Temporary Aussie Living

so-happy-hearted: kaylamichael: Copying @samcgilvray with my...

kaylamichael — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 12:43:25 -0500

kaylamichael:

Copying @samcgilvray with my #tbt. Brazil 2 years ago #abroad #Brazil #throwbackthursday #amazing #saudade #amazon #riverBROat #love #travel

If I want to leave the country this year, it’s going to have to wait…

I miss sleeping in hammocks on a riverBROat in the Amazon. And I miss walking the cold, crowded streets of Paris to get the best bread and cheese ever…

BEST DAY EVER!

kaylamichael — Tue, 15 May 2012 05:34:21 -0400

BEST DAY EVER!

Off to Canberra for Groovin The Moo

kaylamichael — Sat, 12 May 2012 00:32:28 -0400

SO EXCITED!

This blog seems neglected...

kaylamichael — Mon, 07 May 2012 03:57:11 -0400

Sorry i’ve been missing for so long,
i’ve been really busy with school and traveling and such.

Quick recap of this past weekend:
Our study abroad company, Arcadia, sent us on a 3 day 2 night camping trip to Jervis Bay.

We got to the campsite and set up our tents (first time ive done this) and our cots and sleeping bags.
Then we went and explored the site, went down to the beach and caught the end of the sunset
and then went and had an amazing barbecue dinner, chatted by the fires. Then got into our tents and girl talked until we fell asleep. It was so cold out that no one got much sleep though.
Saturday we woke up early and got breakfast and then went on a nature hike with a local indigenous woman from the area, she showed us leaves and berries that you can find and eat in the forests and how the indigenous people used the local plants to survive. After we got back i found out that i was a meal for 2 gross fat leeches, and the cuts from the bites hurt for a while…heres a picture of me and one of my new buddies…
Then we got to go for a surfing lesson at Cave Beach…the water was like bathwater it was so warm and it was nonstop waves so we got so many opportunities to catch waves.
That night we got back to camp and had another amazing dinner and then went to have orgin stories told to us by the same aboriginal woman, also we ate original damper and had hot Milo. After the origin stories were over we all sat around and told ghost stories and scared the crap out of each other.
The next morning we packed up and traveled back to Uni stopping at Hymes Beach and Kiama on the way back. We saw some amazing white sand beaches and the Kiama Blowhole.

Overall it was a great weekend and it was great to bond with the people at my school that i dont live with and usually only see out at bars and clubs. We all got along great and had a ton of fun

Ive had the most amazing 11 days of my life!

kaylamichael — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 20:29:36 -0400

Untoppable vacation

Autumn break? :P

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 03:37:59 -0400

Spring break just sounds more fun :)

Goodbye for 10 days....im off on spring break to Cairns! :)

kaylamichael — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 08:00:26 -0400

Got my first strange, unknown, Australian bug bite...

kaylamichael — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 09:42:35 -0400

preparing for imminent death

Photo

kaylamichael — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 16:05:05 -0400

foreverhappinessxoxo: Happy 80th Birthday!

kaylamichael — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 08:00:05 -0400

foreverhappinessxoxo:

Happy 80th Birthday!

Such a fun weekend

kaylamichael — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 02:09:00 -0400

Such a fun weekend

Just got back from a St. Pattys Day weekend in Sydney

kaylamichael — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 01:05:19 -0400

wow.

this was some weekend…aside from everyone whining and complaining last night i had a great time.

first went on a booze cruise in the Harbor with TONS of friends, went to a couple bars after, hung out and re-energized then went to Kings Cross and danced my butt off!

today went to Bondi Beach, but it started raining and my body was too sore for all the walking.

but i loved every second!

I'm sorry your week has been so stressful. : ( I hope that everything gets sorted out soon and you can start enjoying your time there again.

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 18:42:30 -0400

thank youuuu! me too :)

Ive been so homesick since last saturday

kaylamichael — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 06:38:33 -0400

Its not fun at all.
Ive also had no money for 2 weeks because i lost my debit card
And my roommate from Roger Williams screwed me over and now i have no where to live next year.

