Wilko's 21st Birthday

Saturday the plan was to be up bright and early, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed to get ready for the big day ahead of us. Our Grand Plan was to get up at 8:00 and go for a run…but that didn’t happen…instead we laid in bed for a while, talking of course, then finally got up around 9:00ish. The first thing on the agenda was to bake Wilko’s chocolate cake with heaps of sprinkles. We spread some batter in the pan, threw in a layer of sprinkles, finished with a layer of batter on top, and doused the top of the cake with the rest of the sprinkles. Kelly’s house smelled pretty good when we were done with it…so good it ended up waking up two of her roommates, Ewen & Tony, which is why we had to hide the evidence at my apartment so no one would eat it. While we waited for it to cool we showered and started getting ready. Then something weird happened….I was the first one ready…a very rare circumstance, so I took advantage of it and started the pasta. I made a cold pasta salad with cut up green beans, carrots, peas, green peppers, and tomatoes with a balsamic vinaigrette dressing. Pretty tasty if I must say so myself. We topped the cake off with more sprinkles and “Happy 21^st Birthday Jesse & Wilko!” It looked amazing!

We were a little late, but finally managed to grab Todd, Tony, Wellzy, and another boy to begin the trek down. An hour passed before everyone was ready and at the house, so we headed down to play Lawn Bowls. The clubhouse & fields were only a few blocks away. The game is very similar to Bocce Ball, except you play on a line and go back and forth rather than all over a field. You roll the balls to the Jack, which is a white target ball. The balls that you roll to the target are weighted more on one side than the other, so when you roll the balls they begin to curve outwards before finally turning in towards the target…kinda dodgy.

It was a pretty sweet deal to play…only $4 a person and you can play as long as you want. Jackson and Lisa played against Wellzy and I…big mistake on their part because we ended up winning 15-7. Not a big deal or anything…but pretty sure I had the Best Bowl of the day. One of my balls rolled to the Jack and stopped right beside it…didn’t move the target at all…just came to a stop beside it…it was awesome!

After a few hours we decided to call it quits and headed back to their house for a barbie. Lisa & Davis grilled up some sausages to go along with our salad and chips. We had the Birthday cake later so everyone could sing and wish the boys a Happy Birthday. One problem a little later was with the lady who lived next door. Apparently whenever they have people over, she calls the cops to complain about the noise…so about an hour after we had been there, sure enough, two cops showed up to talk to the boys and asked us to keep it down.

The best part of the night was a few hours later…most everyone from campus seemed to be there as well as a ton of people from off-campus...the house was packed. It was time for the Birthday speeches! Wilko & Jesse hopped up on the countertops with some of their closer friends who gave a little speech about a crazy time they have had with each one. Then the Birthday Boys each said a little something, which was followed by a drink to be skulled (chugged). This song goes along with it:

“Here’s to Wilko, he’s true blue. He’s a piss pot through & through…he’s a bastard so they say…He tried to go to heaven, but he went the other way…he went down, down, down, down….allll the way down!”

Then this part follows after the drink is gone:

“He’s a bit flat-chested, but he’s alright!”

[There is more to the second part…I just have no idea how it goes…yet.]

The lady next door didn’t have to worry about us for too long because we decided to head downtown to The Standard for the rest of the night. I had a pretty fun time dancing with my friends…Lisa, Kelly, Arlo, Danny, Jay, and my roommate Ashley. Before heading home, I was a nice girl and bought some pizza for Todd & Mark before we jumped on the bus. And that was my night…Cheers!

Preparations

Friday was another pretty lazy day…not much to do for school. But there was a lot to be done. We were all pretty tired from the night before, but Kelly, Jess, Lisa & I had to get our shopping done for our Outdoor Education trip the following week. We needed to shop for all the food we were going to be bringing with us camping at Meebunn-bia. Jess was gone to Byron for the weekend with her sister, so that left the three of us in search of a friend…with a car.

