The Last Month and a bit at Evatt

It's hard to remmeber everything that I have done in the past few months, because there has been so much! Evatt is definitly a place unto its own. I couldn't hold back the tears when I left, and I still can't quite believe that I won't be back.

Some of the Events:

Pub Crawl: The theme was rubix cube, which required everyone to wear 6 pieces of clothing of the 6 colours of the rubix cube. On the first bus trip everyone was given a number which corresponded with one colour. In order to discover what colour our number went with we had to exchange clothes and dress in one solid colour and then ask the judges if we had guessed correctly. If you did, you won, but if you didn't you had to go and get into another colour. It was pretty hectic, and made for some good times! We started really early and i was at home in bed, dead to the world by 11:00. Unfortunately, I managed to get myself a train fine, for not purchasing a ticket. It put a bit of a damper on the evening, but knowing me I will manage to get myslef out of it!

Trip to the Blue Mountains: Dev, Allie and I headed down for a weekend with Ainsley in her hometown of Lithgow, and did some sightseeing of the gorgeous blue mountains. It was sooooo amazing to stay at a real house, with a real bed, and someone to cook for you! Some of Ainsleys friends are in a band, but are all heading in different directions to work or travel. They had a massive going away gig, which involved much jumping dancing and singing, which is always a recipe for a good night!

Bar 121: Our sponser pub, which always means a great night of dancing to live music, mostly classic 90s tunes - always a treat!

Canteen Night: In order to raise money for cancer, we headed over to our campus bar to support some of the boys from Evatt who play in a band. They drew quite a crowd, along with Andy who promised to cut off his shoulder length hair if we could raise over $800.00. Amazingly we raised over $2000.00. An unbeleivable effort!

International going away party: This was supose to be a big event, again at our on-campus bar, but Newcastle was hit be a huge storm and this changed things. There was flash flooding, so many people had to abandon their cars, and one of the coal barges was washed up onto the reef only 10 meters off shore. The rain was terential, and basically acted like a shower. Needless to say nobody was overly keen to leave their warm, dry room. However we still made the most of it. A bunch of us girls got together in some old gruby clothes and went mud-sliding. It was an unbeleiable moment that I know I will never experience again. We got absolutely filthy sliding down hills and through puddles and then headed back to Evatt to cause a rucus. After dirtying up the window of the common room (which nobody would let us into) we headed over to Ted's pool (our colloage rivals. We went for a very cleansing swim after using a trash can to hop the fence. On our way back we did run into a few security guards, however they didn't seem to be too upset with us. In fact it was wuite the opposite, they thought it was rather halarious, so instead of getting in trouble, we got a picture with them.

After I had finished my last exam and handed in my last paper, it was so hard to believe that it was all over. On the one hand I feel so close to everyone here that it seems like I have known them forever, but on the other hand time has just flown by and it doesn't seem possible that my time here has come to an end.

Allie, Devin, her friend from Seattle, Jamie, and I are now heading out for a 3 week tour of the east coast. We are looking forward to the sunnier climate further north. Leaving Newcastle was bitter-sweet. I am so sad to leave, but also excited to do some traveling again. This has been the most amazing experience of my life and I am going to miss everyone and the lifestyle desperetly!

Easter Holidays

Well I am definitly very far behind in my blogging so I'm going to give a quick overview to try and catch up! Devin and I had an amazing break. After we left Melbourne we drove for 3 days along the Great Ocean Road. The scenery was breathtaking, and we were both vying for the passengers seat the whole trip. We saw the Twelve Apostles which are huge rocks just off the coast. We were lucky enough to have gorgeous weather, which was a real treat. We spent a really fun night in Apollo Bay, a small town along the road. Shockingly Devin ran into a guy that she had met 6 months earlier in Vegas. Just goes to show what a small world it really is. We also went for a beach horseback ride, which I really enjoyed, and Dev would have too, if her horse hadn't been so damn lazy!!

Next we hit up Adelaide, had a bit of trouble checking into the hostel we booked because it's reception was closed, but eventually we sorted it all out. We went out to see a wineary the next day which was really fun, but completely exemplified the terrible drought South Australia is experiencing. After just one day in Adelaide we headed out on a tour of Kangaroo Island, where shockingly we saw tons of kangaroos! We also saw the cute Koala bears, sea lions, possums and some ancient whale bones. A very succesful tour, we had a great guide along with an outgoing group of travellers.

We then bundled up and flew down even further south to the Island of Tasmania. It's the biggest Island just of the South-east coast. We flew into Hobart and did a tour of the Cadbury Chocolate Factory which was unbelievable.We ate tons of chocolate and although it was amazing, I was a little disapointed we didn't see any umpa loompas! From Hobart we rented a car and ptetty much drove around the whole Island. The highlights included a national park where we saw wallabys and a platypus, the cradle mountains which jutted up behind a stunning lake, a cave walk with an underground cathedral and glow worms, and finally the east coast which included wineglass bay and some stunning sun-sets. The lowest point of the whole trip occured here in Tasmania though when we shared a hostel room with a very scary old man. He looked like he hadn't showered in days and furthermore felt the need to test normal social boundaries by waking me up in the morning by poking me in the ribs - very scary!!!

We had an amazing trip, but happily celbrated our return with an amazing night at town in Newcastle. Dev and I were reunited with Allie and we definitly celbrated in a big way. The perfect way to end a fabulous holiday!