So to say the least ive been stressed out.
But this weekend were going to Sydney for a ST. Patricks day booze cruise and then going out with friends.
So hopefully that makes things better.

Also more nice weather would be great.

Just went on a field trip...

kaylamichael — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 00:02:46 -0500

to Port Kembla, it started torrential downpouring and everyone got soaked and was freezing.
But they made us stay for another half hour, slowly dying of hypothermia.

When i got back to my room I made an AMAZING grilled cheese.
Now im watching Ghost Hunters on youtube, drinking coffee and eating candy.

Even when things suck here theyre still pretty good. :)

This weekend: Feb 24th to 26th

kaylamichael — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 03:23:43 -0500

Friday(24th): Since Australians dont really go out on Friday nights we just hung around Kooloobong with all of our roommates and had a few drinks and played some games. Met SO many more people and loved talking to all of them! It was a really chill night with good music and a lot of laughs, reminded me a lot of summers at home with all my friends.

Saturday(25th): We got up early to hike Mt. Kiera, which is right about my schools campus. THIS WAS THE HARDEST HIKE OF MY LIFE! I am not kidding when i say that i almost died before the top of it (i had 2 oreos for breakfast that day and didnt bring water with me, my fault). The first 100 feet of the walk was almost completely vertical, and then followed by tons of stairs before the first flat level. The rest of it was just a lot of stairs and steep inclines that really proved how out of shape i am (no amount of elliptical-ing at the gym could have prepared me) I wish that my friends and I had just done this on our own because i feel like i missed out on a lot of the sights and was just looking down and rushing to the top. But it was all worth it because this was the view

This is all of us at the top…you can barely tell i was dying.
After recovering from this hike for a while we went to happy hour at North Wollongong Pub and got some cheap drinks and free champagne and got to know our new friends some more. After our walk back we all sat and hung out and (semi)watched a movie, and made plans to get up SUPER early and attempt some surfing.

Sunday(26th): Woke up at 7 am to get ready for a surf adventure from some of our “local” friends. We packed into 2 cars and drove from beach to beach trying to find some good waves. The first thing we saw at the beach we chose was a man bleeding from the face laying on the ground waiting for an ambulance (scared some of us) but our 2 friends who are pretty great at surfing dragged the first 2 people out into the water and tried to get them to stand up. It was kind of hard because the current was pretty strong and the waves were small. After everyone had basically given up we and were done being beat up by the ocean we watched the “pros”.

After this we all went out to lunch and to rest up for our 2nd Sunday night out in Wollongong. I still cant get over how great it is that this school has a legitimate party bus that takes us from campus to the bars/clubs and back to school. They are so much fun, we just sing and dance the whole way there and we dont even care that we’re the first people at the bar and on the dance floor. Once again we danced our butts off and sang until our voices were gone, but we took an early bus home because we had our first day of classes on monday.

I never thought i was good at meeting people and making friends,but everyone here is just so nice...

kaylamichael — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 20:30:05 -0500

I never thought i was good at meeting people and making friends,
but everyone here is just so nice and easy to get to know!
I LOVE IT!

Also i helps that as a dorm(Kooloobong) we all go out all together and do a lot of activities.
This would never happen at Roger!
For example yesterday we went to a beach for brunch with our whole dorm, had bacon and eggs and fruit and then spent the entire day in the ocean and laying on the beach.

Seriously this is unreal!

Welcome to Wollongong!

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 17:46:44 -0500

Thank youuuuu! :) I love it here!

jackmorningside: Took this today near Wollongong!

kaylamichael — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:09:06 -0500

jackmorningside:

Took this today near Wollongong!

iamkloo: Wollongong harbour. (Taken with GifBoom)

kaylamichael — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:04:05 -0500

iamkloo:

Wollongong harbour. (Taken with GifBoom)