First we tried finding someone who would let us borrow their car for the day, but everyone was already gone for the weekend or in class for the day. We did not want to take the bus or a taxi because we had to shop for groceries, camping gear and a few random things. We ended up paying Lloyd to be our friend for the day…he only cost $5! He took Mark along with him for support and drove us to the veterinary clinic so we could purchase Dead Dog Bags. That’s right…the bags you put dead dogs in. They are huge plastic bags that our instructor recommended for lining the inside of our backpacks to waterproof our clothes and sleeping bag. Next we headed to K-Mart to pick up a sleeping mat, some beanies (it can get pretty cold at night), hand sanitizer, mouthwash, and other random camping necessities. Finally we went to Woolworths to pick out our food for the trip…what a nightmare. It took ages!! We ended up buying a bunch of apples & oranges, PB & J, a few packs of flatbread, shredded cheese, pizza sauce, peas, green beans, cous cous (a type of rice), and Tim Tams (definitely a necessity). It probably took us an hour to pick everything out and get out of the store. Lloyd was tired of being our friend for the day so we headed home. The only stop we didn’t make was to a thrift store. We were in search for a red t-shirt. Jess, Kelly, Lisa, & I were Team Rambo, which meant we needed to cut up a red shirt for some sweet sweatbands. Hopefully we would be able to find one on-campus.

Our plan for the night was to have a sleepover at Lisa’s house. We were planning on getting up early Saturday morning to bake a cake for Wilko, who is one of the 5 boys who live in a house just down from campus. Since he will be turning 21 on Sunday the 19th, the boys were planning on having a birthday party for him at the house. Besides the cake, we also wanted to go for a run, make a pasta salad (cause we forgot to BYOM…Bring Your Own Meat) for the Barbie, and had to be ready for noon for Lawn Bowls. We had a big day ahead of us so we ended up going to bed pretty early…around 9:00…on a Friday night…lame. But by the time we fell asleep it was probably around 10:00 cause This Girl likes to talk before going to bed. Too bad Lisa & Kelly don’t like to listen to all my stories...oh well!

One Lazy Day

Monday morning my feet hit the floor and they were immediately shooting with pain. They were still sore from all that booty-shakin. Haha…pretty sure it was from all those blokes steppin on my tootsies! At least I was comforted by a good, long sleep…somehow I ended up sleeping in until 11:30…weird. I loved it! A day of sleeping in with no classes…can’t get any better than that! I am trying to take advantage of these days while I have the chance! I was a pile of laziness for a while before I decided to get a few things done. It was a beautiful day…couldn’t let it all be a waste! My roommate Ashley even said there were people lying out down by the pool, “probably all the Americans.” Funny, but to us Americans the weather is beautiful and feels like summer, at least the summer we are used to in Wisconsin and Minnesota!

After I had a lil breakfast for lunch, I finally got ready for a run. I surprised myself and ended up running for quite a bit…I followed the top of the hill for a bit before following it down behind the hospital and downtown Lismore, around the shopping center, and back up the ginormous hill…it’s a killer. When I got back to Orion a bunch of my friends were still out by the pool. Instead of having a shower, I decided to get my suit on and jump in. They warned me it was cold, but after my run it felt good! I came back down from my apartment and jumped in…then my body went through shock…twice. It was freezing cold!! Probably about 45-50* F…but after swimming around for a while my body was numb and I didn’t mind it too much. A few other brave souls jumped in and hopped right back out. It was about 2:00 pm and really sunny & warm when I went in, but the sun was already beginning to go down at 3:30 so we all got out. Some people had an ultimate Frisbee game and everyone else went home. I ran as quickly as I could with frozen legs and jumped in a hot shower. It took a while to thaw out and I was soo cold all night! I was colder once I got out of the pool than I was when I was in the water…weird.

For supper, the girls were cooking. Kelly, Lisa, and I decided to have breakfast for supper. We made cinnamon French toast, extra-crispy bacon, and scrambled eggs with tomatoes, mushrooms, and broccoli. We also served buttered toast with Vegemite and orange juice. It was a success. However, according to the boys the bacon was burnt and very similar to Bacon Bits…but I thought it was good…I like it extra-crispy…they still ate it, so whatever. [The one part of the meal I was responsible for! Haha] After dinner the boys were responsible for dishes, so us girlies relaxed on the couch. It is pretty tiring cooking a big meal.

We watched a few episodes of Dexter. A crazy series about a guy who is a serial killer/police officer. A very strange/interesting show. We were going to go for a third episode, but since everyone was falling asleep we vetoed the idea and decided to hit the hay.

