SHOW ME YOUR TEETH! Brisbane and Lady Gaga (Week 6)

G'Day from Brizzyvegas!

The week has been busy! We went shopping at a few local shops one day with my neighbor Emma, she is Australian and knew of some places to show us. I also finally found raw tuna sushi which has been a challenge! Sushi here is so cheap! On average, 2 big rolls and a drink for 6 dollars, but all of there tuna sushi is tuna salad which is pretty gross to have in sushi. Yet one little woman working at Happy Roll managed to find me 4 pieces of raw tuna and I was in heaven! Next week we might try a new place that is a little more expensive but of course not too bad (10 dollars kind of thing...) and they are supposed to have great tuna sashimi! Can't wait!

I have done more work these past few days than I have since December! It's kind of unreal. I even spent a few hours on a bright and sunny Friday in the library! Which by the way, I rarely even do at URI anymore! It was clutch though because it paid off, I got my work done and now it's a relaxing Sunday night instead of a stressful one!

So now to the fun stuff, this was an epic weekend! ,My roommate Taylor's best friend from home in NY,Liz, goes to BU and is studying in Sydney right now. Liz is roommates at BU and in Sydney with my old camp friend, Allie. It was a very small world connection we made the first week here and they came to visit Gold Coast for the weekend. Friday night started by 10 of us girls adventuring to a locals bar we'd never been to before called Swingin' Safari. Turned out to be an old house made into a bar with live music and a very chill scene. It was located between Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach, somewhat convenient and pretty cool but closed early, at midnight. From there we walked 5 blocks to Beergarden where we met up with everyone else. After a half hour we got bored and Taylor, Lucy, Mikey and I went to O'Malleys where we found all of the other URI kids who go to Bond (the other Aussie Uni on the Gold Coast where mostly Americans go..very popular school). It was fun to see everyone but Taylor, Lucy and I left pretty early and headed back to campus.

On Saturday we planned to get up early to catch a train to Brisbane but overslept. We ended up getting to Brisbane around noon after a very long ride, but our first Aussie train experience. Kiki needed to go to a Bridal expo (the biggest Bridal expo in Queensland!) for her marketing class, but Elle and I skipped out on that an explored! We got off the train in Southbank, Brisbane. Unsure of anything we wandered, and found the greatest spot... first: GREY STREET! Now for any true Dave Matthews fans, this was a ridiculously exciting moment in our lives. We found a great little roundabout with signs saying Grey St. all around. I walked the street singing "on the corner of Grey Street and the end of the worlddd!" it was amazing. And of course, being the tourists (and DMB fans) that we are..both Elle and I posed for pictures!

SO after strolling down Grey Street we wandered into a gorgeous garden area and found the city river and a lagoon. Elle and I had a picnic lunch in the garden/park and then walked around taking amazing and artsy pictures of our surroundings. It was gorgeous, and the weather was perfectly sunny and breezy. We eventually met up with Kiki and strolled through this little market. We only bought a couple old fashioned Australia posters but they are cool. (I got one of Fosters beer with a baby joey inside the label! Even though they don't actually even drink Fosters around here...it's an Aussie beer). We were staying with our orientation friends for the night who go to the Griffith Uni in Brisbane (Nathan campus) so we met up with them and walked around the city a bit, we took a bridge over from Southbank.. a very pretty walk!

top: city from view of bridge

bottom: city from across the river in the central park

When we finally got to the Nathan campus we chilled in their flat for a bit, very different than ours here in Goldie! We took forever to get ready, and I put thunderbolts of gemstones on both Kiki and Elle's faces because they dressed up like Gaga. I didn't go all out, I just had a headband with a bow and lace face cover like her. Now for the fun...our adventure getting from campus to the Brisbane Entertainment Center was rather exciting.. only not. We were running late already, had NO CLUE how to get around Brisbane and knew we'd miss our chance to pre-game at the bars. However we were told by the first bus driver that it'd take 2 hours to get there and if that was true we'd miss her show. We RAN from the bus to the train in a panic. Our train was already there, and we only knew that because we ran to it and asked a lady getting on the train. Luckily, we made it and about 35 minutes later got off the train and basically jogged our way through a crowded path of psycho people just like us, dressed up as gaga, to the box office. When we finally got our tickets we ran to the entrance to miss just half of her first song. Sweet life. Soberly, I tripped up the stairs and hurt my knee pretty badly- I guess that's why I shouldn't run in dark places up stairs. Needless to say, Gaga was INCREDIBLE!!! She is such a great performer and we were up out of our seats and dancing and going wild. It was even her birthday so we got to sing to her- very cool. The show was awesome as she loves her fans and kept telling us. Gaga had about 12 different costume changes and worked them into the show alot, she only left stage a few times but she has screens coming down with a twister around her as she changes inside and did a few other fun things. Her dancers were so fun to watch too! The slower songs where she played piano were awesome and she followed them up with huge powerful songs. She ended with 'Bad Romance' as her encore and it was wild. So glad I went!! After the show we met up with our other friends who had different seats than us and began our 2 hour adventure back to the campus. When we got back we all just crashed basically and woke up early today to head home. It was another 3 hours of traveling till we got home today but it was worth it, the show was amazing and Brizzy is a great city. I didn't get to see my friend Shabot from my Israel trip but hopefully next time I am in the city we can meet up.

As for other new things...the first Passover seder is tomorrow night here in Aussie and I am feeling the homesickness of wishing I could be at home for the holiday but my two friends who go to school with me that I know from camp and our Israel trip found a Chabad in Surfers that we are going to attend their seder. It should be an interesting experience to say the least, but I am kind of excited because I have yet to meet any Jewish Aussies just yet. The other thing is, Marni and Rachel found a place to get matzah and picked me up some today so I really am still keeping it on the other side of the world, it's just a bit harder. I wish you all a happy passover. Chag Sameach.

I am still missing my Rhode Island loves. It's hard because Greek Week is coming up and I really miss my Chi O girls. However, if you're reading this- know a postcard is headed your way!! As for home, I miss my house. I miss my family. I miss my big girl comfy bed with lots of pillows. It's okay though, because I Skype the family often. I miss Steve alot, alot. We are looking for a good place to take a long weekend together this summer and I am very excited for it. Don't get me wrong though, just because I miss my Mommy doesn't mean I don't absolutely love it here! Australia is incredible and I would recommend it to anyone in a heartbeat. Coming abroad to study for a semester was probably one of the best decisions I could ever have made and I am learning a lot not only about this fabulous country but also about myself and I love every second of it. "Live Out Loud" as Janelle would say. It's exactly what I am trying to do.. just wait till you see me skydive. It's a whole new thing I have going on...called facing fears. I'm enjoying it. :) So I do miss you all, and love you but don't mistake homesickness for wishing I wasn't here...because I find them to be very different.

Also, we are having a room inspection this week so lets hope for the best for our entire block. I'd say we're quite the party block and I can only hope it's clean enough to pass inspection!!

This will probably be the last post before New Zealand (which will be amazing!) because we leave in 1 week. I can't wait!! Kiki, Elle, Colleen and I are traveling around together and it's going to be the best week. We are  horseback riding, going on a wine tour, taking a cruise around the Milford sound, SKYDIVING!, and lots more! I can't wait to tell all of you about it after!

:) hugs and kisses!

xoxo