My Package From Home! :D

I have been waiting for this package arrived since my mom told me she was sending one. Last Thursday night, I finally got it! Opened it up, first thing i see:

Underneath:

My favorite chips, candy, and some other goodies. Some good lancome and clinique make-up from my lovely mother, NORMAL deodorant, and yes-all complete with....EASTER GRASS :)

I cannot believe how incredibly fast time is going. Like I said in one of my last blogs, in one week I start exams already! So this package came at a perfect time! Great study munchies!  I know especially once my exams are in full swing, time is going to just disappear and it will already by time to start getting my room packed up while I finish exams and such in my last week. As of right now, I fly out of Townsville in 19 days and I will be back on Wisconsin grounds in 23 days. THAT IS INSANE. I cannot wait to see everyone at home, I miss everyone SO much. But yet, it is going to be hard to leave this beautiful place and the great people I have met on this adventure.

Europe is next on my list. Verena and I are planning it already haha  :)

One Last Weekend Escape

My friend Verena and I have been talking about trying to go on a short trip together for quite some time, but have both been busy with uni work and assignments lately. As of Friday, we were all done with any assignments as well as uni in general, so we thought we would take a road trip up to Airlie Beach for a nice little getaway before our week of lovely studying began. We headed up there Saturday afternoon and just did it as an overnight trip, since we both don't have heaps of money to spend! We kept it cheap splitting gas and hostel costs. And we got lucky and ended up getting a free pizza, twice. haha. Maybe not the healthiest choice, but hey who argues with free??

We explored the shops a bit when we got in Saturday then went out on the town for a while that night. Then relaxed at the lagoon and beaches the next day. Even with sunscreen I managed to get quite the bikini top tan line going, and it wasn't even the nicest day out.. Queensland...

So it wasn't a big crazy trip to Sydney like I had wanted to do, but it was great to leave Townsville for the weekend and relax by the beach before this week began with my mate! 

The beautiful morning sky

Common drink of Australia, pretty good but a lot of carbonation in them ha

GIANT MANGO!!!

My friend Verena and I
(she's from Germany)

Massive Backpack! 

FIRE

Breathtaking. 

DONE WITH CLASSES!!!

As of the 26th, I am now done with my third year of classes! Woot woot! The following day, there was a little international celebration put on. It was sort of like a graduation celebration put on for those of us leaving James Cook University at the end of this semester. It wasn't anything big, they called our names and we walked down, got our piece of paper that you see below, and a little goodie bag. It was a really nice thing for them to do though! I did not expect to have a ceremony or anything put on for us. I do wish they had made our certificate's look a tad nicer, maybe just a border even? Oh well :)

So now this whole week we have off for study. They call it "SWOTVAC," which stands for 'study with out teachers vacation', I am pretty sure at least ha. One week from today I start my final exams. I am not looking forward to them, especially since they are all such different formats. But I have already been studying a ton for my first one so far! Wish me luck :)

Reckon these are Croc Invested Waters!

The lovely Ross River. A nice relaxing place to go if your keen for a swim, the experience of jumping off a high rope swing, want to go for a walk around the surrounding river trails, orrr climb the massive trees spread out across the river banks. Some of my friends live over near the river, so as a study break we decided to go take a walk by the river. And ended up climbing through the trees, which was a lot of fun actually! I have came here walking, and swimming, and been off the rope swing but not into the trees much before. I am sure we looked pretty dorky to passerby's but that's okay! I've never been one to mind :) 

I am also convinced there are crocs in there. And I am sure it did not help that the night before I had watched my first AUSTRALIAN movie, which was called "Black Water." And yes, it was a croc movie. It was terrible, but the actual croc parts were pretty sweet, they were even real looking! So this thought may have popped in my head a few times while climbing upon the shallow trees. Apparently, they are all hibernating right now though and only come up once a day for air, so I should be okay!

Into The Last Two Weeks of Classes!

I am finally into the final two weeks of classes and I am so excited to be able to say that! Next Thursday will be my last class, then we have one full week off to study, then I have 2 weeks of finals. I am not looking forward to those so much but am prepared to live at the library.. Some of my finals sound insane, for example my social psychology final is ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTY multiple choice questions. 140!

Time is going so fast and I know that my last five weeks here in Australia are going to fly by. I was really hoping I would be able to go on one more trip before I went home, but don’t think it’s going to happen. Guess I will have to come back again sometime in the future to travel around some more J

Right now I am trying to figure out everything for next year like where I am going to live and I need to figure out where I will be working. But I have some options and know I will figure it out!

Sorry I don’t have too many exciting updates or pictures for you, have been doing a lot of assignments and papers unfortunately. But, luckily today I turned in my last one, which I put sooooo many hours into! Now just have to focus on finals.

Last week I went to Muay Thai workout class at the gym on campus with one of my friends. It was kind of like a kickboxing type class with a lot of intervals of: jogging, push ups, low squats, sit ups, and so on. My abs were sore for 3 days haha. But today I feel better and got up at 6:20am to go hike castle hill :) I think I am going to go to the muay thai class again tomorrow, bring it onnn! 

Pallarenda Beach Trip!

The International Student Center organized a beach day trip for international students, if they wanted to go of course. It was free which was awesome and was only like half an hour away. So a few friends of I signed up to go to the back trip. It wasn’t some big exciting day, but more where we had a couple hours to lay on the beach, go for walks, and relax. It was a good time and we got lucky with the weather! J