Well here I am, the 1st five days of Australia under my belt and so far, so good.  Actually to be honest I'm better than good, I'm great !  Been awesome to catch up with everyone and see what life is like for them at home.  Meeting their families, seeing where they work, where they go to school and where and with who they hang out with.  Haven't taken too many pics yet.  In a weird way there is a sense of normality to the situation being with everyone that I almost forget I'm in a complete different country.  It only really hits me when all the sudden I notice we're driving on the other side of the road or that everyone, not just my friends have a different accent than me.

Flying into Brisbane was absolutely beautiful.  After an incredibly long flight, with by the way sitting beside the DUMBEST Texan man (no joke, he asked me what the container marked water on his dinner tray was and what he was supposed to do with it !!!!  My answer, DRINK IT !!!!!) the pilot announced we were making our way in.  The sun was just rising over the ocean and I could see the city and for the 1st time on one of my trips I started to cry in sheer excitement with the reunions I was about to embark on.

My friend Alana who I'm staying with in Brissy being the champ she is met me for my arrival at 6 am.  For those of you who don't know Alana this is pretty impressive cause this girl values sleep.  She brought me to her house where she and her parents are being nice enough to put me up for the 1st part of my trip.  After some breakfast Lans and her friend Jess took me up to the Sunshine Coast about an hour away to a little beach town called Mooloolaba.  Such a pretty town lined with shops, bistros and cafes all along the shore.  Me being a bit disorientated and jetlagged (not at all me having a blonde moment) left my bathing suit at home even tho it was packed beside my purse.  So my 1st Aussie beach moment happened in Lan's extra bottoms and my bra, classy hey ?  After dealing with that embarrassment and telling myself that I wouldn't see any of the people on the beach again I went for my 1st tutorial in the ocean.  Not wanting to be one of the dumb tourists to get caught in a rip tide Alana showed me how to jump under and over waves.  Sad fact about me, I've never really swam in the ocean so after a tiring lesson I went to nap on the beach.  It should be mentioned that while I was applying my SPF 45 sunblock there was a bit of teasing but the end result was me with a nice brown hue and two very red Aussies !!!!  The night was pretty quiet, dinner out and meeting some of Lan's friends and a very early bed time in attempt of beating the jetlag.

After a late start I got to see Lan's work and one of her university campus' where her friend had a dance recital.  Later that night we went into a part of the city called the valley to meet our friends Michelle and Toby who are being my hosts at the Gold Coast.  Shell's brothers have a clothing line called Bam Bam (super nice stuff) and were hosting a fashion parade at a club called Alambra.  Pretty fun night and a little boozy.  After our evening ended there I hopped in with Shell and Tobes and started our hour drive down to the Gold Coast.

Next morning me and Shell decided to bike ride to Main Beach.  Now you should know that me and bikes don't always get along.  After a failed attempt in Europe years ago I didn't try again till California last year.  With better luck there I thought I was OK again until we got about two driveways down and I had to jump off and abandon the bike in the middle of the street to avoid riding into the oncoming traffic on the cross road.  In my defense I was a little unsure (or maybe just forgot) which way to look for traffic.  After a shaky start we continued on our trip with no more incidents as long as I had fair warning of crossing the street or turning.  Not wanting to overdue it in the sun we left the beach and went by to Toby's parents house for a visit with them (they came to Canada last winter) and then to Shell's work for lunch.  Later on we went to Broadbeach with some of the girls Michelle works with for dinner at an Asian infused restaurant called East.  Then it was off to Alto to catch up with some of the Big White friends Nat, Joel and Welby.

Next day was my catch up with Amy (aka Herbs or Gaga).  She took me to a place called Fishos right on the water known for their Sunday sessions.  After a bottle of wine and a lunch we hardly ate cause it was so flipping hot (and humid) we made our way to Surfer's Paradise.  The place kinda reminded me of Hollywood because it's kinda tacky and designed for tourists.  One of her friends who lives there was having people over so Herbs and I made our way there.  Her friend lives a block off the beach in a highrise so it was a good way to scope out the sights and catch a pretty sunset.

This morning me and Shell caught the train back to Brisbane and grabbed breaky in a real pretty area called Southbank and then got to see the other uni campus.  Since both of the girls had class my buddy Chris picked me up and got to drive around the city and look at apartments with him.  We then made our way back to the valley for a much needed cold beer. It was funny being back where I was on Friday night cause I didn't even recognize it at first.  On Friday it was jammed with people cause there's so many bars, pubs and lounges and now it was almost empty.  Except for the traffic which is backed up all over the city.  Now I'm back at Lan's till I probably head back to Goldie with Shell.  I promise to start being more of a tourist and taking more photos to post on here. Thanks for reading along !

SJ