Hello!!!!
During the past few months I have had fun writing a blog and making it so everyone can keep up with what I have been doing. I have decided that I want to continue on with this even after my study abroad experience. I have created a new blog that is seperate from this blog. I didn't think the link chelsea-is-abroad, worked for when I was just living a normal life in Arizona. So the new link is:
http://adaywithcts.blogspot.com/
This new blog will be a bit more random then my old blog and will be more of a casual blog. I don't expect to be doing skydiving, zorbing, scuba diving any time in the next year..however if I do my new blog is where you will find out about it! Of course when I have pictures to upload Picassa will still be my handy site to turn to!
So head to my new blog, and follow me! May I suggest you creating a blog as well? I would love to keep up on the life of everyone else as well!
I guess this is my final farewell to Aussie!
XoXO,
Chels
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Fiji!
So my weekend in paradise is over and now I am waiting in the Nadi (pronounced Nan-dee) airport for my eleven hour flight to Los Angeles. I remember back in February (which seems like a lifetime ago) being absolutely terrified of the flight I had to take to Australia. Now, after having already experienced that flight and also an overnight bus from Sydney to Gold Coast it is not the flight I am anxious about. Now I have learned that the worst part about flying is not the actual flight, it is the layovers, customs and security check points. I have already had a decent amount of things taken away from me, and I am a bit nervous that the sand and seashells I took home for mom will get taken away at customs. I hope not, but if they do there isn’t much I can do about it and at least I tried right?
On Thursday I was completely emotional and felt unready to go back to the states and this past weekend (in paradise) has helped me calm down a lot and I am getting more excited to head back to the states. I had a lot of time to relax this weekend and I think I needed that before I had to head back into my life back home. This weekend allowed me to get rid of my emotions from leaving Aussie, and also allowed me to get new exciting emotions to prepare me to go back home. I think if I had just went straight back home from Aussie my emotions would have been everywhere and I am unsure how I would have handled that. I am DEFINITLY looking forward to being home seeing my family and friends and getting back into “reality.” I have had a wonderful time since February and Australia will always have a special place in my heart, however it is time for leave my fantasy lifestyle and go into my everyday routine of things. For everyone who feared that I would not be coming home, no worries I am. If you would have asked me that on Thursday I am not to sure I would have been able to answer that will a 100% yes. Haha!
So now to talk about my weekend in Fiji! I already updated you on how my first night was and so I now I will cover my time in Fiji from Friday until today (Monday).
On Friday I had to wake up really early due to mistake of booking a room at a resort two hours away from where I was boarding the boat to go to my next resort. The drive was nice to see in the daytime and it allowed me to see parts of Fiji that were not centered around tourists. The houses were extremely small and most of them were very worn down. I wish I would have been able to take pictures but at the time my camera was in the trunk and I could not access it. On top of the worn down houses (and schools that were built for them by the United States of America) you could see how the people were struggling when you passed a bus stop made out of bamboo sticks. Also, in a field at both ends the field goals had been set up using bamboo sticks as well. I am happy I got to experience this drive as the rest of my weekend was at a resort which had definitely been made nice to attract tourists. I now understand why traveling can change a persons perspective on life. You get to experience things from people who are less fortunate, to those who are extremely fortunate. I have a learned a lot just by traveling that is for sure.
After my drive back to Nadi I hopped on the boat ride to go to Octopus Resort. The boat ride was an hour and a half and to make the time go by faster I started to talking to other people around me (the boat only fits about 10-12 people). The first couple I talked to was an older couple and within the first few minutes I found out that they were from Arizona!!! Now this was really exciting because in the months I have been gone, I have not met one single person who is from Arizona! It was nice to talk to them about my time away and also catch up with how the weather has been acting up back home.
After talking to them for a while I then start talking to another girl named Ashley who is traveling by herself. She had been traveling with a friend throughout Australia but they each went separate ways a few days prior. She was only nineteen years old and was an English student traveling between her gap year. She was extremely nice and we would continue to hang out throughout the weekend.
After yapping away we finally arrive at Waya Island. The first thing I notice is how blue the water is and how many trees there are on the island. We are then welcomed by some of the staff at the resort with a traditional welcome song. As soon as I step off of the boat Sam calls out my name and I notice that she is snorkeling. It made it extremely easy to find her when I got there. I then sat through a welcoming and got assigned a bed number for the dorm.
After walking to my room and saying “Vanaka” (which means thank you) to the worker who carried my bags to the room, I then headed down to the beach to meet Sam. We hung out at the beach and then went in to eat lunch since it was happening almost immediately after I arrived. The area we ate was really cool and the floor was filled with sand so you could feel the sand between your toes even while you ate.
That night we went down to watch the sunset (which was gorgeous) and had drinks out of coconuts! I am not sure how much alcohol they put into it shot wise, but when I counted it was nine seconds worth of pouring different alcohol into my coconut! However the coconuts were huge and so the rest of it was filled up with some sort of juice and you could not really taste the alcohol all that much.
When I went to bed I realized that we each had a personal mosquito net, fan and light by our bed. I liked this because it made it so that I could chose to have the fan on or not (and of course knowing me I had it on the entire night).
