MY ADVENTURE TO AUSSIELAND!

Yes, I did it. I embarked on a completely solo adventure to a foreign country! After 4 buses, 4 planes, 2 shuttles, and 2 newly stamped pages in my passport, I successfully went to Sydney Australia! Woo hoo! *Pats self of shoulder. It was such a blast!
The first day of travel went perfect, long, but perfect. I nearly missed my first bus to the airport, but I caught it and all was well except my lung capacity and my lack of self confidence in my personal athletic skill. I only had problems in customs when I tried to sneak in a can of extremely flammable mousse. Whoops. I played the silly American who "forgot it was in her bag" and got away with a few smiles and booby flashes. Just kidding, about the second part at least. I was half expecting my Visa to not have gone through, so the fact that it did was a miracle.
After an extremely long day of traveling, I got to Sydney at about 9:30 pm, and to my hostel, Base Sydney, about about 10:30. I was fully prepared to go to bed. I was exhausted. I went to the computer lounge, told my mamma I was alive and well, and went upstairs to sleep. This didnt happen. The second I opened my 10-person hostel room I was overwhelmed with welcomes and invitations to go out to bars. "No, no, no" I said. I was tired. I value sleep. You're only in Sydney once right? I went out with a group of complete strangers. Two extremely cute guys from the UK, two kick-ass German chicks, and one very very very strange German dude who remains in a category of his own. I also learned an important cultural lesson in Australia, if you want to buy alcohol at a bar, you have to spend at least 25 dollars. AWESOME. I went from wanting one beer to having a fuck-plethora of Jack n' Coke, a pint of beer, a vodka red bull, another pint of beer, and an Smirnoff. I apparently didnt pay attention to my mother when she told me not to mix. Awesome, way to go Rachael. The night was full of great live music, dancing, and amazing conversations with total strangers. I finally made it to bed around 3 am, drunk out of my mind, in my spinning bed with the worst fit of giggles I have ever had in my life. A few drunk texts and a threat that I will "fucking kill the loud, weird German with my black belt karate skills!", and some major hysteria, I went to bed. Successful night, I'd say. I will forever remember my night in the infamous room 107.
I woke up at approximately 9 am the next morning and went to explore the city! Sydney is amazing. Its midly like New York, at least New York sized, but with beautiful brick and clayish architecture. So many stores, buildings, and things to do. You mind is utterly lost trying to figure out what to do first. So naturally, I walked a few blocks down to the Circular Quay! I saw the Opera House and about pissed myself. It was so much bigger than I expected, and it gave me such a confidence boost. I was here! I was in fucking Australia! On my own! My life had taken some major turns up to this point and I was nothing but elated about it. I took a ferry through the Harbour over to the Zoo. The zoo was pretty cool, besides the fact that it was raining 90% of the time and I picked the ONE day where every elementary school in the nation decided to bring ALL their classes to the zoo for a field-trip. I loved it deep down. Hearing 400 little kids, in their Jonas Brother and superhero ponchos screaming "LOOWK! TURWDLES!!!!" at the top of their little lungs... I couldnt help but melt a little.
I took a sky shuttle across and above the zoo. That was the one really unique and cool thing about the Sydney Zoo. I saw all of downtown from across the harbour. It was really cool.
After I got back into the city, I did a little wandering. Went grocery shopping for the usual's. Peanut butter, half a loaf of bread, cookies, and apples. My diet for the next 48 hours. So good. I called it an early night and went into my new room, 105, to sleep.
This did not happen. I was so strategically placed above a French couple in our bunk bed. And we all know the stereotypes about the French, and my-oh-my are they true! While they didnt have hairy armpits, well at least not the chick...I dont think. Boy, did they love to fuck! And boy did they do it, until 3 am, with me and 6 other people in the room. How classy! Not only did I have the worlds squeakiest bed, and not only were their attempts at keeping their gasps and moans an utter FAILURE, the guy was thrusting so hard into his lady friend that the entire bed was shaking, including my bed. My body was LITERALLY moving in tune to his thrusting. Now, I dont know if this is legitimate, but I am positive in some countries that is considered active participation in a threesome. I guess I can scratch another thing off my bucket list. I kid, I kid. This went on for a few hours, and they promptly started again at 8 am where I stormed out of my top-bunk and went out into the city. As much as it pissed me off, its hilarious now and will be even funnier when I warn my baby cousin Gavin about it when he decides to be awesome like his cousin and travel in a few years.
So in my second full day, and last day, in Sydney I decided to get down to business. Headed out early, and went to the Aquarium! YAY! Manatee and sharks and sting rays and blue penguins! It was so much fun. Marine animals are so much cooler than terrestrial ones. Lots of squealing occurred- and I was alone so it made it that much weirder to do it in public. Next up, I went to some Australian Wild World thing, which I had literally no expectations of because-quite frankly-with a name like that corniness is pretty much guaranteed. It was actually really cool. I saw lots of bats and possums and snakes. Saw Aussies biggest Croc, it was so intense. One of the coolest animals I have ever seen. Saw koalas and kangaroos. Butterflies. It was good fun.
I continued to roam the city for a few hours after this. I found The Rocks, which is the best part of Sydney, or at least my favorite. Its a really New Orleans-ish place just to the west of the Circular Quay. Full of markets and delicious smelling foods, and drunk people. Live music, art, candy. Its amazing. I wandered around aimlessly for hours. Went into an art gallery of aboriginal art. By fat the most beautiful art I have ever seen. It is so colorful and eye catching. Its perfectly abstract but has such significant meaning to the people. I can't wait to actually be able to afford some one day. After convincing myself that it was out of my budget to spend $1,400 on a table or $600 on a painting, I roamed even futher. Went into an Irish pub and treated myself to lamb cutlets.
Continuing onward! I went to say goodbye to the Opera House, in the evening. It was even more magnificent at night. Sydney definitely has a vibe that is unforgettable. I walked around the streets some more in the evening, looking at all the people, the stores, taking in all the smells. I finally found the Sydney Tower-thought it would be easy to find one of the tallest buildings in the city-I am convinced I am the only person who got lost trying to find it. After wandering around aimlessly for a while I did indeed find the entrance and went up to look at Sydney from the sky. It was vast and beautiful. I loved every second of it.
I walked back to my hostel feeling successful and exhausted. Did I mention that I didnt shower once during this trip? Yeah- I am that awesome- and that cheap. I couldnt bring myself to buy all new shampoo, conditioner, and mousse just for a 4 day weekend. I smelled like....AWESOME. I crashed in at about 9:30-ahhhhhh rest at last. No wait-whats that? My...bed..is...FUCK!!!! Its squeaking! Luckily I had invested in ear plugs, so I didnt hear any moaning but the force of the french jerk below me shook me out of my slumber.
Up at 4:30 am. Home in my dorm room at 8:00 pm.
The end. By Rachael.

