Mt. Coot-tha and Riverfire

It's been a little while since I've posted, but school has been keeping me fairly busy lately. I have a test and a paper due next week and two more papers due by the end of September. This month is going to be fairly intense for school work. The good news is that once all of this is over I get to go to New Zealand!

Last weekend, Jordan and I went up to Mt. Coot-tha to walk around the botanical gardens there. There's also a lookout over the city, but we didn't want to wait an hour for another bus, so that didn't happen. The gardens were nice, nothing super exciting though. Pictures are posted on Flickr.

This weekend was great! The Brisbane Riverfestival is going on right now and every year they put on a huge fireworks show called Riverfire. We went down to the market in West End and then over to Cole's in the morning to do our weekly grocery shopping and then headed over the South Bank. We set up a spot on the steps overlooking the river and settled in to wait. There were a decent number of people waiting for the fireworks by the time we arrived around 1 pm, but it wasn't overly crowded. Becca and Beth joined us shortly after we arrived and were followed by Leslie, Dani (on spring break from Tasmania), Brittany (on spring break from New Zealand), and two of Dani's friends. More friends and acquaintances from the apartments showed up as the day went on. We played cards and chatted. Got a little bit of a tan while hanging out in my swimsuit. We were all getting pretty anxious for the show to start around 5 or so. They had some Air Force planes do a fly-over a little after 5 to get things started before the 7 pm fireworks. By about 6:30 it was impossible to move anywhere on the banks of the river. I think pretty much every person in Brisbane turned out to see the show.

The fireworks started just past 7 and were sychronized to music playing from a radio station. There were 3 barges in the river as well as fireworks being shot off from 3 bridges and a few of the buildings downtown. It was hard to know where to look after it started because there were fireworks everywhere! This was the best fireworks show I've ever seen and I had such an awesome time yesterday. My camera didn't do so well at taking pictures of the fireworks, but I tried anyway. Pictures from the day are posted on Flickr.

I probably won't have much to post over the next month or so. It's likely I'll just have tons of studying to do and not many opportunities to get out and do stuff. Hope you all enjoy the pictures!

Also, keep New Orleans in your thoughts. One of my best friends is being evacuated from Tulane. Hopefully they're wrong about Gustav being worse than Katrina!

That's all for now. Love and miss you all!

Nicole

Fun Times in Sydney

We got back from Sydney yesterday. It was a lot of fun to visit, but I don't think I'd want to live there. Definitely more of the 'big city' feel.

We got up at 4:30 for our 7 am flight and got into the city in Sydney around 9:30 on Thursday morning. The view from the plane was just awesome! After checking into our hotel we walked around the city a little bit and had lunch in the park. After lunch we headed over to Darling Harbour and walked around there for a bit. We then walked over to the Sydney Fish Market and got a lemon tart from this pastry place on the way. It was pretty fabulous. The Fish Market was pretty awesome too. All kinds of fish and all of it looked just amazing. After the fish market it started raining so we ran back toward the harbour to try and get out of it. The rest of the evening was pretty drizzly. Got a piece of pizza down the street from our hotel and then some chicken skewers with honey mustard aioli at a tapas place. After that we went to another restaurant that we had noticed and had a tomato tart with filo dough, cherry tomatoes, caramelized onions, basil, and goat cheese. Great stuff. Good ending to a very long day.

Day 2 started off with breakfast and then walking over to Sydney Harbour, the bridge, and the opera house. Jordan had a cold and wasn't feeling too great, so we walked around there for a bit and then came back to the hotel to nap. Dinner ended up being kind of a bust that night. We couldn't really find anything that was what we wanted or that wasn't totally booked. Went back to the hotel again and ordered some Thai food. After waiting over an hour we called to find out that they didn't even have any orders open. By this time it was almost midnight and I was ready to crash so Jordan got some sandwiches from a place down the street. We watched the opening ceremony for the Olympics, which was pretty cool.

Day 3 made the whole trip totally worth it for me. After breakfast we went to the markets in the Chinatown area and then walked back toward Darling Harbour to visit the Sydney Aquarium. The aquarium was pretty cool and we got to see some seals and fish and what not. After the aquarium we went back to the fish market to have lunch. I got some tuna sashimi and fried calamari. Both the best I've ever had. Totally fresh. After lunch we walked over to the Harbour Bridge and found some more markets set up. They were pretty cool and had some neat stuff. Then we went up to the pylon on the bridge so we could see the harbour better. The view of the opera house was equivalent to what you would see on a post card. Just awesome stuff. Seeing that in person was the highlight of the trip for me. After the bridge we went down to the rocks for more views of the harbour and opera house. After all of this it was getting close to time to head over to our hotel. We decided to stay at one close to the airport so we could get up later so we got some stuff at the grocery store for dinner and breakfast and then headed to the hotel.

