Lets take the bus...

Well... lets see. Nothing too exciting happened in Cairns after the rain forest. We just relaxed the last few nights we were there. Monday morning was a pretty crazy day though. We had to wake up at 615 so we could eat breakfast, get all our luggage to the bus, and check out all by 730. It was a lot more stressful than it sounds. We had to drag all our bags to the bus in the rain... it didn't help that 1/2 our resort was covered in heaps of puddles. Anyways- after we got on the bus we headed to the airport where we checked in our bags and got on our 2 hour flight to Brisbane. It wasn't a bad flight at all, Matt and I ended up next to each other again and Molly sat across the isle. When we landed in Brisbane we found out that Australearn forgot to mention that we weren't on the list to get a ride to Bond so we had to find our own transportation to our hotel in Surfers Paradise. It was a little stressful but it ended up being a pretty easy trip! We took an amtrak style train an hour to the Gold Coast, got off, asked a young boy which bus we should take to Surfers Paradise, bought a ticket, and got on the bus hoping he was right. While on the bus, with all our luggage, we asked some people where our stop would be if we were staying at Club Surfers. They were helpful and we finally found our hotel! After we checked in, Nanae scared us by saying there was only one single bed and a couch... thankfully when we all got in there we saw that there was another room with a double bed. We've all been making due with the small space that we have. When we all got settled we decided to take a 1/2 hour nap which turned into a 2 hour nap. We then went out on the town, looking for food. We found a nice italian place or as Nanae says it E-Talian. Oh and before all this I thought I had lost my bag with my passport, computer, camera, journal, and a bunch of other important things but thankfully I had just left in the check in room and in the morning I was able to get it. Seriously a God moment. I was so worried. After we ate we bought a bottle of pink champagne, went back to the room, and played cards for the rest of night. The next day we made our trip over to Bond to check out Orientation week. It was quite the trip. We decided to take a taxi because after looking for a bus station for 30 min we couldn't find a bus heading to Bond till 9pm. When we got there we were so impressed- the school is BEAUTIFUL.

It's like something you'd see on TV or in a magazine. After checking in and getting some info on the school we went to Cafe Bond, ate, and then headed to the library to get our ID and email account. When we were done using the wifi we went on a tour of the school. Thankfully all of our classes are in building 6 so we don't have to walk to far. When we were done we got a taxi back to Surfers Paradise where we took another 45 min nap and got ready to go out for the night. We went to Target, K-Mart, and Coles. Target turned out to be the most expensive out of the 3 and K-Mart was really nice compared to the ones at home. We are starting to get the hang of the Australian prices. Everything is so expensive over here! It could have something to do with minimum wage being $16 an hour instead of $8. After getting supplies for the week we went to Subway and got $12 footlongs... but ordered a really cool way. You do it all yourself on a screen.

It was pretty exciting. haha When we were done eating we got on the bus and headed back to our hotel where we stayed in the rest of the night. I feel like my body is shutting down over here. Ever since the Great Barrier Reef I've felt super dizzy, tired, and my throat has been hurting really bad. I hope it's not a cold. That's the last thing I need for the first week of classes. BUT I can't complain- I'm in Australia :) Today we looked all around town for a bus pass so we didn't have to keep paying $6.80 for a day pass or $20 for a taxi! We found one at 7-11 and headed over to Bond where we've been using their wifi for a good 2 hours. It's weird not having internet at our disposal. It's kind of nice.

Well... I think that's everything. I feel like I've been here for months, but it's only been a week! I can't wait to get settled and familiar with everything. It's definitely been an experience figuring out things for ourselves and being completely on our own in a new country. I've learned a lot about myself in the past 6 days than I have in a while. I can't wait to see what happens over the next 4 months! I hope I come back with the cool Australian slang- we've already started trying to talk like them. Heaps- No worries/No drama- G'day. Haha it's kind of fun! Well I'll try and blog again soon. Thanks for reading!