I'm going to do tonight. Probably just take it easy or swim in the pool here.

September 6

**Check out the surfer in this picture. isn't that awesome??**
I woke up early this morning to go with my friend James to rent a car and travel out to some of the beaches. I had to have him drive because I can't figure out how to drive on the other side of the road & he's from Wales so it's normal to him. Even with him driving I still felt like we were going to get into an accident every time we turned into the left side of the road. It's really un-nerving! First we went SOUTH to Bondi Beach, It was incredible!!! GORGEOUS!!! I can't believe the beaches there are so nice! There were all kinds of surfers too (which is crazy because It's kinda cold) They make surfing look so easy! We watched them surf forever, it was like out of a movie! We walked along the beach there & then took the car to Coogi Beach which was also SO nice. We drove around all day looking at the suberbs here. It's so nice out there, much nicer than in Sydney. I mean Sydney is nice (however much more expensive than I imagined), but the city experience is really getting to me, especially since I've seen the smaller parts just outside the city. Absolutely stunning. It's like I lived my life until now knowing places like that existed because I've seen pictures, but not really understanding or appreciating how beautiful it really is. It was quite an experience. It rained a bit.. we saw a rainbow from end to end. Actually, all day we saw three different rainbows! What a fantastic day!! driving back to the city was a little different because of that big summit meeting downtown... basically right beside where we needed to be. We also didn't think about how hard it was going to be to park overnight. We eventually found a place, but it was expensive. We have the car until Sunday morning. Tomorrow we're going to go up the coast North to see more of the countryside. I'm very excited. I might even try driving if we get somewhere that's not busy.. at ALL!! Knowing me I'd drive straight into oncoming traffic. I'm going to watch some pool tonight. One of my new friends is in a tournament. It should be exciting!
(I don't know how to put a mass of pictures on here. check my facebook for more pics)

Day 3 - Sept 4

11:45pm
Last night was a blast!! I went up to the roof just because I didn't know what else to do after I woke up from my nap. It turned out that there was a BBQ going on! I had kangaroo on a bun for dinner. I had about 1.5 bites and decided I never want to eat kangaroo again. It tasted like what you'd imagine a rat would taste like. Chewy and stringy.. yuk!! I met a few people while I was there. There were a bunch of germans & I tried to talk to them but their accents were so think I think we just gave up. There was a Canadian, a guy from Wales and an American. The american was pretty much the most annoying person I've ever met.. The other two were nice though. We ended up going and playing poker for most of the night and then went to a bar called 'Scubar'. It was really fun! The Canadian guy ended up drinking a lot and breaking about 4 glasses by nocking them off the table. It was pretty funny. He was giving the servers $30 tips. crazy. When I got home I slept for a couple of hours and then woke up, wide awake at 4:00am. So I called my dad & mom. The whole family was there because of the holiday so we all talked on speakerphone for a while.
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This morning I woke up and went to the Oz tower with the Welsh guy I met last night. His accent is so funny. He says stuff like knickers, bollocks, fellow, and bloody just like it's normal. I laugh every time. We ended up getting lost on the walk there so we went by the Opera house (which is closed because of the world summit. Apparently Steven Harper is going to be there), and lots of parks and conservation areas. There were trees that grew up from the ground and then some of the branches turned around and went back into the ground! That's weird. There were all kinds of strange birds there too, I was eating a muffin and they started dive-bombing us to get some food! We finally made it to the Oz Tower, it was fantastic! The view was of the whole city of Sydney and on every side the city is so big that the skyline ended before the city did. There were also dozens of pools, tennis courts and greenhouses on the roofs of the buildings below. The harbour and beaches also looked beautiful from up there. The picture is of me infront of the window overlooking the city. As you can see it's impossible to tell where it ends! We got lost again on the way back, but because of my fantastic map reading skills we eventually made it... hours later! My feel hurt!
I went out to a club called 'The Gaff' tonight with my Canadian and Welsh friends that I met yesterday. We had a great time but the whole place was a little dirty. I don't think I'll go back there. It's 2:30am right now, I'm not even feeling tired. I get so tired in the afternoon & take a nap and now at night I won't be able to sleep! Hopefully it will get better with time.