The next morning I woke up and enjoyed the breakfast the had put out for us. The weather was not the greatest and it started to rain and so I started to read On the Jellicoe Road a book I had picked up for a friend in Australia. I ended up reading the entire book in two days because I had so much down time. After the rain it cleared up and we were left with a gorgeous day. I hung out by the beach and read for the majority of the day.
At night after dinner they resort had game night and me being very competitive was one of the first to join in on the fun. The first game was a harmless (but somewhat painful) game of Limbo. I did not win but I did make it a decent way into the game. After Limbo we played a drinking game with the same groups. Each person had to run to a cup of beer that was about thirty steps away, drink it as fast as possible, place the cup upside down on their head to prove the cup was empty, spin around the cup two times and then run back to their team. I am very competitive; however drinking beer is not something I am very good at. I attempted to drink the cup of beer as fast as possible and ended up with half a cup of beer down my shirt… the only good thing about that was the when I turned the cup upside down to place on my head there was none to get into my hair. My team loss this game, but just barely.
Really wanting to at least one game, I signed up for the next game as well not knowing what it was. Little did I know that for the next couple of minutes everyone in my group would basically lose any pride and dignity they had, while playing a game called “Poop the Potato”. Each person had to hold a potatoe between their legs run to a bucket without dropping it, and then “poop” the potato into the bucket. If you missed the bucket, or dropped the potato you had to go back and try again. Once again, my team just barely lost. This makes it three games in a row I lost…which I am very sad about. Sad in the Chelsea “I wanna win” type of sad.
The last game (if you can call it a game) is catch the cork. Basically the person who caught the cork off the champagne got the bottle of champagne. Well...make it four losses for me! The same group won all four games and ended up with four bottles of champagne while we each had beer down our shirts and had just pooped a potato. All well, it was fun even if I didn’t win. Plus, I am not a fan of champagne so I didn’t mind giving it to someone who was.
The next day was the last full day in Fiji. After breakfast we went snorkeling. The water was so blue and the clarity was absolutely perfect. I saw so many different type of fish and at one point I was right next to a school of about thirty bright yellow fish swimming around me. I wish I would have had a underwater camera because the fish were so bright and the water was so blue. I also saw a fish without a tail and every time it tried to swim the water would push the back part of its body and it kept having to swim sideways. I also saw a transparent fish swimming around as well. There were so many unique fish and it is really awesome to be able to swim around with them.
For the rest of the day we just hung around and at night there was a movie playing out by the pool. They set up a giant screen for us all to watch Revolutionary Road, which I had seen about a week earlier. Since it was still early I watched the movie, however for a majority of the time I was just looking up at the stars and the milky way.
The next morning we had to wake up and get all of our stuff together to pack and leave our wonderful Waya Island and to head back to Nandi. We hung out until two just walking down the beach and then had an hour and a half boat ride back to the mainland.
When we got to Nandi we got dropped off at Raffles hotel to hang out for a few hours (it was four, our flight leaves at ten) and all we really did was hang out, take a shower, and change into our clothes we would be wearing on the flight home.
It is now about thirty minutes before I am going to get on my flight home and I am getting pretty excited to go back to the states. This was a perfect end, to an AMAZING semester! One I will never forget that is for sure…and that scary part? I am officially a SENIOR in college!!
Well I am going to turn off my laptop, make a lap around the airport before I have to start my 11 hour sitting session! My next entrée, I will be back in the States!
Love you all!
XoXo,
Chels
On Thursday I was completely emotional and felt unready to go back to the states and this past weekend (in paradise) has helped me calm down a lot and I am getting more excited to head back to the states. I had a lot of time to relax this weekend and I think I needed that before I had to head back into my life back home. This weekend allowed me to get rid of my emotions from leaving Aussie, and also allowed me to get new exciting emotions to prepare me to go back home. I think if I had just went straight back home from Aussie my emotions would have been everywhere and I am unsure how I would have handled that. I am DEFINITLY looking forward to being home seeing my family and friends and getting back into “reality.” I have had a wonderful time since February and Australia will always have a special place in my heart, however it is time for leave my fantasy lifestyle and go into my everyday routine of things. For everyone who feared that I would not be coming home, no worries I am. If you would have asked me that on Thursday I am not to sure I would have been able to answer that will a 100% yes. Haha!
So now to talk about my weekend in Fiji! I already updated you on how my first night was and so I now I will cover my time in Fiji from Friday until today (Monday).
On Friday I had to wake up really early due to mistake of booking a room at a resort two hours away from where I was boarding the boat to go to my next resort. The drive was nice to see in the daytime and it allowed me to see parts of Fiji that were not centered around tourists. The houses were extremely small and most of them were very worn down. I wish I would have been able to take pictures but at the time my camera was in the trunk and I could not access it. On top of the worn down houses (and schools that were built for them by the United States of America) you could see how the people were struggling when you passed a bus stop made out of bamboo sticks. Also, in a field at both ends the field goals had been set up using bamboo sticks as well. I am happy I got to experience this drive as the rest of my weekend was at a resort which had definitely been made nice to attract tourists. I now understand why traveling can change a persons perspective on life. You get to experience things from people who are less fortunate, to those who are extremely fortunate. I have a learned a lot just by traveling that is for sure.
