Busy As Usual! :)

Hey guys! I just finished a crazy week! I had a paper due today, a Sign Language speech on Monday and I had to read A LOT this week. I did not realize that Anthropology classes came with so much reading! Oh well! My tutor says that I am doing great in the class and that she loves to read about small town, Hanover, Kansas. I found out that I did well on a test for my Speech-Language Pathology course, and I absolutely LOVE  the class. We are talking about how the brain controls speech, language, swallowing and motor skills. It is extremely hard but SO fascinating. Tomorrow, I am working on more homework and will start planning my trip to Tasmania. It is starting to become very cold here, and my heater in my room does not work. So, I have my very own personal nest in my friend's room. Haha! I spent four hours in her room yesterday, and we read and watched "Grey's Anatomy." We have our own little "Grey's Anatomy" club that meets every Thursday night. I also found out when my finals will be in June! My last final will be June 16, but I think the trip to Tasmania will be after that. :) This wonderful experience will end on a wonderful note. My Australian friends know that my sister is getting married, and they asked me if I could  invite them to my sister's wedding so that they could visit. It was soo funny! I am so thankful for my friends here, because homesickness has been bad here lately. They have made me laugh and realize that I need to enjoy the people here and Australia before I leave. I am only here once and need to invest in my relationships. I found out that my Australian Sign Language final is going to be difficult. I have to produce a 10-12 minute long speech and then tell what a signer is saying. I am nervous but excited for it. Signing feels a lot like acting, and I love to act. Tonight, I watch a cool French film with my Australian friends and funny YouTube videos. On Sunday, I am making Puppy Chow, and it marks that I  come home in two months! Where has the time gone? Well, that's all for now! :)

Can't Sleep...So Blog!

Hey guys! I am behind again and promise that I will starting doing this everyday again. I have been reading Anatomy all day and have two papers due this week. I think the stress is keeping me up! Thank goodness for my friends here though! We watched "Valentine's Day" tonight together, and it was wonderful. Then last night, my Aussie friends and I watched "The Lion King" on YouTube in French, German, Japanese and Italian. It sounds really pretty in Italian! :)  Then I told my Australian friends that I am going to make Puppy Chow for them, and they looked at me and said, "Like dog food?" They don't have wonderful Puppy Chow over here! Then I making them my Grandma White's apple pie. :D I think my friend and I are going to be planning a trip to Tasmania in June, and I am SOOO excited! I did my first speech in Australian Sign Language today, and boy was I nervous! BUT it went well, and the speech just had to be about me. I told them that I love to shop for shoes, purses and jewelry. I am my mother's daughter. Haha! Well, I better head to bed! Thanks for the support at home! :)

Long Time No Talk

Hey guys! Sorry I haven't written in a while. School has been keeping me busy all week, but a lot of miracles have happened this week. I FINALLY found a job at a catering center on campus, and I will be waiting tables. I can't wait to learn more about the culture by waiting on Australians. Homesickness has been kind of bad here lately, butttt I still love it here. I am bummed that I have to start doing homework again after my wonderful trip to Cairns. But I am SO thankful to be here. On Tuesday, I had my first day of work, and we catered an event for the College of Business and Law. I got to meet the associate dean of the college, and I talked to him for a few minutes about Speech Pathology. My boss is really nice and my co-workers were great! On Tuesday, I also got to perform my first Oral Facial Examination on a child, and I did one on an adult on Sunday. Speaking of Sunday, I found a Catholic church not too far away from here, and I met a lot of Italian women. Wednesday, I got my first "A" over here, and I could not contain my excitement! haha! My tutor is happy with me, and I am starting to figure out what they want. Then yesterday, I assessed Fran's speech off "The Nanny" for class!! Hahaha! It was totally awesome. My week ended really well because I found out that my FAVORITE band is playing here in Melbourne on June 9th!! TRAIN! I am going to see them one way or another. Then I think a trip to Tasmania is in the cards later on. It is hard to travel a lot here, because Australia is a HUGE country, and everything is spread apart. Haha! You guys may not hear a lot from me in May because I have five essays due during that month. They are going to make time fly, and pretty soon I will be coming home. :( / :) I can't decide if that is good or bad because I have met wonderful people here. BUT there is NO place like Kansas. :)