Day 2 - Sept 3

8:00am
haaaaahahahaaaaa. I can't even stop laughing. Am I seriously doing this? It still feels kinda like I can go home tomorrow. It was really strange driving in the bus to the hostel from the airport. Driving on the other side of the road seems so wrong! When I got off of the plane, I saw an ad that said "Feel like a gas bag? Select Voda-phone" hahaha, what does that even mean?
I'm sitting in the hostel right now, trying to figure out how to get internet. I think I'll worry about finding a phone card first, though. I don't know what to do next. I suppose I'll try to find the SWAP office to get that taken care of. I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed right now, not sure how this day is going to work out, but I'm not tired! The flight was great.. very comfortable & the seat beside me was empty so that made it even better. I watched "License to Wed" a movie with Robin Williams. I don't recommend it.. but other than that I slept a lot and read a lot. ok, off for an adventure!!
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It's 3:00pm Holy, I'm tired!!! I just got back from doing a pile of things. I went to the SWAP office and sat through a 3 hour talk about safety and tips, etc. It was pretty informative. The guy said we should be afraid of spiders, not sharks. I went to the bank and got my debit card and bank account. I got a new cellphone too!! Now people can call me! 0420511720.
I notice how uncomfortable I am when I talk to australian people. Not for any other reason but I can't help but think about my own accent! It seems to stick out like a sore thumb. It's weird, I didn't think it would make any difference to me. It just makes me pay so much more attention to what I'm saying.
The city (or what I've seen of it so far) is really nice. It's very clean, not much litter and practically no homeless people. Less than London even. Everyone's really well dressed too! Maybe it was just the part of town that I was in. There were a lot of suits. I even saw some people getting their shoes shined on the street! crazy!!!
I really want to take a nap, but I'd hate it if these three girls came back into the room while I was napping. I'll just have to make good use of my ear plugs!

Day 1 - Sept 1

5:00pm
Ok, now it's serious. Are you kidding me? I can't believe it's time to go. I'm sitting here waiting for my flight, it leaves in an hour and a half. I get to stare out the big window and watch the planes roam around. I just said goodbye to my parents. That was tough, especially since I didn't want to let myself cry because we're standing in the middle of the airport. It's always hardest not to cry when you really feel like you can't. Mom & Dad watched me walk into the terminal until they couldn't see me anymore. They're probably driving back home now, I can only imagine.. poor mom right now, I'm SORRY!! It was tough saying goodbye to my brothers today too, but really, it was hard saying goodbye to everyone. I wish life could just stand still in Canada while I'm gone so that no one will forget about me! Everyone has been so great to me though. THANK YOU for being supportive and encouraging and trying to talk me out of being so scared. (moving on.. gotta hold back the tears.) I know I'm going to have the time of my life, it's just a little difficult to see it right now as I am wandering into the unknown.
This plane ride is going to take FOREVER! I hope I don't end up feeling sick. On our way here there was bad traffic, so for an hour we were stop & go, stop & go in the van. I felt SO sick! All I could think about was how much my motion sickness is going to kick in on the flight. I've got a whole bottle of gravol, just in case.
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I just arrived in L.A.!! The first flight wasn't so bad but my ears hurt pretty badly and I can't hear a thing. I have no idea what time it is!! This time-zone business is kinda tricky. I read half of the book I brought and stayed awake for this whole 5 hour flight so that I would be able to sleep better on the long one coming up next. I'll be in the air now for about 14 and a half hours. I just realized that since it's already dark here and I arrive in Sydney at 6:00am (Australian time) I'm going to be in the dark the whole time! Like we're following the moon or something. That's pretty cool! When the plane took off from Toronto I got a sudden feeling of "Oh damn, there's no turning back now!" That was tough, but now I'm just tired and want to get the traveling part overwith.