After my drive back to Nadi I hopped on the boat ride to go to Octopus Resort. The boat ride was an hour and a half and to make the time go by faster I started to talking to other people around me (the boat only fits about 10-12 people). The first couple I talked to was an older couple and within the first few minutes I found out that they were from Arizona!!! Now this was really exciting because in the months I have been gone, I have not met one single person who is from Arizona! It was nice to talk to them about my time away and also catch up with how the weather has been acting up back home.
After talking to them for a while I then start talking to another girl named Ashley who is traveling by herself. She had been traveling with a friend throughout Australia but they each went separate ways a few days prior. She was only nineteen years old and was an English student traveling between her gap year. She was extremely nice and we would continue to hang out throughout the weekend.
After yapping away we finally arrive at Waya Island. The first thing I notice is how blue the water is and how many trees there are on the island. We are then welcomed by some of the staff at the resort with a traditional welcome song. As soon as I step off of the boat Sam calls out my name and I notice that she is snorkeling. It made it extremely easy to find her when I got there. I then sat through a welcoming and got assigned a bed number for the dorm.
After walking to my room and saying “Vanaka” (which means thank you) to the worker who carried my bags to the room, I then headed down to the beach to meet Sam. We hung out at the beach and then went in to eat lunch since it was happening almost immediately after I arrived. The area we ate was really cool and the floor was filled with sand so you could feel the sand between your toes even while you ate.
That night we went down to watch the sunset (which was gorgeous) and had drinks out of coconuts! I am not sure how much alcohol they put into it shot wise, but when I counted it was nine seconds worth of pouring different alcohol into my coconut! However the coconuts were huge and so the rest of it was filled up with some sort of juice and you could not really taste the alcohol all that much.
When I went to bed I realized that we each had a personal mosquito net, fan and light by our bed. I liked this because it made it so that I could chose to have the fan on or not (and of course knowing me I had it on the entire night).
The next morning I woke up and enjoyed the breakfast the had put out for us. The weather was not the greatest and it started to rain and so I started to read On the Jellicoe Road a book I had picked up for a friend in Australia. I ended up reading the entire book in two days because I had so much down time. After the rain it cleared up and we were left with a gorgeous day. I hung out by the beach and read for the majority of the day.
At night after dinner they resort had game night and me being very competitive was one of the first to join in on the fun. The first game was a harmless (but somewhat painful) game of Limbo. I did not win but I did make it a decent way into the game. After Limbo we played a drinking game with the same groups. Each person had to run to a cup of beer that was about thirty steps away, drink it as fast as possible, place the cup upside down on their head to prove the cup was empty, spin around the cup two times and then run back to their team. I am very competitive; however drinking beer is not something I am very good at. I attempted to drink the cup of beer as fast as possible and ended up with half a cup of beer down my shirt… the only good thing about that was the when I turned the cup upside down to place on my head there was none to get into my hair. My team loss this game, but just barely.
Really wanting to at least one game, I signed up for the next game as well not knowing what it was. Little did I know that for the next couple of minutes everyone in my group would basically lose any pride and dignity they had, while playing a game called “Poop the Potato”. Each person had to hold a potatoe between their legs run to a bucket without dropping it, and then “poop” the potato into the bucket. If you missed the bucket, or dropped the potato you had to go back and try again. Once again, my team just barely lost. This makes it three games in a row I lost…which I am very sad about. Sad in the Chelsea “I wanna win” type of sad.
The last game (if you can call it a game) is catch the cork. Basically the person who caught the cork off the champagne got the bottle of champagne. Well...make it four losses for me! The same group won all four games and ended up with four bottles of champagne while we each had beer down our shirts and had just pooped a potato. All well, it was fun even if I didn’t win. Plus, I am not a fan of champagne so I didn’t mind giving it to someone who was.
The next day was the last full day in Fiji. After breakfast we went snorkeling. The water was so blue and the clarity was absolutely perfect. I saw so many different type of fish and at one point I was right next to a school of about thirty bright yellow fish swimming around me. I wish I would have had a underwater camera because the fish were so bright and the water was so blue. I also saw a fish without a tail and every time it tried to swim the water would push the back part of its body and it kept having to swim sideways. I also saw a transparent fish swimming around as well. There were so many unique fish and it is really awesome to be able to swim around with them.
For the rest of the day we just hung around and at night there was a movie playing out by the pool. They set up a giant screen for us all to watch Revolutionary Road, which I had seen about a week earlier. Since it was still early I watched the movie, however for a majority of the time I was just looking up at the stars and the milky way.
The next morning we had to wake up and get all of our stuff together to pack and leave our wonderful Waya Island and to head back to Nandi. We hung out until two just walking down the beach and then had an hour and a half boat ride back to the mainland.
When we got to Nandi we got dropped off at Raffles hotel to hang out for a few hours (it was four, our flight leaves at ten) and all we really did was hang out, take a shower, and change into our clothes we would be wearing on the flight home.