So, that was pretty much it for Sydney. I definitely enjoyed the trip and really loved seeing the opera house. We got some really good photos too. Those are already posted so take a look when you get a chance. Next big thing we have planned is New Zealand at the end of next month, but I'm thinking we might check out Ekka soon. It's a carnival/festival thing they do here every year. Apparently it's sort of a big deal and we have this Wednesday off of school for it.

On another note, I'm happy to say that my microwaveable cake turned out quite well and I'm very happy to have that recipe available to me.

Hope all is well with everyone and that you all enjoy the pictures!

Love,
Nicole

P.S. Go Team USA!!!

Sydney, Chocolate Cake, and HARRY POTTER 6

Firstly, Jordan and I are heading to Sydney in the morning around 7. Pretty excited for this trip. I believe we're going to see a symphony at the opera house and there will be plenty of pictures when I get back.

In other, unrelated news... my kitchen does not have an oven. For those of you who know me well, I very much enjoy the whole cooking/baking thing. It has been quite upsetting not being able to make cookies or any other baked good. Thanks to Tara, who brought me to StumbleUpon, which brought me to Tastespotting, I now have an answer to this problem. Microwavable chocolate cake! That's the link for anyone who's interested. Not that any of you are ever without an oven, but this takes all of 5 minutes to prep and cook. Pretty sweet. I'm very excited to try it out tonight.

Also, Tara (she seems to be all over this post) informed me that the HP6 trailer has come out. Thank you, Tara, for bringing such an important thing to my attention. She asked me to post this on my blog, as she feels that such information is vital to my readers, apparently. I happen to agree with her. So... Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince!

That would be all. More when we get back from Sydney!

Nicole

I finally got the picture of Jordan and me at the koala sanctuary scanned into the computer (actually, Jordan scanned it, but whatever). It's also on Flickr.

Classes and More Adventures

So I finally have my class schedule finalized (I think). I switched out of the History class. It was going to be dull, dull, dull. So, now my schedule goes like this...

Monday: No Class
Tuesday: World Religions (10-1), Marine Bio (1-2)
Wednesday: Aboriginal Studies (10-1), Marine Bio (1-2), Globalization Tutorial (2-3), Globalization Lecture (4-6)
Thursday: Marine Bio (1-2)
Friday: No Class

World Religions is looking pretty interesting. My prof. seems a little nutty, but hopefully that will just make it all the more interesting. I haven't had my Aboriginal Studies class yet, but it's all about the Torres Strait Islander people of Australia. Hopefully, that will be good because I switched into that so I wouldn't have to take the History class. Marine Bio is pretty cool so far. Seems pretty laid back. Globalization seems to be picking up where my last International Business class left off, so I'm happy about that.

All of the classes here are based on very few assignments for the final grade. Most of my classes have a single essay and test and one small assignment to make up the entire 100%. It's a little nerve-wracking having something count for 45% of your final grade. Anyway, that's pretty much all I have regarding school right now.

Jordan and I booked plane tickets to Sydney in a couple of weeks. Definitely looking forward to that. And I paid some money on Flickr so I can have unlimited picture uploads (instead of just 100 MB), so I'll be able to post tons of pictures from that trip. We're also looking into dive trips on the Great Barrier Reef, but that probably won't happen until we get closer to spring break at the end of September.

That's all for now.

Nicole

Koalas and Kangaroos!

I woke up early today (as usual) and worked out, showered, and had breakfast. Talked to Jordan’s parents and then headed off to the library to check email for the first time in several days. It’s so odd not having internet access everywhere I go, 24/7. I’m adjusting. After a couple hours at the library (I never realized how long I can spend online) we had some lunch and went into town to catch the bus to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary! This place was small, but really awesome. There were koalas in open enclosures all over the place. They’re sleepy little creatures. Pretty content to just sit there and eat eucalyptus leaves and snooze. After snapping a few photos, we grabbed some food for the roos. They were so cool! I know people read everywhere that they can kill you and stuff, but these guys were small and very tame. We had a great time feeding and petting them. The enclosure they had for them was very big and we came across a mom and joey after walking around for a while. I managed to snap one picture of them before my camera died on me. Lesson learned: I need to charge it more often.