Weekend at the Gold Coast

Saturday morning we were up and at it again. We checked out of Birdee Num Num’s and headed for the Gold Coast. Our plan for the day was to lay out at Broadbeach and shop around Surfer’s Paradise. It is kinda confusing, but the whole area is called the Gold Coast. The beach itself is Broadbeach and an area on the beach is called Surfer’s Paradise. The waves were awesome—huge & loud! Though it was really sunny, the air was quite chilly…makes sense since it is winter here. Some people go a lil overboard and wear gloves, hats, scarves, jackets, and I even saw someone wearing ear muffs! Weird…especially because the temperatures have been around 60* F. Feels like summer to This Girl!

For lunch we stopped at a place selling Kebabs. Weird cause you pronounce it just how it looks, Ke-Babs….not Ka-Bobs how we would normally say it. Anyways…they were amazing! Very similar to a Gyro, with beef/lamb/chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and sauce. After a bit we decided to look for a place to stay. We ended up finding an apartment building that was renting out rooms for a single night or even weekly, depending on the availability. We scored an apartment with one double bed and two couches for $120. Since 7 people were planning on staying there it was only about $18 for each of us…a pretty sweet deal! In the future we are going to definitely keep this place in mind, especially since it comes with a kitchen, full bathroom, two patios, and a small living room. It was only a block from the beach!

While we were walking around trying to find places, we talked to some people from Plan B Party Tours. They were selling passes for a pub crawl that night. The deal was $20 for free entry to 5-6 clubs with a free drink at each one, finger food at the first place with pizza to follow later on, and numerous games throughout the night. We were sold on the deal…the only catch was that it started at 5:00 pm. So we ran around Surfer’s for a bit trying to find something to wear, because girls never have anything to wear, duh?!? One of the pubs we went to was called Minus 5, because it was literally minus 5 degrees. Since it was an ice bar we had to put on boots, a parka, and gloves. Everything was made of ice, though I am not sure I would go there to hang out for a night…it was freezing! We didn’t spend much time there…only long enough to try a free drink and take a few fun pictures.

It ended up being a pretty fun night…a few of the games were pretty ridiculous…but the music was fun and the people we met were really cool. We did not get home until 4:30 am that morning…most of the time was spent dancing the night away and our poor little tootsies paid for it the next morning! Kelly had a few monster blisters and mine were covered in bruises…somehow my feet always manage to get stepped on…once or twice! I even had a bruise on the bottom of my foot!

Sunday morning was spent on the beach. The air was warmer, so a bunch of people were swimming or laying out. Lisa & I decided to go shopping for a bit—Lismore doesn’t have much to offer for shopping unless you are getting groceries. Finally, I found a pair of good jeans…I didn’t bring many with cause I thought it would be a bit warmer…boy did I think wrong. Oh well…At least I had a good reason for shopping. We stopped for some meat pies for breakfast. Lisa had a chicken/vegetable pie and mine was a cheese/bacon quiche pie…delicious!
We stopped back at the beach to visit with everyone for a bit, but after 2 parking tickets on Brandon’s car we decided to head home. One highlight of the trip was Shawn from Philly…he decided to get his eyebrow pierced. Though he was a lil Sally at first, he went through with it. The only thing he said: “My mom is going to kill me!” He has about a month to practice dealing with her; his whole family is coming to visit in August. Yikes!

The trip home was delayed a few times as well…for some reason boys are not very good at asking for directions or listening to girls for that matter. We arrived safely back in Lismore around 7:00 pm Sunday night. We were all soo exhausted! Though it was really nice to come home, have a shower, and supper ready! Ewen & Mark ended up cooking a pototo bake with onions and bacon, sausages, and a new invention: a dish with sausages at the bottom with layers of cheese, mashed potatoes and gravy. It was pretty good…a good way to end the day…though I was the one who ended up with dishes!

Brisbane, Here We Come! Whoo!! Bang.