It is now about thirty minutes before I am going to get on my flight home and I am getting pretty excited to go back to the states. This was a perfect end, to an AMAZING semester! One I will never forget that is for sure…and that scary part? I am officially a SENIOR in college!!
Well I am going to turn off my laptop, make a lap around the airport before I have to start my 11 hour sitting session! My next entrée, I will be back in the States!
Love you all!
XoXo,
Chels
HOME!
Well…it wasn’t easy but I survived the flight and now I am home! My knees are absolutely killing me and I have never wanted to stand so much in my life! I am in LAX right now waiting for my next flight to phoenix…however an hour flight seems like nothing to me now! “Long Trips” have a completely different meaning to me then what they did six months ago!
I just wanted to let everyone know that there are three entrees before this one talking about leaving Aussie and visiting Fiji. The last of my pictures are uploading to Picasa currently!
Love you all & I’m glad to be home! I am considering continuing to write in my blog to keep everyone updated on what I am up to during the school year. However, the address may be changed considering, I am no longer abroad!
Chels
I just wanted to let everyone know that there are three entrees before this one talking about leaving Aussie and visiting Fiji. The last of my pictures are uploading to Picasa currently!
Love you all & I’m glad to be home! I am considering continuing to write in my blog to keep everyone updated on what I am up to during the school year. However, the address may be changed considering, I am no longer abroad!
Chels
Thursday, June 25, 2009
First night in Fiji!
First night in Fiji!
BULLA!!!!!! I am in Fiji! Bulla means “hello” here and they say it sooo much! Everyone you pass says hello to you, it has a very friendly atmosphere. Also, when you arrive at the airport there is a live band playing tropical music and they put a necklace made of sea shells around your neck and introduce you to the term “Bulla” I can’t say it is gorgeous yet because I have spent the last five hours in the airport waiting to get to my resort so I haven’t really seen anything. It took me so long to get to my resort because I did not book a transfer ahead of time because every other trip I have been on I have been able to book a transfer to where I am staying really easily. Well turns out I got a hotel that is 110 KM away from the airport. I read it as 10 on accident when I paid for my room a couple weeks ago. To get a cab here would have been $200 which I was not about to pay. After finding that out a very nice worker told me he found a coach for me that would be going to the place I am staying for only $35. He said I missed the 5:55 barely and would have to wait for the 6:55 coach. I say ok and then go sit down and finish a couple Sodoku puzzles. Then at 7:00 he comes back and tells me the coach is back and I can put my luggage in the trailer. I was thinking we were leaving at 6:55; nope that is when he got back from his other trip. So I had to wait until everyone got off of their flight and got onto the coach, we left at 7:40.
It then took an hour and a half to get to the first resort where he was dropping everyone off and another hour on top of that to get to my place. Ouewrgoiuhgoerihgirhgerhigdr. I booked a nice hotel tonight because I wanted to not be by myself in a creepy area and I was really excited about spending my time in a hotel for once. Since starting again tomorrow I start up the sharing a room thing. Getting here at 10:35 PM (and having to leave at 7:30 AM tomorrow...) really makes it pointless to have even stayed here.
However, it is a really nice place!!! I have a HUUUGGE bed and a big bathroom all to myself as well. There are also pink flowers on my towels, and the towels are arranged really pretty. Get this, upon check in I got complementary water…and it was Fiji Water! I am drinking Fiji water, in Fiji! I love it!
Then in the fridge you get a huge complimentary platter of fresh fruits for you to eat. This is good, because I haven’t eaten today at all and I do not think there is a place for me to go eat dinner at tonight. I am literally twenty feet from the ocean (I can hear it in my room) however it is dark out, and so going near the beach kind of freaks me out lol. The stars are absolutely amazing though. I attempted to take a picture of them so you could see, however all that came out was a completely black picture!
I want to go look around and see what is around but I am a woos and am scared to walk alone since I am walking outside and it is kind of dark. There is a lighted path to the rooms, but still…I am just holding myself hostage in my room for the night. There isn’t anything to do in my room, I do not have a TV and do not have internet access.
I suppose that is good anyways since I have to be up at 6:45 in the morning to get breakfast and then check out of my hotel. I am considering waking up to see the sunrise over the water however I am not even sure if the sun rises, or sets over the water. Since I do not have internet access I can not look it up either. It is 11:00 PM Fiji time, but only 9:00 PM Gold Coast time and so I am not ready for bed but I am going to try to force myself to go to bed early.
I will write more soon! Tomorrow I meet up with Sam at the place where I will be staying for the rest of my time in Fiji. Night!
Love you!
P.S. I just realized I have no clue how I am going to brush my teeth tonight! :/
BULLA!!!!!! I am in Fiji! Bulla means “hello” here and they say it sooo much! Everyone you pass says hello to you, it has a very friendly atmosphere. Also, when you arrive at the airport there is a live band playing tropical music and they put a necklace made of sea shells around your neck and introduce you to the term “Bulla” I can’t say it is gorgeous yet because I have spent the last five hours in the airport waiting to get to my resort so I haven’t really seen anything. It took me so long to get to my resort because I did not book a transfer ahead of time because every other trip I have been on I have been able to book a transfer to where I am staying really easily. Well turns out I got a hotel that is 110 KM away from the airport. I read it as 10 on accident when I paid for my room a couple weeks ago. To get a cab here would have been $200 which I was not about to pay. After finding that out a very nice worker told me he found a coach for me that would be going to the place I am staying for only $35. He said I missed the 5:55 barely and would have to wait for the 6:55 coach. I say ok and then go sit down and finish a couple Sodoku puzzles. Then at 7:00 he comes back and tells me the coach is back and I can put my luggage in the trailer. I was thinking we were leaving at 6:55; nope that is when he got back from his other trip. So I had to wait until everyone got off of their flight and got onto the coach, we left at 7:40.
