G'day, mates.
Wow, I really managed to neglect this whole "travel log" thing nicely since I've touched down here. But hey, I figure no better time to rectify that than now, while I'm desperately trying to find things to distract me from writing one of the three papers that kinda snuck up on me while I was enjoying my time in Oz.
So, what have I been up to? Well, for the most part I've just kinda been living the student abroad life here in Melbourne. Parties, lots of slacking off, meeting new people, neglecting my studies; you know, pretty standard stuff. The budget has been restrictive for travel, so I've had to go the quality over quantity route. Early on I hit Lorne to do some surfing (which is much harder than one would make it out to be, it seems) and hiking. Later, I did the typical touristy thing by going to Sydney to see the sights with some of my crew from I-House. As I couldn't afford the second leg of their trip (they ended up going to New Zealand for a week), I next did the atypical touristy thing (seriously, everybody including the travel agency lady was shocked and appalled at this next bit) and went to Canberra. Canberra, of all places!
But hey, Canberra wasn't a total wash. After all, I did get to sing kareoke with the Cirque du Solei. But more importantly, I got a chance to meet my good buddy Alex, who was good enough to take time out of her busy schedule to show a dumb Canuck around her fair city. She was a very good tour guide; what she lacked in knowledge, she more than made up for in enthusiasm. And what a cook!
Certain other Canberrans who shall remain nameless decided to not be around when I rolled through town; this was their loss. However, I enjoyed my visit quite a fair bit. Sydney and Melbourne might pick on ya, but you're fine by me, Canberra. Keep on keepin' on.
And now I'm in the planning stages of my "One Last Hoorah Tour" through Oz before I take off in a couple months. Once I'm done with exams and all that noise, Alex (er, a different Alex, this one's from England) and I will be heading up the coast to Adelaide before hopping a plane to Uluru for some sightseeing. Good times should be had.
But yeah, other than that, nothing to report, really. Tomorrow I'm gonna go get trashed at the campus pub (it's Toss the Boss night....if you're not familiar with the concept, you go and place your drink order, and the bartender flips a coin. Call it in the air, and if you're right your drink order is free. It's pretty awesome), I'm stressing over these essays that I should be writing, and I've managed to fall hopelessly in love with the girl I'm planning that Uluru trip with. Such is life down under.