Thursday, April 30, 2015

Week 8 of classes - the ups and downs of real life

Monday morning. Ugh. I won't lie I really thought about skipping my 8am HRM 211 class. I was super sleepy and so comfortable in my bed. I did not skip it though. Pat on the back for me. ;) I went to class and learned things. I was pretty proud of myself honestly. It's the little things in life right? Then we had an accidental fire drill. I wasn't supposed to be one. They told everyone to go back to class but they couldn't turn off the alarm...so... that was awkward for like 30 minutes.

HRM 211 is 8-10 then I have my tutorial for that class 10-11. We have a big project worth 40% of my grade due this Friday. I am finished with it already. (shocking right?) I feel really good about it. I did meet with my professor anyway. I want to be sure I don't run into another 'cultural issue'. She said I am good so let's hope this works out this time!


After the tutorial I went back to Varsity (my apartment complex in case you forgot). I paid my rent. I only have one more small payment and I am done with paying rent! Woohoo! I wanted to pay it off early so that it is easier to budget the rest of my trip... speaking of that I am taking donations... to the Sarah is in Australia and we love her fund... ;) lol

Oh and a mini update on my place -


The tree has evolved -


Then I headed back to campus. I have Sustainability 101 from 1-2 and the tutorial from 2-4. We did something kind of different in the lecture period. We played a quiz game on the readings. Usually she lectures on the reading but this was kind of cool. It was very engaging. The first round she gave out points automatically. The second round we used our computers to type answers and then she ranked them after class. That night she emailed us the results... We ended up winning btw... of course ;)

That evening after class a friend of mine Zoe from my sustainability class was kind enough to run me to the store. Thank goodness! I was desperate! I had been planning on rock climbing again, just like last week, but I realized I really needed some study/ schoolwork catch up time. I am out of internet until the end of the month at my place - so off to the library I went. I got so much done! Good choice Sarah! :)

Then Katja and I went home and had our usual steak salad wraps. Yummm :) I honestly am kind of shocked that I am not tired of this yet... but I am not :) Maybe Allison is right Katja and I are an old married couple. That is alright with me haha Then Katja, Raph and I had a movie night. We watched maybe the craziest movie ever... American Beauty. It won't be on my top movie recommendations list.

Tuesday morning I got up and went to the gym. I love when I am the only one in the gym. It is so nice :) I got a good sweat in. That is always a good way to start the day. Then it was time to shower and head off to my team meeting for HRM 311.


As usual it was an interesting meeting. I feel a lot better about the actual project because now we have a due date and an organizational structure to the paper. We also had our first group conflict. It wasn't bad honestly and I think it is overall good for the group. After the meeting I stayed there for about an hour and worked on my part of that project.

Only in Australia... no shoes... no backpack... crazy hair... crazy pants... and a skateboard of course coming from class...


Then I had a coffee date with Katja! We decided coffee before our class is good. Mainly because it seems to fall right in the time of day that is perfect for napping: 4-6pm. It was actually a really funny class. We broke into our groups as usual and did a group exercise where you have 2 cards. You start with a blue in the right hand and a red in the left. She reads a story and any time she says left you pass left - so your card in your left hand goes to the person on your left and the card in your right hand goes to your left hand and you get a new card in your right hand... anyway that also happens to the right when she says right. Oh! AND there is a list of 7 questions to answer after the story. So we split up the questions and thought we were ready. We were so not ready. Everything happened so fast. At one point Thomas had 5 cards I had no cards and Rachel was crouched on the ground laughing. Needless to say we struggled a bit. I laughed so hard I thought I might pee. It was ridiculous. We actually all ended up with the cards in the correct hands (well all of us except Zak). That was magic no doubt because it was a train wreck. We also ended up with 4/7 questions answered correctly so that was pretty cool! Overall we had fun and were somewhat successful. Win! :)

During the tutorial from 6-7 my Surface Pro freaked out. I have no idea what happened. I was working fine like 10 minutes ago... all I did was change classrooms. :( So I just left it off and let it rest. I went home and plugged it in and it wouldn't turn on. :( I did a factory reset and let it sit for a while. For dinner we made zucchini meat feta thing. It was really good!