It then took an hour and a half to get to the first resort where he was dropping everyone off and another hour on top of that to get to my place. Ouewrgoiuhgoerihgirhgerhigdr. I booked a nice hotel tonight because I wanted to not be by myself in a creepy area and I was really excited about spending my time in a hotel for once. Since starting again tomorrow I start up the sharing a room thing. Getting here at 10:35 PM (and having to leave at 7:30 AM tomorrow...) really makes it pointless to have even stayed here.
However, it is a really nice place!!! I have a HUUUGGE bed and a big bathroom all to myself as well. There are also pink flowers on my towels, and the towels are arranged really pretty. Get this, upon check in I got complementary water…and it was Fiji Water! I am drinking Fiji water, in Fiji! I love it!
Then in the fridge you get a huge complimentary platter of fresh fruits for you to eat. This is good, because I haven’t eaten today at all and I do not think there is a place for me to go eat dinner at tonight. I am literally twenty feet from the ocean (I can hear it in my room) however it is dark out, and so going near the beach kind of freaks me out lol. The stars are absolutely amazing though. I attempted to take a picture of them so you could see, however all that came out was a completely black picture!
I want to go look around and see what is around but I am a woos and am scared to walk alone since I am walking outside and it is kind of dark. There is a lighted path to the rooms, but still…I am just holding myself hostage in my room for the night. There isn’t anything to do in my room, I do not have a TV and do not have internet access.
I suppose that is good anyways since I have to be up at 6:45 in the morning to get breakfast and then check out of my hotel. I am considering waking up to see the sunrise over the water however I am not even sure if the sun rises, or sets over the water. Since I do not have internet access I can not look it up either. It is 11:00 PM Fiji time, but only 9:00 PM Gold Coast time and so I am not ready for bed but I am going to try to force myself to go to bed early.
I will write more soon! Tomorrow I meet up with Sam at the place where I will be staying for the rest of my time in Fiji. Night!
Love you!
P.S. I just realized I have no clue how I am going to brush my teeth tonight! :/
Goodbye Aussie, I will miss you!
Goodbye Aussie, I will miss you!
**WARNING** When I typed this I typed in ni Microsoft word and single spaced it was four pages long. Prepare for a LONG entry!
Who knew exactly how fast the past 130 days would go! I thought when I signed up for study abroad that these months would drag on and it would feel like I had been here forever, however it feels like I just got here and I have no clue where this past month went, it FLEW by! I thought that by the time came to come home I would be more then ready and willing to leave…however I don’t think I was fully ready to leave.. I love the parrots that fly around here, I love the scenery and even more I love the people I have met along the way. There are of course things I will not miss such as the bipolar weather and humidity but every great thing has to have a few down sides right?
Well I suppose I should update you on how my final day in Aussie went yesterday! I actually missed the bus to school on Wednesday which was really really REALLY bad because I had a final. Beth and I decided we had a fool proof plan to avoid either one of us missing the bus because we had the same final to go to. We were going to get on skype as soon as we woke up and if one of us hadn’t heard from the other by 7:15 we were going to call them. Well….that fool proof plan doesn’t work to well if you both sleep past your alarm haha. We woke up and got dressed in literally a minute and waited for the Metro Bus to come back and then begged Michael to do another trip to campus so we didn’t miss our 8:30 final. Thankfully he did! I knew I was asking for trouble when I went to bed at three the night before a final!
After the final I went to Movie World with Carolyn and Beth for one last time and went on the rollercoaster’s like two times each ride! We were hoping the park would be empty since it was a Wednesday and man were we wrong. On the first rollercoaster we went to we had to wait about 30 to 45 minutes just to get on it. However, it was so worth it. I love rollercoaster’s!!!! The first time we went to Movie World I had to convince Beth to ride the Superman rollercoaster, this time around she was sitting in the front row! If you go home and people want to know what you have improved or learned about yourself, tell them how brave you have become haha.
We were at the park until close and then had to catch a bus back to our apartments and got back around seven. The original plan was to have me pack and then we would go out but instead we went out first, and saved packing for later. In true Chelsea form!
We went out to the State of the Origin (look Beth I said it right!) and just had two drinks while watching the game before we headed home. It was a good game, Queensland won, which is where I live… (or I suppose I should save lived now) and so that is who I am going to cheer for! We won and that means we won the series… which I believe is what they call it. This was the fourth year in a row that Queensland beat New South Wales! The games are actually really fun to watch but for different reasons then you would think. I don’t honestly care about who wins, but watching how violent they get and some of the moves they use is quite hilarious to me. I should have watched more games while I was in Aussie.
