Rewind And Wind Down.... (Backtrack to Week 12.)

G'day...

Today is actually May 9th, Happy Mother's Day from Aussie, MUM! :)

I know I will be posting this late, as in- when I land in America...However, understand that this is my rambling emotions during the "I've been here 3 months and I have 1 month left week" only I cannot post it now, because I am surprising my mom and sister and everyone else by coming home on June 11. I land at 9pm the night before Erica's graduation party and I am VERY excited to be able to surprise her and my mom. Truthfully, Dad is too! I can't believe I'm going to pull this off- and to think, I've known since the week after I went to New Zealand the official day I'm coming home- I guess I can keep a secret after all!

So here it is, the final chapter of my book:

I'm so confused. Happy/upset/stressed/excited/anxious - how many other confusing emotions can I say I feel? I just don't know why.

The best thing I've ever done for myself was come abroad to Australia and I would never in a million years trade these 4 months for anything in the world. I have made incredible best friends, I've lived in a foreign country pretty much on my own, I've experience a million things I never could have dreamed I'd do or see EVER. Most importantly though, I figured out a bit more about myself. I know more about what's good for me and what decisions are the right ones.

No matter how anyone looks at it- there is nothing that can bring back this time once it ends in 31 VERY short days. I mean, thinking about it gives me butterflies. This weekend, potentially camping in Fraser Island, then here for 3 days then off to Byron Bay for my last time in I don't know how long... and then home for 2 days and off to Sydney for my last big trip, coming back on Sunday May 30th..giving me 11 days left in the Gold Coast, Australia...the place I can in so many ways call home.

I'm not sure how to look at it anymore.. I am having the time of my life here. I am living the dream, heck- even my mom says when she 'grows up' she wants to be Jodi Gold. OF COURSE- this is paradise and I am living worry free through it. Who wouldn't want this?!

Yet I know there is SO much ahead of me at home this next year as well. I'm home for 2 weeks of spending time with the family, seeing friends, seeing STEVEN :), relaxing and readjusting to life back in America. Then I'm off to the place I adore most- Camp. Playing on the waterfront, and with amazing campers for the whole summer.. the dream job really. Going back to school is even exciting- though the work will be SO hard considering I have not really done much to 'get by passing' here in Aussie... but moving into a house of my own with Jess and Liz down the line.. and being back spending time with my amazing boyfriend! I'm going to be an RC for recruitment and I only have class on campus 3 days a week.. and one of them isn't until 4pm! Let's be real, senior year of college?! It's sure to be epic...

but there is one thing stopping me from wanting all of this to come- and that is that I am in the most laid back, incredible place in the world AUSTRALIA. It truly is incredible and words cannot describe my love for this country. I even realized being here that I know more about Australia than I do about America, which is wild since I have lived in America for 21 years. I know that I want to spend some time experiencing the States, getting to see what we have to offer that so many foreigners come to see as I am here.

I've lived, I've traveled, I've studied, I've drank, I've skydived, I've hiked, I've taken over 2,000 pictures, I've shopped, I've drank some more, and I have made ever lasting friendships....and I have fallen in love with Australia... I will be back some day, and that's a promise.

In the end though, I love being the worldly 21 year old that I am. I guess the word for it is lucky. So as the end of an era draws near I have 2 people to thank for it all- Mom and Dad. Without you, I wouldn't even be here on the opposite side of the world from you enjoying every second of it. Thank you, I love you.

Until I land in America....

xoxo

Girls 5-Day-Weekend SYDNEY Style... (Week 15)

G'Day from the Sydney Opera House :)

It is an absolutely magnificent place to be!

Bright and early Wednesday morning..or should I say Tuesday night...at 3:45am, Kiki, Alyssa and I set out for the airport. We got picked up and brought to Gold Coast Domestic Airport. Needless to say, we got there way too early and were through security and at our gate by 4:45am. Yet our flight wasn't leaving until 6am. Alyssa and Kiki had both gone out the previous few hours to Surfers but I had chosen to maybe catch a few z's as I hadn't slept for over 5 hours a night, in about 4 days already. They were defininitely still intoxicated as we boarded the plane and lucky for them- they slept for the whole 1 1/2 hour flight.

Landing in Sydney was supposed to be the most epic thing to happen yet, except Sydney let us down with a HORRIBLE rainstorm! It was torrentially down pouring out and made the city a rather gloomy place to be. We took a cab to Sydney University Village where Alyssa's camp friend Laura lives. The SUV is similar to where I live in dorm-style housing, however mine is more of an apartment. Laura lives in a single room, in a building with a few of her friends. The room was a decent size, and since it was only 8am, the four of us decided to take a nap. I fell asleep on the hard floor, but woke up shortly after because it was absolutely freezing! To put it this way: I was in a sweatshirt, long pants, an a long sleeve shirt, plus my socks and my northface fleece. It was almost as cold as Boston. (or it felt that way at least). When our other friends landed a few hours later, we met up with them at their hotel. My friend Kiki turned 21 at midnight that night and for her birthday her parents got her and her 2 roommates a hotel room in Darling Harbour *The Rocks District* overlooking the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge- VERY COOL SIGHT! Little did we know, that as we watched the Opera House light up different colors that this was actually a once a year thing. We sat there saying how tacky the color scheme looked, but in reality we were watching a pretty popular light show.From their hotel room we went to a classy pub (I say classy because we were all dressed up...) where we split pizzas and salads and brews in honor of Kiki's 21st. After dinner and some pre-gaming drinks we went back to Sydney Uni Village and walked to a local bar they all go to. It was called HQ and was pretty similar to our bar near Griffith campus called the Tav. It was a fun night, but we ended somewhat early because we had all been traveling and were exhausted. We crashed in the Uni Village with a few of the girls we had connections to. They were ridiculously nice and let us all stay for 2 nights.

