downtown disney

after our trip to the cabin, the three of us packed up and flew down to orlando for a week of extreme theme-parking. our first stop: downtown disney.

mr. potato head!

one of the coolest parts of downtown disney: legoworld. inside, they had an entire wall filled with bulk bins of legos in every size, shape, and color. SO COOL.

we hit the town for dinner and somehow ended up getting drinks at... hooters. an american classic.

yeah, sure, you betcha!

our time up north at the cabin gave us a chance to relax, sled, bowl, and purchase firearms.

joshie poo and myself hanging out

z-man bought a paintball gun at mills fleet farm

the boys are really good at bowling. i am not.

clearly all that gun-slingin' wore the boys out! such exciting company!

baby, it's cold outside

z-man helped me pick out the family christmas tree. don't we look christmassy?

froze our faces off walking around the lake

spent a weekend at the cabin. z-man got dressed up for his first sledding adventure.

SUCH a sexy jacket.

hanging out by the (semi-frozen) lake

going out in minneSNOWta

joshie poo and zman started their month-long american trek in minnesota. it was fun introducing my best aussie friends to my best american friends.

z-man's first time seeing snow fall. naturally we had to take pictures.

getting ready to go out

j. bennett, j. bennett, and myself

some of my fav boys!

the girls

GPO: last college event of the year!

the three musketeers: joshie poo, z-man, and russell malone

my (very) tall dutch friends

joost and joshie poo

some of my fav freshers :)

new apartment!

well, i have officially moved out of dorm life! during my last week in australia, amongst camping trips, parties, finals, and packing for home, i managed to transport my life into a new apartment. i'm living with a friend from union, Umar, who is from mauritius. i will miss always having friends down the hallway, but i most certainly will NOT miss sharing a bathroom with gross boys or the food!

my favorite part of my apartment: the balcony

my desk, tv (came with the room), and cute picture frames :)

finally! a big bed!

best view during beer pong ever

view of the city at night from my balcony

camping

i got to spend 3 wonderful days with my favorite boy camping :) we went on a little hike along the ocean, went kayaking, and explored the sunshine coast.

carrying the kayak out to the lake

sunrise at 4:15 am. so worth the wake-up.

a couple of random pictures from fridays

last all-college exchange of the year.

halloween

the sun is shining, my foot is finally starting to (slowly) heal, i'm rockin' out to some great new country music, and i'm surrounded by people i love. life is so very good. we're reaching the stage in the semester where i wish time would slow down. i know that i'll be saying goodbye to yet another batch of international students in 19 days, which is making it difficult to get excited about matt/josh/my adventures in december.

we had a great halloween. claire and i threw a hotel/international/halloween party. basically, we had 8 rooms, with each one representing a different country. each room hosted a different drink. we had singapore slings, heineken, sangria, bundaberg rum, irish car bombs, sake bombs, beer pong (reppin' USA!) and peppermint patties. i got to host the north pole (obviously a country), so my room is now decorated for christmas :) i dressed as an elf... and yes, i wore christmas underpants over my leggings.

this week is SWOT Vac (Study WithOut Teach Vacation), so we are officially done with classes! i've got a 20 page screen play to write and 1 final, but i'm not too concerned. i've got lots to cram into the next 19 days (camping with joost, finding housing for next semester, spending time with people, working on my tan!), so i anticipate that sleep will be sparse. that's okay. i don't want to waste life by sleeping, anyway.

i want a pet koala

ICC recovery

this past weekend, the 10 colleges at Uni put on one last party before summer break begins. students were bussed to a random field filled with jello pools, bouncy castles, and an open bar. the theme was "childhood cartoon characters." it was a beautiful, sunshiney day until i decided it would be a good plan to wrestle with toni, a 6'6'' dutch/croatian friend. after a visit with the paramedics, a trip to the ER (while covered in beer, food dye, body paint, barefoot and dressed as a carebear), and some excruciatingly sore triceps thanks to my newly-acquired crutches, i have decided that wrestling was a bad idea. at least i'm tan again.

my carebear crew

i was daydream bear

toni and me before the destruction began

starting to get covered in food dye. (for some reason, it's tradition to spit food dye on each other at these events). how awesome are my sunnies?

joost and me. yup, that's a huge streak of green paint across my face.

while waiting with the paramedics, kim decided she needed to listen to my heart. so, she grabbed a stethoscope (and my boob) and went to work. shortly after, she tried to grab a scalpel.