My weekend started out with an adventure. Brandon, Katrina, Lisa, Kelly, Jess, and I were planning to drive to Brisbane Friday afternoon….but….that drive was a tad bit delayed. We had planned to leave Orion at 4pm, but earlier that afternoon Brandon (whose car we were taking) would not start. He had even tried rolling it down the hill to try to start it…no luck. He ended up jumping it with Tom’s car and finally got it started. However, once it was started he drove it up into a parking spot and….wait for it…he turned the car off…after 10 minutes! Apparently girls don’t know what they are talking about when it comes to cars & batteries & letting the car run for a while to charge the battery. Weird! Apparently his battery needed to be replaced, but once we had the car started the second time he decided to wait on the battery & just try to make it to Brisbane. So, finally all six of us are packed in the car and on our way. Brisbane, Here We Come! Whoo!! We got about 10 minutes away from Orion, downtown Lismore, about to head into a roundabout when Brandon shifts to first gear and…the car stops. Completely Stops!! And Wouldn’t Start! Cars began lining up behind us so Katrina, Kelly & I all hop out and push us through to a side road…Not a big deal or anything. Our ½ hour delay was spent chatting in the car while Brandon went off in search of a battery. After a bit Lisa & Jess went off on a search for some Tim-Tams. Brandon came back with a battery & everything seemed to be fixed and working. Then the lights went off. Patience was definitely tried when the car would not start back up. So he ran across the street to an auto body shop to find some help. He ended up sweeping out the shop while a nice man quickly tightened the wires…a quick fix. We finally were on the road again and heading for Bris-Vegas. Brisbane, Here We Come! Whoo!!

We had a few wrong turns along the way, but we finally reached Brisbane. We dropped Jess off with her uncle (she was picking up a car from her cousin) and started looking for The Valley, an area in Brisbane where most of the nightclubs and pubs were located. This also took quite a while…we drove around the city for about an hour trying to find a hostel. It was 11:00 pm before we found a place to stay at Birdee Num Num’s. It is a hostel in The Valley that seemed to be a pretty decent (and cheap) place to stay for a night…beds were only about $20. But when we got to the room it was full of renovation equipment…there were ladders, paint cans, hammers, nails, etcetera everywhere! We would have woken up high from the paint fumes or dead…it was pretty gross. The front desk reassured us the next room would be better (and completely finished). They also assured us that they would block off the other 3 beds so we would not have to bunk with anyone. Hostels are pretty much dorm rooms. There are either 4, 6, or 8 beds in each room. Each one has a bathroom and usually a shower. The only catch is that if you & your group don’t fill up a room or if there are not rooms available to fit everyone, then you end up sharing the rooms with other backpackers. Though it may not seem like it, they are safe to stay at…nothing like what the movies project. If anything, you end up meeting a lot of people from around the world.

Quickly, we got ready to go out and meet up with everyone else. We went to a club called The Family. It is supposed to be one of the best nightclubs in Australia…it better be if entry was $20!! We found the Swedes & Norway (Alex, Sandra, & Cathy) the other 2 Norway girls (Christiana & Marta) and the Canadians (Ford, Alex, & Danny). Later, at a pit stop at the American Embassy (McDonald’s) we talked to a guy named Sam who paid for our food. He did a really good impression of Alan from The Hangover. Awesome movie…really hilarious…you should all see it! All in all Brizzy was a pretty good time.

Aussie Sunday Lunch

Today most of us International Students were off to a real Australian home. The pastor on campus found volunteers through the community churches, who were willing to host a student for lunch. We went in pairs to their houses to see what a typical home looks like, though nothing is really typical and also to enjoy a homecooked Aussie meal.

I was partnered up with Shawn, who goes to the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania. We were the first to be picked up; our host was Ailsa Auld, an older woman who lived close to campus. We started off getting to know her by sitting on her back porch over juice and a bowl of Doritos. First she cooked pumpkin soup for us. Aussies eat a lot of pumpkin foods. The soup was good…we added a milk cream to the soup to thicken it up and had rolls to go along with the soup. Then the next course was meat pies, mashed potatoes, and carrots & corn. The meat pies are also called 4 and 20 pies; it comes from the song “4 and 20 blackbirds baked in a pie…” They are similar to a pot pie, the crust is a croissant with the beef or chicken in the inside with a few vegetables. It was pretty funny cause she served Shawn a plate with heaps of food…she had figured all boys need a lot of food, especially since she had raised 3 boys herself. Shawn tried to eat most of it…he didn’t want to be rude…but it was just so much food! Later for dessert, Ailsa served an apple pastry with vanilla ice cream. She did not have any herself cause she was trying to watch her diet with Weight Watchers.