Anyway, after the kangaroos and wallabies, we went to hold a koala. They make you pay $15 to get a photo taken (even with your own camera), so I forked over some cash. It seemed pretty well worth it. I should be able to get the picture online so I don’t have to scan it onto the computer, but it may take me a day or two to get around to it. I’ll put it on Flickr as soon as I get it. Koalas have very soft, very dense fur and they are just as cute in person as they are in pictures. Such an awesome experience. After holding the koala we walked around the park some more. Came across an enclosure with all the new mothers and their babies. Unfortunately, my camera was dead, so I don’t have any pictures of them. I can assure you that these baby koalas were just about the cutest things ever. It’s the kind of cute that makes you say “I want one!” I bet they’re pretty easy to care for, actually, but I’m sure Denver is not a suitable environment for such an animal (not to mention that whole getting-through-customs thing). We also saw some crocodiles, wombats, echidnas, and various snakes, lizards, and birds. Walked around the gift shop for a bit while waiting for the bus. Resisted a strong urge to buy a very cute t-shirt for a little boy I babysit for (Alane, let the kiddos know I’m thinking about them).

Anyway, so that was basically the end of the weekend. It was a lot of fun, but I’m kind of looking forward to getting back into a routine with classes here. I start on Tuesday and have class from 10 to 2 (World Religions and Marine Biology). Wednesday is 9 to 6 with a couple breaks in between (International Business and Marine Bio plus a history of Nazi Germany class) and Thursday is just a one hour lecture from 1 to 2 for Marine Bio again. So, three days of class a week and lots of 4-day weekends to look forward to. Much more blogging to come and don’t forget to check out the new pictures!

Love,

Nicole

Noosa (the Sunshine Coast)

It’s been a pretty exciting weekend. We went to Noosa on the Sunshine Coast from Thursday to Saturday and the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary today (Sunday).

Noosa was just a small town on the coast. It seems to be one of those towns that people visit. Nobody really lives there. Anyway, we got in on Thursday afternoon and went to get some groceries for meals for the next day. We went up to Hastings Street after to get some dinner and walk around. We sat down in a pizza place called Zachary’s and got drinks and an appetizer. We were lured in by a drink on their menu called liquid cocaine. This was also the site of my very first legal drink. Pretty exciting stuff, people. I ordered a “Berry Sexy” which consisted of muddled raspberries and strawberries with mint, lime, raspberry infused vodka, and club soda. Not bad at all. There’s a picture of me enjoying said drink on Flickr. After Zachary’s we headed further down the street to a sidewalk restaurant. Can’t recall the name of it. Had another drink there- a Mr. Tea- and some fried calamari. My drink had green tea liqueur, peppermint tea, lime, mint, sugar. I know there was more in it, but can’t recall everything. This is not due to my level of sobriety, which, I assure you, was just fine. Got some gelato after dinner and headed back to the hotel.

Friday morning we ate breakfast and went for a run on the path along the beach. Jordan joined me, though not with any kind of enthusiasm. He was a trooper for someone who doesn’t like to run, though. After our run we packed some lunch and grabbed the bus to get to the National Park. Saw a koala in the eucalyptus tree right at the front of the park. Very cool. After staring at the koala for a little while Jordan and I headed off on one of the trails through the rainforest. The end of that trail spit us out on the coast line and we followed that trail back to the entrance to the park. The beaches were absolutely stunning- my pictures really can’t do it justice. There are pictures of Hell’s Gates on Flickr. This was an inlet on the path we were walking. Again, pictures really can’t do it justice. The cliffs were so steep and no guard rails in sight. It was really just indescribable. We headed back into town after our hike and had lunch and more gelato. This place (Mossimo’s) was fantastic. Grapefruit and mango sorbets. They both tasted exactly like the fruits, I even found a couple of seeds in the grapefruit. Went back to the hotel after that and hung out for a while. Leslie and Lauryn got back fairly soon after us. Made spaghetti for dinner and spent a pretty enjoyable evening just chatting. Watched School of Rock on TV after all of that and went to bed.

Jordan and I booked a tennis court down the street for 10 AM Saturday morning, so after breakfast we headed off to do that. Jordan was inspired after watching Wimbledon. I am not good at tennis. My right forearm hurts. This is probably not something I’ll be picking up. That was pretty much it for Saturday. We headed back to Brisbane right after tennis and got back around 6.

So, that was Noosa. Pretty cool trip.

Love,
Nicole