GIRLS WEEKEND TO AUCKLAND

Yes, this event happened nearly 2 weeks ago. I am totally lame and convinced myself that I was too busy doing other more "important" things besides updating my blog. These "important" things consisted of facebooking, sleeping, doing homework, eating asinine amounts of cookies, and hanging out with friends/the boyfriend. You can be the judge to whether or not that is an good excuse or not, but one thing is for sure. I have definitely settled in here and have adopted a routine very similar to one back home, just with more accents and prettier weather.
So! The Auckland weekend: great fun! Woke up at 7:30 am, after going to bed at nearly 3:30 am (dont ask why) and heading out to Auckland with my pal Alana and her kiwi friend Kate! Who is totally awesome by the way. Its probably pretty pathetic, but I almost consider the best part of this weekend away the fact that I actually heard THUNDER in New Zealand. It was so exciting. For those of you who dont know, NZ doesnt ever get thunder storms. Its freakish. And weird.
From the thunder scenario where we got completely soaked running through the city in a down pour of rain, we bought tickets to Avenue Q at the Civic Center! I had no idea what to expect for this show; all I knew was it involved really crude puppets, like Sesame Street for adults. Who doesnt love crude puppets? It was so much more than I expected! For one, it was a musical. It was absolutely hilarious, political, heart-warming, pornographic. It was just perfect. The second half of the show was even more perfect due to the fact that Alana and I bought alcoholic slushie beverages in glowy cups that had a larger alcohol percentage than any of the drinks served in the shit bars in town. I was literally drunk at 3 pm.
From the show we went to, gasp, WENDYS! IN NEW ZEALAND! SPICY CHICKEN SANDWICH IN NEW ZEALAND! My life is now complete.
After "lunchinner" we went shopping in overpriced accessory stores. You know, the bright white stores with lots of huge pictures of microscopic models, cleverly placed next to mirrors so when you look in the mirror next to the image of the bedazzled bitch you think: "HOLY SHIT! I need to buy this really expensive makeup to look like this chick!". It was good fun though. I immediately went to the food part of the store, of course. I came back and Alana was literally still in the same place, having the longest orgasm known to man over MAC blush and eyeshadow.
The evening did not end here, actually, sadly, running low on energy, we were only half way through. We were picked up and escorted to a Roller Derby bout. Oh my GOD. It was the coolest thing I have ever seen in my life. All I could think the entire time I was there was "I HAVE TO DO THIS! THIS PERFECTLY COMBINES ALL MY CHILDHOOD SKILLS!". Which were obviously playing inline street/league hockey with boys and winning all the skating races at the local roller rink. So, for some retarded reason, I fell in love with the burly, tattooed, beautiful women in sparkly booty shorts and fishnets, beating the crap out of each other and skating in circles. I have convinced my self I need to do this to such an extent that I am literally going to the Hamilton teams practice tomorrow to see if I can even remember how to skate. This should be interesting, and will be continued.
After derby, went back to Kate's friend David's house, drank a little (well in my case I drank nothing but redbull to try and fathom being awake for nearly 24 hours). And went out to Auckland bars. Great times. Lots of lesbians making out, gays dancing to Lady Gaga, and other fun events. Took a cab back to Alana's friend Sam's house at like 3 am. What a awesome chick, she had the coolest house I have ever seen and definitely, hands down, the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in in my life.
The End. By Rachael.