My Trip to Cairns

Hi guys! I just got back from Cairns, which is a city in Queensland, Australia. It was a wonderful trip!  The day of our arrival was disappointing because our hostel wasn't as nice as what we thought it would be. Then we went to this restaurant that the hostel said to go to, and it was terrible. But after a night full of laughter about everything, we realized that things really weren't that bad. We just rolled ourselves up in the sheets for caution against bed bugs...ugh. None were found though! The second day was wonderful! We went out on the Great Barrier Reef, Moore reef to be exact, and I got to scuba dive!! The trip out to the reef was a bit choppy, sooo a lot of people became sea sick. They didn't take the Ginger tablets that were offered by the crew! I don't get their logic! Then I had my scuba diving briefing with an instructor and three other people. It was a little confusing because the United States measures air in psi, and Australia uses the bar system. Then decompression was measured differently, and I became really nervous. After getting to the reef, we finally suited up in our equipment, and my nerves were killing me. Then one instructor, a God send, told me that this water was going to be a piece of cake for me because I learned how to dive in a sand pit. He told that the visibility would be a lot clearer and that I would float easier here because of the salt. That talk really made me feel confident. Grandpa sent me a friend when I needed one. :) After getting all the equipment on, we went under the deck onto a platform in shallow water. Then we swam to ropes that led down to the reef. After putting our regulators in, we went down. It was soooo beautiful!! The fish were beautiful, and I wish I could have done another dive. I can't even describe the beauty that I saw that day! While diving, I got caught in a huge school of beautiful fish! Now, I wish that I was a Marine Biology major! I want to know the names of all the fish I saw. Then I ran into Wally, the HUGE blue fish, who is the mascot of the cruise we went on. He was this HUGE fish that knew he was a cutie, and he would let you touch him. He was a sweetheart, and he had a ego. He knew he was a pretty boy. It was cute! We got our photo taken together! I feel like I am advancing in my diving, though. I was able to keep neutral buoyancy ( not touching the ocean floor or going to the surface), and I was able to keep up with the dive instructor around all of the coral! This experience changed my life because I worked sooooo hard to become certified just for that dive. It was TOTALLY worth all of the work, frustration and tears. My first certified dive was at The Great Barrier Reef, and you could believe how big my smile was went I wrote that into my dive journal. I just want to thank everyone who supported me during my certification, because I experienced that beautiful dive because of you all. After coming up from diving, we ate lunch, and they served us shrimp that still had their black eyes. I found out that I can't eat anything that is starring at me! haha! Then Ashton and I went out to the reef and snorkeled for a while! I liked scuba diving better because people didn't run into you!! People were kind of rude! But the sights outweighed the people issues. We saw a HUGE blue fish eat coral, and then eat the fish in the coral! It was fascinating, and I got caught in five schools of fish during my snorkel. It was a fantastic day! Chantel wrote on my facebook yesterday about how I used to be scared of water, and now I love it. What is fear? It is nothing when you make the decision to overcome it. Ashton and I spent the second of our trip at the Cairns Tropical Zoo, and it was absolutely amazing! We started out the day by feeding the kangaroos. The zoo held the kangaroos in a huge paddock that housed probably 60 kangaroos! While all of the other tourists tried to lure a huge group of kangaroos with food, Ashton found her and I our personal kangaroo. The kangaroo was sitting in the corner away from all the rest of them, and Ashton lured him with food! We had our own private photo shoot with him, and then the other tourists found out our scheme. Darn. haha! After the kangaroos, we went to lunch, and we had a visitor. Ashton and I were sitting down and enjoying our lunch. Then Ashton says, "There is lizard under the table next to us." I really didn't freak out because tiny lizards had been following us all day. Then I look over at this Water Dragon that is two foot long!!! I about jumped out of my chair and shrieked! Ashton knows of my fear of reptiles, and she was like, "I wondering why you were staying sooo calm about the lizard!" Then we found out that lizard was the cafe pet. The owner came out and fed the lizard cantaloupe! Haha! Bizzarre pet I'd say! Ashton almost got attacked by a baby crocodile!!! She was the first person to hold the crocodile, and I think he must have woke up on the wrong side of the bed. He, even with his jaws taped shut, tried to bite Ashton!!! Ah!  I went to get my picture take with the koala, too! Ashton's koala was an older one, but I got to hold a baby girl. Her name was Lana, and she was the sweetest little girl ever! I could have cuddled with her for hours and hours. She was soooo precious!! I think the zookeeper said that she was 6 months old. :D That night, Ashton and I went out for some Italian food, and it was amazing but spicy!!! It was hot and humid that whole time we were in Cairns. I was used to it because summers in Kansas can be extremely humid. Our third day was spent by going into shops around Cairns, and I found wonderful deals on gifts for people at home. We went to "Cartier," "Louis Vuitton," and "Rolex" because I never have before. I just wanted to go because I have never seen them before!! It was sooooo cool and everything was beautiful! They were kind of pricey...haha! Then we went to the beach and ate at "Hog's Breathe Cafe" the last night! It was yummy! I had a grilled steak sandwich, chocolate fondue and wonderful fruity drink! The next day was filled with gross flights!!! Three flights!! We finally made it back to Melbourne at 10:25 on Wednesday night! It feels great to be back, but now I go back to school on Monday. Ugh. Cairns was wonderful, and I wouldn't have gotten there without support back home! Thanks everyone! :)

