I'm actually in Australia....

Hi every one! Thank you so much for your comments and emails, I absolutely love getting each one of them! So here is what I have been up to these past few days: Friday (the 18Th) I went to an event called "Rec Crawl", which is put on by the christian group on campus. A group of about 50 of us took a bus down to Surfers Paradise, where we went to this really cool arcade downtown, complete with bumper cars and laser tag (they call it laser skirmish here....weird).

Naturally, our team won at laser tag. After the arcade, we all went to a pizza dinner and then on to...of all places...an indoor ice skating rink. I had no idea that these even existed in Australia. I was pretty skeptical about ice skating, since I had never done it before, and I was determined to not fall. The rink basically looked like a roller rink that they froze over (I felt like I was at a 3rd grade roller rink party all over again). There was also basically a layer of water on top of the ice, which according to the boys from Minnesota, is not ideal. This only added more motivation for me not to fall; being soaking wet and cold did not sound like a good way to end the night. So, went around slowly for a while and eventually got somewhat comfortable with it....and I didn't fall! It was fun to try it, but I don't know that it's something I would suggest doing. I was basically in a state of constant worry about slipping up and eating it. All in all it was a really great, fun night where I got to spend time with some awesome people.

Saturday was another beach day, capped off with finding a Domino's pizza, and eating it while sitting on the curb waiting for the bus. By the way, my biggest frustration with Australia so far is not having a car. There is not much within walking distance of school, so we have to resort to the bus. The bus is less then desirable; slow, expensive, and a huge pain. There are a lot of places we have wanted to go, but transportation is always the problem. If we can't get there on the bus we don't really know how else to get there. It's times like these when I really wish I had a motorized scooter.

Sunday we went to our friend Teri's church, called Surfside. It was a really cool church, and I liked it a lot, but once again, transportation is the problem. There is no way we can take the bus there, so we are trying to figure out if we can get rides there. We'll see how that works out.

This week has mostly consisted of classes, which have been good. On Tuesday I had my first "sex, society, and the movies" class, and I am really excited about it! Each week we learn about a new theme, and then watch a movie about it! This week we watched "Some Like it Hot"; and I officially am now a Marilyn Monroe fan. My goal is to start watching more classic Hollywood movies (which was our topic this week), I really haven't seen very many, so if anyone has any good recommendations - shoot 'em my way!!

Tonight Bond sponsored this free rock climbing thing an an indoor rock climbing place about 10 minutes from school, which Lindsay, Corinne, Suzi, and I went to. I've never been rock climbing before......so I was just going to see how I felt about it. After my first climb I realized that I am, in fact, not a rock climber. Which, I mean, I kinda knew before I went. Here are my issues with it: 1) It really hurts my hands 2) it really hurts my arms 3) whats the point? I'm indoors on a fake wall...I don't see the motivation 4) the feeling of being up high and hanging on for dear life just doesn't spell fun for me 5) maaaaaaaybe if I had more upper body strength I would like it more. Anyway, I think it's safe to say that I will not be rock climbing in my free time.

I have one class tomorrow and then it's the weekend! I don't have any for sure plans yet; we are thinking of doing a girls night out tomorrow night, and possibly taking the train to Brisbane for Saturday/Sunday. Monday is Australia Day (their equivalent to 4th of July), so there is cool stuff going on in all the cities this weekend. Hopefully we will get there.

And just a sidenote.....so far Australian guys are not all they are cracked up to be. I am yet to find that Australian man of my dreams.....the search continues. I'll keep looking for good ones to bring back for you girls too :)

Oh also......if anyone feels like sending me a postcard/letter/care package, that would be just fine with me. I hope everyone is doing well, I miss you all alot ofcourse. Much love!