I was trying so hard not to stress out completely about the computer but it had me pretty stressed. All my school work... projects and notes.. everything is on there! I don't have a back up. I know I know that is dumb. I just never thought about it. :( So I decided to go back to the gym because I was having a strong urge to eat everything in the house which would have left me with no food for the week haha. Then I played some cards. Jaksen came home and honestly I have no idea what happened but it seems pretty much fixed. We took the screen protector off and that seems to have helped a lot. The touch screen is still a bit touchy (pun intended) but it is working! So I am happy :) I just decided to go to bed and hope for the best in the morning.

Wednesday morning bright and early I headed to Supply Chain Management 8-11. Today was the first day my group actually has felt somewhat cohesive in a long time. I think it is a good sign. Even better news though... My Surface Pro is working again!

After class I came home and went to the gym. Then Katja and I got a hair cut. I usually can go a lot longer without one... but Australia is terrible for my hair! :( So I got all my dead ends trimmed off :) I feel much better. We also ran to Woolworths and the post office.. we had a big day.

Then Marnie texted me about joining her at Zumba. I am not a huge fan of this class but realized as I was sitting there eating popcorn I should probably go haha. It was fine... pretty much as I remembered it.

At one point Jaksen brought up drawing Australia... as you can imagine I wanted to try. Honestly mine wasn't that bad... Katjas looked like a soccer ball... so I beat her haha

Mine is on the left and Jaksen's is on the right... Jasksens came with a very nice decription of all the areas hence the scribbles. :) We had fun.

I meant to publish this last night... but my internet has been a struggle.

Today (Thursday) I got up and got ready and decided that it is way too rainy to be out and about. So I had a nice relaxing day at home. I went to the gym. 




I did laundry... I dyed my towels pink... So a couple days ago I found a towel Jason left in my suitcase... it smelled... so I washed it. It has red in it. Now my towels are pink. Katja is jealous. :) 


So I guess it worked out? Haha  when life gives you red turning your stuff pink - make your roommate jealous of your pink towels. It's all how you look at it! :)

Now we are going to make steak salad wraps for dinner and probably watch a movie :) We are a really great old married couple!


Monday, April 27, 2015

Glasshouse Mountains

I got up Sunday morning and woke up in one of my favorite places to wake up. Kim's place is so comfortable and feels like a mini resort. I had some brekky with Kim and Charlie :)


After brekky Kim and I hit the road for a little adventure day. We didn't have much plan other than Glasshouse Mountains/ Hinterlands. So off we went! No GPS just a basic idea what direction. Kim is really good at finding her way around.


The Glasshouse mountains were named by Capt. James Cook in 1770. They are a set of 11 mountains in south Queensland. The range formed when lava cooled forming hard rock in the cores of volcanoes. Then they formed into volcanoes. Now what you see is just the left over volcano plugs.


So they used to be all giant volcanoes. Now after time erosion has only left the center/ the plugs of each one. There are no active volcanoes in Australia. It is actually the only continent where that can be said. It weird to think how many volcanoes they used to have though!


 I wish the pictures could capture the beauty... It is so iroonic that we are here together. Kim and I met in a Geology class in the USA. We learned about these things and now we are halfway around the world seeing it first hand! It's crazy how life works!


I love there little stained glass glasshouse mountainscapes all over the outlook area. They are so pretty!


History/ Legend time!

The Glass House Mountains are located in the traditional lands of the Gubbi Gubbi people. In the Aboriginal legend the mountains are members of a family with the father being Mount Tibrogargan and the mother Mount Beerwah. All of the other mountains are sons and daughters with the eldest being Mount Coonowrin.

Tibrogargan, the father, observes that the sea is rising and asks that Coonowrin the eldest son help their pregnant mother to safety. Terrified, Coonowrin instead flees. Infuriated by his son's cowardliness, Tibrogargan pursues him and strikes him with his nulla nulla so hard that he dislocates Coonowrin's neck.

Once the danger passes Coonowrin feels tremendous guilt for his actions and asks his father, brothers and sisters for forgiveness but they all weep with shame. This is said to explain the many small streams that flow through the area. Tibrogargan turns his back on Coonowrin and gazes out to sea refusing to look at his son Coonowrin who continues to hang his head in shame and weeps. 