Before dropping us back at school, she took us for a drive to Goonellabah, a suburb of Lismore. The community had just built a sports center with heated pools, a fitness center, and a very large gymnasium. Shawn was really interested because he is a backstroke swimmer and needs to keep in shape…his season will begin in October when we return home. I was glad I checked the place out as well…it would be a lot of fun to get a bunch of us together to go swimming for the day or play a few games of basketball.

The Lunch was supposed to last a few hours, not too long cause they did not want any of us to feel uncomfortable or feel as if we had to ask to leave. Shawn & I got home around 3:30 pm. Perfect timing if you ask me, but Lisa & Kelly did not come home until sometime around 5:00. The family that they were with decided to sing karaoke…and Lisa & Kelly were “encouraged” to sing songs as well. Apparently the Philippian mother did not want to stop karaoke. I had called Kelly earlier to see if they were back yet & she ended up sneaking off to the bathroom to call me back. It was pretty funny. Those 2 little shits, Kelly & Lisa, let me know when they were back by sneaking into my room, while I was in the middle of a lovely nap, and scaring the piss out of me! My heart never hurt so bad!

We still wanted to grill out for the Fourth, American-style, so we tracked down Mark to help us grill on the Rec Deck. We probably should have found someone else to use the grill because the week before he almost blew up Orion College! Apparently the grill was not working, so he went back to his apartment. When he came back to the Deck there was fire everywhere! There was fire on the gas drum as well! But…we ended up getting the cheeseburgers cooked alright. We also had corn on the cob, carrots, and mushrooms. Kelly had been looking forward to the cheeseburgers for the past week and finally got one! We ended the night by finishing Terminator 2. Now we are going to start on the Rambo movies.

Tomorrow will probably be a boring day for me…no class or trips, so I think I may sleep in, go for a run, and get a few groceries later with Lisa & Kelly. Tuesday will be a full day of class. This coming weekend a bunch of us are thinking about going to the Gold Coast to check out the beach and the nightlife. I’ll keep you posted! Ciao.

Mount Warning

Friday was a bum day for me. No classes or homework, so pretty much nothing going on. Later that night we went over to Mark’s at 21C to watch Terminator 2. There is an ongoing argument over who is better…Arnie or Sylvester. Lisa is most definitely in love with Rambo, especially cause he ripped out someone’s trachea. Movie Night was a good choice cause the next day we had to be up bright & early to go on a Rainforest Walk. However, the walk was cancelled due to the flood damage earlier in May, so instead we were going to go to Mount Warning. We should have known what we were getting into just by the name of the “walk.” Mount Warning is a beast! It once was a volcano that had lava flows all the way to Lismore (it took about 1 hour 45 min to drive there). We started out hiking thinking that it wouldn’t be that bad…we were all in pretty decent shape…how bad could it be right? Wrong! A sign told us it would take about 4-5 hours to reach the summit and return to the bottom. Kelly, Lisa, & I made it to the top in about 45 minutes, we were booking it. Just before you reach the summit, you have a vertical wall of rock you have to climb while holding onto a small chain rope to help you up. This was the most rigorous part of the climb. But it was definitely worth it! From the summit you could see the coast, starting with the city of Brisbane, Gold Coast, and down to Byron Bay. It was amazing how far you could see…you could see the tops of other mountains in the area. I would love to camp at the summit and watch the sunrise the next morning…I heard it is breathtaking!

We were going to grill out on the Rec Dec for the Fourth of July, but the hiking took a bit longer than we thought. We also didn’t leave Lismore until 9:15 when we were supposed to leave at 8:00 so that pushed us back a little. After everyone returned from the summit, we had a barbie. We grilled chicken, beef, kangaroo, mushrooms, & cheese. Everything was really good. The kangaroo tastes like a mix of steak and lamb. It was a little tough, (probably cause roos are all muscle) but overall pretty good. It is just disturbing to think that about what you are actually eating…it seems as if roos are endangered and you are not supposed to eat them…but in reality it is pretty normal to grill. Weird.

Once we got back to Orion College everyone took hot showers to warm up (it was freezing out! You could see your breath!). Though everyone was pretty tired from the walk we still had to celebrate the Fourth of July! We ended up hanging out and playing card games. We even lit off some sparklers…inside the house…to celebrate. Later we went downtown to The Standard and Mary Gilhooleys. It was loads of fun!