Waking up early the next morning was only easy for me. Taylor and Alyssa had wanted to get up, but of course once I was showered and dressed they were still catchin' Z's...eventually I woke them up and we all went to meet our friends in Darling Harbour. It was absolutely gorgeous, despite the cloudy mess and possibility of rain in the weather. We wandered around and got a huge lunch of ribs at Hurricanes right in the Harbour. We all really wanted to see the aquarium so from there we got a ticket to The Aquarium, Wildlife Zoo-thing, and Tower. We had alot to accomplish in one day but didn't dillydally once we got passed Nemo, and the sharks :) It was a day full of animals- even though I don't like animals I was loving the day. We made it to the tower in time to go on a pretty epic 'ride' through Australia in a five minute film. We sat in these chairs that would jolt us and move us around it was cool. Though the sights in the top of the tower could have been better if the weather was nicer- it was still cool. Similar to the Eureka Tower I went to in Melbourne. Thursday was almost over so we split up after a bit of souviner shopping and went back to get ready for a big birthday celebration that night. The shopping was similar to NYC, where there were streets like 5th Ave and then there were small vendors too. We ate a great sushi dinner and then We all went to "Home Bar" in the Harbour. It's funny because there is a cover charge everywhere you go and even girls can't get passed that, but somehow we all got in for free and it ended up being a great drunken night for all of us- Quite easily one of the best bar's I've been to in Australia. It was fun, everyone was drinking, tequila shots all around! After we left the bar we all went back and hung around together for hours.

Friday we decided was our day to see the Opera House... we all got up and went to Pancakes on the Rocks.. it was great! Though we took awhile to get there, needing to check into our hotel..we wandered there eventually. Kiki, Taylor, Alyssa and I enjoyed our ghetto-ish hotel room where we had to actually put the room key in a slot to even turn the lights on in the room- pretty green, Australia. We walked over to the Opera House and on our way stopped to see a street show by some psycho named Sam. He pulled Kiki D into his show and danced with her- ending with a kiss where he tricked her into kissing him on the lips. We kept walking as his show got boring and we ended on the MAGNIFICENT Sydney Opera House stairs!!! It was truly amazing to be there, when we thought intensely about the fact that we were actually there in Sydney, Australia standing on a legendary, world famous monument. We could see the sunset behind the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and of course we took tons of pictures. We tried to take a few cheesy ones, before wandering to the Royal Botanical Gardens. We had to get through them before it got dark because at dark the park ranger comes around and asks you to leave. It was not as pretty as other gardens I've seen here, such as Cairns, but they were cool because it was the first time we'd seen color changes in the leaves and the feel of a different season. When we finished the garden walk we were pretty tired. It was getting dark and we ventured back to the hotel to relax for a bit. Though Taylor desperately wanted Dim Sum, they were closed and we ended up eating at a small cafe. It was cute and we were able to have a nice girl chat. That night we needed to see the area called Kings Cross that we heard was infamous for prostitutes. When we got there, we couldn't find one in sight, though when we went to the 5 level World Bar, we saw some pretty outrageous sights. The bar itself was absolutely incredible, each floor was different, the rooms were decorated like they were part of a house, but each one had a different attribute. There was a huge outdoor balcony area and on top of that there were live bands and multiple dance rooms. At all World Bars (we went to a wild one in Queenstown, New Zealand) they serve alcohol out of teapots. They're over priced and not worth it but we figured we'd get ONE anyways since we were there for the experience not to be drunk. When they gave us the teapot but with a card saying "anyone seen drinking out of the spout will politely be asked to leave" so with that, you get two medicine cup-shot glasses. Kiki and I sat down, took shots of our Long Island Iced Tea and hoped it would hit us. It didn't. We met a few people sitting around outside and then decided to leave and went back to our hotel. We called it an early night, but not after picking up a bit of drunk food and having serious girl chat time in the room. 

Saturday was our last day in Sydney, our last big hurrah of a trip. Except, we took it slow to start, leaving our room and heading to Bondi at about noon. We took a bus right to Bondi Junction where we explored in the rain and saw a few of the gorgeous apartments Sydney kids have been hooked up with. We didn't do too much shopping there, but we made sure to eat a meat pie at Pie Face before we left! We loved the city but wandered around Oxford Street and the Paddington Market for the rest of the day! We did a bit of shopping, but the only thing I bought was a Hamsa I have been looking for for years, and finally found one I loved! It was gorgeous and worth it. :) We didn't do anything except get dinner Saturday night. We ate cheap food at a Kebab and turkish spot, but it was ok. The rest of the night we spent re-packing, girl chatting and watching Alvin and The Chipmunks. Yes, Alvin. 

Waking up and leaving at 6:30 am was hell but once we were back on the Gold Coast by noon it was well worth the early trip. We all took the afternoon off mostly- I did some laundry and laid low. In the end, we had an awesome 5 day trip with the girls and were ready for the last week of classes.

Sydney was a wonderful city, lived up to expectations yet I still really think I like Melbourne more- it's culture was much more lively and in general, the city of Sydney was more like New York City than anywhere else...

...xoxo