Let's meet the family!






Oh. Did I mention how crazy the sky is here. It is just unbelievably clear!


I know I talk about the sky a lot int this blog but I swear it is just so amazing! I wish the pictures could capture it! :(


On our trip we realized it was like 1pm so we had some lunch. Blood orange / passion fruit water! Yumm!!! It is so great. We also had some Startburst babies. Eating babies? Kind of weird... They are gummies. They actually pretty good! :) Kim knows all the good little treats.


So kept on our journey through the Hinterlands.



There are random lookouts all over the place! I love all the lookouts. They are all so nice and the wind is amazing! It is a bit cooler up in the Hinterlands because of the wind but I love it!



Then we found a tree house hotel!!! In the rain forest! The tree house hotel is literally all in the trees. You have to use the walkways in the trees to get to your room. It is so cool! I want to stay there!


We also found a dam. There was a pretty little nature walk around it which was cool. Kim was here before and apparently tried to give a 4 foot lizard a chip... and he chased her. Haha She cracks me up.


So we left the dam and went down to another little nature walk.


Haha Kim and her Vera Bradley bag and her snake stick. Apparently it is good to have a long stick so if you see a snake you have something to hit it with and run. I also found that my new ankle bracelet is kind of a snake anklet. It has bells on it so I feel like the jingle is announcing that I am coming. I feel like it will help snakes hear me and run way... I think I am thinking about this too much...


We found Obi Obi creek. I have been there before, but in a different part. Last time I was at Obi Obi creek we were walking and swimming up it! This time Kim and I just hopped around on some rocks :) It was very fun!


Then we heard a waterfall... but we couldn't see a waterfall... so off we went into the woods :)


We crawled through some bush and we found what will forever be known as KimSarah Falls.


I decided KimSarah was appropriate, as she has been in in Australia longer than me. :)


It is soooooo pretty! I want to take my parents here when they come visit!


OH! and I found a really big tree! I love trees. Yo umay have noticed all my tree hugging pictures :) Australia really does have some amazing trees :)



After that adventure we headed back for civilization. We ended up in Coollum. I do love Coollum. It is so calm and pretty. She drove me back to my apartment and dropped me off. I was worried she would hit a lot of traffic heading back to Brissy from the Sunny Coast but I guess it wasn't bad. It was such a fun day! I wish we could do it every day! Dang school! Haha Speaking of school - tomorrow starts my week so gotta do some school work and get some sleep for tomorrow. 

Peace!

Ref.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_House_Mountains

Saturday, April 25, 2015

Tamborine Mountain

Today we went on an adventure. We were not entirely sure where we were going... but off we went! :) We went to Tamborine Mountain. The name is of no relation to the instrument. It is a name that comes from Aboriginal origins actually. The geological origin of the plateau is a lava flow from the Mount Warning volcanic eruption 22 million years ago! Crazy right?!? Anyway as we drove around up there we found this excellent view of the Gold Coast! :)


Ummmm and of course some fun pictures ;)


We also found a glow worm cave. Yep glow worms! This was a man made glow worm cave. We did not walk through but we did learn about glow worms So glow worm facts:
- they live less than a year
- they eat other insects
- Australia is home to 8/ 9 species of glow worm: the missing one being in New Zealand
- they have very powerful mouths and jaws
- theirs mouths are too small to bite humans
- they glow to attract food
- adults are unable to feed so they have to get their nutrients in the larval stage
- therefore adults do not glow... no need to attract food
- the light they produce is 99% light and only 1% heat
- OH!!! and there is a very cute??? little song.... it is such an Aussie song.



Then we went for a nice little hike in Tamborine National Park. It was an easy hike and very pretty.



And did I mention we found Fudge Heaven?


So overall I was a pretty happy camper. We drove back down the giant mountain through the beautiful trees.



It was a really nice day. Very relaxing! I always like hanging out with Kim. We always have a good time on any adventure :) The rest of tonight was just chill and resting which is just what I needed! We watched a terrible movie. Brave. Don't watch it. Ever. That little princess is such a spoiled awful person. Overall worst movie I have seen maybe ever! On the other hand we also watched Kung Fu Panda... which is a great movie :) All ended well :) I can't wait to see what is up for tomorrow!