After the game I went home and started packing (yes I had one suitcase packed on Sunday but basically had my entire room left to pack in the other suitcase). I finished packing at around midnight and was debating if I should stay up until six so I didn’t miss my shuttle to the airport or if I should get some sleep and hope not to oversleep. Once I finished packing I went over to Beth’s and we hung out while she packed up her Aussie life. I didn’t want to leave to go to bed because I knew it was the last time we were going to hang out.
However, at around 3 in the morning I decided I would get three hours of sleep and would just hope I didn’t miss my shuttle. I had to sleep without my stuffed animals since they were packed and had given my pillows away to Carolyn who is staying there for a year. Not having the best sleeping conditions I thought I wouldn’t be able to sleep however I got knocked right out. I am assuming I was so tired because the night before I had gotten about three or four hours of sleep as well.
This morning Beth and Carolyn woke up at six to see me and so we could all say our goodbyes. It didn’t feel like I was really saying goodbye to them for real (real deal) it just felt like I was going to go away for the weekend and come back on Monday back to our normal routine. I really didn’t want to leave this morning but I had to go out front and wait for the shuttle so I didn’t miss it.
Once I got on the shuttle and we started driving away from Metro it hit me. I realized I wouldn’t see Metro, or Aldi, or ride the bus on Whiting and Brown St. anymore. It hit me that I am leaving and will most likely not come back for a long while. I really have come to feel like Australia is my home and I am going to miss it.
Once I let my brain start getting into thinking about how I don’t know when I will get back to Australia, and I don’t know when I will see any of the friends I made here my eyes started to water up. I felt like I would be fine if I listened to music and so I put my Ipod in and started listening to Celine Dion… which didn’t help lol. For whatever reason as soon as I started listening to Celine Dion I started to cry..not like sobbing but still crying. So I grabbed the biggest pair of sunnies I have out of my backpack and went back to staring out the window.
Somewhere along the line I calmed down and passed out on the bus. These people on the shuttle must have thought I was insane because I was crying at first, and then I went to bed and woke myself up from snoring hahaha! On the bright side when I woke up we were at the airport! It made the hour and a half ride go by super quick.
I got to the aiport thirty minutes before I was able to check in and so I just sat down and waiting for check in to open. I would have walked around but my big suitcase has a broken handle and so it is really hard to walk around with. That is one thing I will not miss about Australia is all the flight drama!
Once check in opened I was hoping and praying that I would not have to pay for overweight luggage. My first bag came to 24.1 Kilos and my second bag came to 17.9 Kilos. 1 Kilo = 2.2 Pounds if that makes it easier. (First bag was 53.02 pounds and second bag was 39.38 pounds). I asked her how close I was to having to pay and she said if my bag would have been 25 Kilos I would have had to pay for it. At that point I just kept thinking “ I AM SO LUCKY, I AM SO LUCKY, I AM SO LUCKY WWOOOOO HHHOOOOO!!!!!!!” I really did not want to pay for the extra luggage lol.
So after I checked in my bags I wandered around for a bit and then went down to customs and security. I completely forget I had things in the side of my backpack and ended up having to throw out a brand new tube of tooth paste, water (which I bought upstairs because it had a screw top so I figured it would be fine) and the last thing stung a bit when he took it away. The last item he took from me was my beloved tanning oil that smells SSSSOOOOO good and I was unbelievably excited to use it in Fiji so I would come home with a great tan. Whelp, I guess that is not happening anymore haha.
I told the guy I was unaware it was in there and tried to talk my way out of it but didn’t work. I guess I can’t talked my way out of everything, who would have thought haha. I am even more bummed because now it is just going to go to waste. Kat and Carolyn loved the smell of that stuff and I would have easily given it to them if I would have known. I hope the security guard at least realizes how amazing that stuff is and snatches it, goes home, strips naked and tans in his back yard with it. That way it is at least getting used and not getting tossed in to a rubbish bin! I just realized something that made me laugh a bit. I am more concerned I lost something that would get me tan, then losing something that cleans my teeth every morning…hahahhaha! I have my priorities right I see! Another bummer is Guy asked me if I had any tooth paste I could give him because he was out and I said no because I was taking it with me, sorry Guy! (BTW before I make Guy sound like a total bum he asked it because I gave him, Kat and Carolyn all the things I would not be bringing home with me...all my little hygienic stuff, school supplies, bathroom stuff, etc.)
Right now I am sitting on the plane flying over the ocean to Fiji and writing all of this. It is the first time I have really used my laptop on a airplane and it makes me feel so business like, even though I am just writing a blog. I feel like I am writing some long business proposal or something. If anyone asks I will tell them that is what I am doing just to make me look sophisticated haha. I would say just kidding to that last sentence…but I really don’t think I was haha!
We are flying on Air Pacific which is operated by Qauntas. I must say I would rather be on Qaunta’s then this flight. I like Quanta’s because each person gets a personalized television screen to entertain themselves and there is just a little bit more room around you. I am also flying Air Pacific on the way back and am hoping since it is a twelve hour flight that they would give us the upgraded version instead of a run down one. We will see!