Keeping my chin up

Hey guys! I have been super busy finishing up my last week of school before Easter break. I am so excited to scuba dive in Cairns and know that my Grandpa White will be watching out for me. It has been hard to concentrate on my courses this week, and it is hard to be away from home at this time. However, my family has been skyping me and being supportive. My friends here have been amazing and supportive, also. I am blessed to have them. I have been studying for an exam in my Normal Communication class all day and just have been hanging in here. On the brighter side of things, one of neighbors had a birthday last night! Our whole floor celebrated with her, and we made TONS of food. I tried Fairy Bread, which is bread, butter and then they put sprinkles on it. Now, it may not sound great, but it was delicious! My friend also made miniature meat pies, which we don't eat much in the U.S. They were great too! I keep figuring out that Australians call things different names than Americans do. Sooooo when I get home, I may be calling things by different names. Haha! My friends and I also want to plan a trip to a local winery! It will be soooo much fun because I have never went to one in the U.S. They say the food is wonderful! Tomorrow is my friend from Texas's birthday! I think we are gathering tomorrow night for that, and I can not wait! Then Saturday is when we leave for CAIRNS!!!!! :DDDD I found out that our hotel will pick us up from the airport for free and that we have a complimentary meal at the local cafe every night. It will be great to relax after these past weeks. Hopefully I can find a church in Cairns. I would really like to celebrate Easter somewhere! Another side note, I found out that I am approved to do research at UNL when I get back, and it will be focused on the area of Speech Pathology that I want to specialize in! Plus, it is going to be under a wonderful professor! :D Then I found out that will probably graduate from UNL a semester early in December of 2013, and I have an apartment lined up for next semester. I am trying to live my life to fullest here because I know that my Grandpa White would want me to, and I know he is watching over me. He will get to go scuba diving in Cairns with me. Thanks for all of the prayers and support at home. You all are wonderful. :)

Four Day Week!! :D

Hey guys! Sorry I am behind! I felt ill on Friday and Saturday night. I couldn't hardly get out of bed...ugh.  Anyway, my Sunday was a lot better. I just chilled all day, did laundry and some studying. After studying for a while, my friends and I made dinner together. One of my friends could not believe that Americans put creamer in their coffee. Haha! It is my guilty pleasure. I don't know about anyone else, but I love flavored creamer. :D Then after dinner, I skyped with my friends, Heather and Josh at UNL!!!!! It was soooooooo wonderful to see them, and they made me laugh so much! I am missing UNL, but I will back before I know it. Then I think of the hard classes that are waiting for me, and I snap into reality. On a side note, KU is going to the National Championship!!!! :DDDD I am so excited for them, but Kentucky will be great competition. They will need their A-game for sure. My family has been keeping me updated. Poor Matt was typing to me during the game. I am so happy for them and will be cheering them on all the way in Australia. This week is only a four day week because of our Easter break, and I have a Test on Tuesday. I am nervous because it is worth 20% of my grade. Hopefully, I do well. Plus, I figure out if I got a job or not tomorrow. I am kind of stressed out but then I think of Cairns next week! I will be SCUBA DIVING soon!!!! I am sooooooooo excited and can't wait to see the Great Barrier Reef.  I am still thinking about my Grandpa White and wish he was here to enjoy Australia with me. He is a sweetheart. Mom and my Aunt Maggie watched the KU basketball game with him at the hospital. I wish I could have been there with them and that I was spending time with him. I am now thankful that I took the time to go to his Chemotherapy treatments with him in Manhattan while I was on break. It was time together and that is what counts. Thanks for the support back home and please send prayers. You all are awesome. :)