smile like the sun

it has been SUCH a long week! it felt like it was supposed to be friday by monday afternoon... and then continued to feel like friday on tuesday, wednesday and thursday. however, not having bio1020 was absolutely fabulous :) even though it was only one class, the amount of stress that's been lifted in my life is tantamount to if i had just dropped 19 classes. 3 classes seems far more manageable right now.

on friday we went back out to the gold coast for some surf lessons! to say it was a transportational nightmare would be a grave understatement. it took us 7 different segments on busses, cars, ferries and trains and 7 hours roundtrip. shanna, a brissy native, drove 3 other girls out. it took them an hour. unfortunately she only had room in her car for four, so the bromance and i trekked out via public transport.

we started by waking up at 6:30 to hit up breakfast before we left. from there, we had to sprint across campus to catch the ferry in time. from the ferry stop, we walked for about 15 minutes to get to the train station... and of course ended up having to sprint to catch the train. the layout of the central train station is quite bizarre, as you have to go up... and down... and back up... and back down heaps of staircases to get to the platforms. after sprinting up the world's steepest staircase and accidentally elbowing a woman in the boob, we made it onto the train right as the doors were closing. the train ride takes about an hour and fifteen minutes, so luckily i had time for my heart rate to slow down and the sweating to subside. once we got to the train station, timmy had to refill his "go card" (like a debit card for public transport), so we waited for him to reload it... and subsequently missed the bus. we had to wait 29 minutes and 55 seconds for the next one to arrive as we literally got to the stop right as it pulled away. we entertained ourselves by playing some soccer... and i tried teaching them how to spin a ball on their finger. we finally got on a bus, got off at our stop, then had to wait for shanna come to pick us up with the car to drive us to the beach!

the day was sunny and warm, without a single cloud in the sky. however, my dreams of dropping out of school and becoming a professional surfer were quickly dashed--i suck. i think the highlight was the wave that simultaneously annihilated me, ripped my top off, and smacked my board right into my forehead. we had a lot of fun though and oskar and i are determined to be super good by the end of the semester! it was pretty cold in the water, so we each lasted about 20 minutes before we were sprawled back out on the sand working on our acquisition of skin cancer. the sunscreen i bought gave me a nasty rash the last time i used it, so i made the mistake of going sunscreen-less. i now look like a tomato, but it was so worth it. hopefully it'll have turned into a tan by the time the ball comes on friday! we had lunch at a little cafe by the beach... turkey, avocado, brie, cranberry jam, and cucumber sandwiches + mini cupcakes... mmm, so good.

the trip back was even more eventful. we walked for about 35 minutes to the bus station. it should have taken maybe 10, but of course we got lost and ended up trapped in the loading docks of some store. once we were in the generally right vicinity, rob's bladder decided it needed to make a stop, so he ducked into the little boys room. the rest of us walked a few extra steps to check out the bus timetable... and realized that the bus we needed was parked right in front of us. we couldn't just leave rob, so we let it go... and had to wait 30 minutes for another one. we spent the half hour wandering around nearby in search of margaritas. no luck. we finally got on the bus and arrived at the train station. as we were getting off the bus, we could see the train pulling into the station. so we booked it up the stairs, only to realize that dianne, for some reason or another, has yet to buy a gocard, so she physically had to go to the window to buy a ticket instead of just swiping a card. and, of course, we had to wait for her so the train pulled away as we stood on the platform, sadly watching it go. 3o minutes and an emergency ice cream stop later, we were on the train headed home. we got off at the wrong station and ended up having to walk for 30 more minutes to get to the bus station.

man. so goes the story of my life here in brisbane!

saturday i had class in the morning. we heard a guy from the queensland brain institute talk about the brain structure of bees and how it can be applied to robots. at least, we were supposed to. he had an extremely heavy indian accent, spoke faster than i do, and trailed off at the end of each sentence. i think i was asleep within 12 minutes. when i woke up from my little nap, i realized that 2/3 of the class were also asleep. which equals about 400 kids.

the remaining 6 hours and 14 minutes of this weekend will be devoted to cranking out my religion paper, due tomorrow at 9 am. definitely should have done more yesterday!

i can't wait for the weekend (and my paper) to be over and for the week to start! on tuesday, there's a big birthday party for a girl named allie. she rented a bus that's going to take us into the valley to hit up a club for the night. friday is the big union ball, which is going to be amazing. girls are going all out... booking spray tans, hair appointments, manis/pedis... i, on the other hand, am currently debating whether i can get away with wearing flip flops. haha.

you make me smile like the sun, fall out of bed, sing like a bird, dizzy in my head. spin like a record, crazy on a sunday night. you make me dance like a fool, forget how to breathe, shine like gold, buzz like a bee. oh, you make me smile. --uncle kracker

me and the bromance before public transportation got the best of us

i love having a waterproof camera!

the beach :)