Well… I guess the time has come to write my last blog entry about Australia. I can’t believe I won’t be travelling anymore and I am no longer going to be surrounded by someone who I truly consider one of my best friends now. I will of course keep in contact because I am pretty good at maintaining friend ships, I just can’t wait until we can go visit each other…hopefully it comes sooner rather then later.
I have definitely learned a lot about myself from this experience and could not express how happy I am that I decided to spend a semester abroad. I will miss the friends I have made since being here, but at the same time I am extremely excited to see my family and friends back home!
In the next couple days I will try to update you all on my Fiji experience, and then I will be home! I can’t believe It is Thursday and Monday I will be home… Still feels like I am returning back to Gold Coast after this weekend.
Alright I love you, miss you & will SEE you all soon!
Love,
Chels
**WARNING** When I typed this I typed in ni Microsoft word and single spaced it was four pages long. Prepare for a LONG entry!
Who knew exactly how fast the past 130 days would go! I thought when I signed up for study abroad that these months would drag on and it would feel like I had been here forever, however it feels like I just got here and I have no clue where this past month went, it FLEW by! I thought that by the time came to come home I would be more then ready and willing to leave…however I don’t think I was fully ready to leave.. I love the parrots that fly around here, I love the scenery and even more I love the people I have met along the way. There are of course things I will not miss such as the bipolar weather and humidity but every great thing has to have a few down sides right?
Well I suppose I should update you on how my final day in Aussie went yesterday! I actually missed the bus to school on Wednesday which was really really REALLY bad because I had a final. Beth and I decided we had a fool proof plan to avoid either one of us missing the bus because we had the same final to go to. We were going to get on skype as soon as we woke up and if one of us hadn’t heard from the other by 7:15 we were going to call them. Well….that fool proof plan doesn’t work to well if you both sleep past your alarm haha. We woke up and got dressed in literally a minute and waited for the Metro Bus to come back and then begged Michael to do another trip to campus so we didn’t miss our 8:30 final. Thankfully he did! I knew I was asking for trouble when I went to bed at three the night before a final!
After the final I went to Movie World with Carolyn and Beth for one last time and went on the rollercoaster’s like two times each ride! We were hoping the park would be empty since it was a Wednesday and man were we wrong. On the first rollercoaster we went to we had to wait about 30 to 45 minutes just to get on it. However, it was so worth it. I love rollercoaster’s!!!! The first time we went to Movie World I had to convince Beth to ride the Superman rollercoaster, this time around she was sitting in the front row! If you go home and people want to know what you have improved or learned about yourself, tell them how brave you have become haha.
We were at the park until close and then had to catch a bus back to our apartments and got back around seven. The original plan was to have me pack and then we would go out but instead we went out first, and saved packing for later. In true Chelsea form!
We went out to the State of the Origin (look Beth I said it right!) and just had two drinks while watching the game before we headed home. It was a good game, Queensland won, which is where I live… (or I suppose I should save lived now) and so that is who I am going to cheer for! We won and that means we won the series… which I believe is what they call it. This was the fourth year in a row that Queensland beat New South Wales! The games are actually really fun to watch but for different reasons then you would think. I don’t honestly care about who wins, but watching how violent they get and some of the moves they use is quite hilarious to me. I should have watched more games while I was in Aussie.
After the game I went home and started packing (yes I had one suitcase packed on Sunday but basically had my entire room left to pack in the other suitcase). I finished packing at around midnight and was debating if I should stay up until six so I didn’t miss my shuttle to the airport or if I should get some sleep and hope not to oversleep. Once I finished packing I went over to Beth’s and we hung out while she packed up her Aussie life. I didn’t want to leave to go to bed because I knew it was the last time we were going to hang out.
However, at around 3 in the morning I decided I would get three hours of sleep and would just hope I didn’t miss my shuttle. I had to sleep without my stuffed animals since they were packed and had given my pillows away to Carolyn who is staying there for a year. Not having the best sleeping conditions I thought I wouldn’t be able to sleep however I got knocked right out. I am assuming I was so tired because the night before I had gotten about three or four hours of sleep as well.
This morning Beth and Carolyn woke up at six to see me and so we could all say our goodbyes. It didn’t feel like I was really saying goodbye to them for real (real deal) it just felt like I was going to go away for the weekend and come back on Monday back to our normal routine. I really didn’t want to leave this morning but I had to go out front and wait for the shuttle so I didn’t miss it.
Once I got on the shuttle and we started driving away from Metro it hit me. I realized I wouldn’t see Metro, or Aldi, or ride the bus on Whiting and Brown St. anymore. It hit me that I am leaving and will most likely not come back for a long while. I really have come to feel like Australia is my home and I am going to miss it.
Once I let my brain start getting into thinking about how I don’t know when I will get back to Australia, and I don’t know when I will see any of the friends I made here my eyes started to water up. I felt like I would be fine if I listened to music and so I put my Ipod in and started listening to Celine Dion… which didn’t help lol. For whatever reason as soon as I started listening to Celine Dion I started to cry..not like sobbing but still crying. So I grabbed the biggest pair of sunnies I have out of my backpack and went back to staring out the window.
Somewhere along the line I calmed down and passed out on the bus. These people on the shuttle must have thought I was insane because I was crying at first, and then I went to bed and woke myself up from snoring hahaha! On the bright side when I woke up we were at the airport! It made the hour and a half ride go by super quick.
I got to the aiport thirty minutes before I was able to check in and so I just sat down and waiting for check in to open. I would have walked around but my big suitcase has a broken handle and so it is really hard to walk around with. That is one thing I will not miss about Australia is all the flight drama!
Once check in opened I was hoping and praying that I would not have to pay for overweight luggage. My first bag came to 24.1 Kilos and my second bag came to 17.9 Kilos. 1 Kilo = 2.2 Pounds if that makes it easier. (First bag was 53.02 pounds and second bag was 39.38 pounds). I asked her how close I was to having to pay and she said if my bag would have been 25 Kilos I would have had to pay for it. At that point I just kept thinking “ I AM SO LUCKY, I AM SO LUCKY, I AM SO LUCKY WWOOOOO HHHOOOOO!!!!!!!” I really did not want to pay for the extra luggage lol.
So after I checked in my bags I wandered around for a bit and then went down to customs and security. I completely forget I had things in the side of my backpack and ended up having to throw out a brand new tube of tooth paste, water (which I bought upstairs because it had a screw top so I figured it would be fine) and the last thing stung a bit when he took it away. The last item he took from me was my beloved tanning oil that smells SSSSOOOOO good and I was unbelievably excited to use it in Fiji so I would come home with a great tan. Whelp, I guess that is not happening anymore haha.
I told the guy I was unaware it was in there and tried to talk my way out of it but didn’t work. I guess I can’t talked my way out of everything, who would have thought haha. I am even more bummed because now it is just going to go to waste. Kat and Carolyn loved the smell of that stuff and I would have easily given it to them if I would have known. I hope the security guard at least realizes how amazing that stuff is and snatches it, goes home, strips naked and tans in his back yard with it. That way it is at least getting used and not getting tossed in to a rubbish bin! I just realized something that made me laugh a bit. I am more concerned I lost something that would get me tan, then losing something that cleans my teeth every morning…hahahhaha! I have my priorities right I see! Another bummer is Guy asked me if I had any tooth paste I could give him because he was out and I said no because I was taking it with me, sorry Guy! (BTW before I make Guy sound like a total bum he asked it because I gave him, Kat and Carolyn all the things I would not be bringing home with me...all my little hygienic stuff, school supplies, bathroom stuff, etc.)
Right now I am sitting on the plane flying over the ocean to Fiji and writing all of this. It is the first time I have really used my laptop on a airplane and it makes me feel so business like, even though I am just writing a blog. I feel like I am writing some long business proposal or something. If anyone asks I will tell them that is what I am doing just to make me look sophisticated haha. I would say just kidding to that last sentence…but I really don’t think I was haha!
We are flying on Air Pacific which is operated by Qauntas. I must say I would rather be on Qaunta’s then this flight. I like Quanta’s because each person gets a personalized television screen to entertain themselves and there is just a little bit more room around you. I am also flying Air Pacific on the way back and am hoping since it is a twelve hour flight that they would give us the upgraded version instead of a run down one. We will see!
Well… I guess the time has come to write my last blog entry about Australia. I can’t believe I won’t be travelling anymore and I am no longer going to be surrounded by someone who I truly consider one of my best friends now. I will of course keep in contact because I am pretty good at maintaining friend ships, I just can’t wait until we can go visit each other…hopefully it comes sooner rather then later.
I have definitely learned a lot about myself from this experience and could not express how happy I am that I decided to spend a semester abroad. I will miss the friends I have made since being here, but at the same time I am extremely excited to see my family and friends back home!
In the next couple days I will try to update you all on my Fiji experience, and then I will be home! I can’t believe It is Thursday and Monday I will be home… Still feels like I am returning back to Gold Coast after this weekend.
Alright I love you, miss you & will SEE you all soon!
Love,
Chels
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Chelsea on the web...
Ok so I know I sometimes get confused in all the different things going on online so to make it easier for everyone here are a bunch of different ways you can contact me, look at pics of me, etc!
The obvious one is my blog (Please follow me so I know who is reading it!)
http://chelsea-is-abroad.blogspot.com/
Pictures to go along with the blog:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ChelseaTaylor77
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/ChelseaTaylor77
Skype Name:
Chelseataylor77
Myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/azallstar7
Alright that should keep you up to date at what I am up to!!!
Love you all!
The obvious one is my blog (Please follow me so I know who is reading it!)
http://chelsea-is-abroad.blogspot.com/
Pictures to go along with the blog:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ChelseaTaylor77
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/ChelseaTaylor77
Skype Name:
Chelseataylor77
Myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/azallstar7
Alright that should keep you up to date at what I am up to!!!
Love you all!
Happy Fathers Day!
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Dad!
I love you more then words could say and am very grateful to have you be half the reason I am here today! :) You make me laugh more then anyone else I know, and you have more love to hand out than any other dad out there.
I love you and miss you terribly!
Hope today is a great day for you!
Love,
Bean
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