First Week in Australia!

Hey everyone! As you probably know I arrived in Australia on Friday the 18th and its been quite a whirlwind since.  My days have been packed full with different things, I'm trying to learn my way around the city. I haven't posted yet because I haven't sat down long enough to write a post, I have barely taken pictures, I'm on sensory overload just trying to take in the surroundings myself.  Here is a Panorama of the view from my apartment :) not too bad right?….

Ill try to be better at posting, though its hard to sit inside and write a post when the beach is calling my name!! 

On Sunday Mekila and nick took me out to lunch and then we went to the shopping center to look for storage bins because I brought a ridiculous amount of clothes (everyone was right I wayyyyyy over packed) I'm definitely going to need to send home a lot of my clothes with my mom when she comes to visit in the end of September.  

There are 16 other international students living in my apartment complex and about 8 others in a building a few blocks over.  We have all become pretty close and we all go out together on the weekends.  I feel very lucky to have found such genuine great group of kids to hangout with right off the bat.

This is my room mate Josie! She is from Sweden and she is an absolute doll.  She is a graduate student so she has a much larger work load than I, but it hasn't proved to be a problem yet, though classes only started yesterday.  Im thankful that we get along so well, considering it may have been an awkward situation if we didn't share the same interests.

I still can't believe I live here… Its the middle of winter, its around 70-75 everyday and its only going to get warmer and warmer from this point on!

Here is the skyline of Surfers Paradise.

The coffee here is unbelievable, forget Dunkins and Starbucks… there are tons of little "mom and pop" cafes and coffee shops hidden around the city and I will make it my mission to try out each one! Ive never had a better cappuccino in my life! 

 I Have yet to make it out of the city of gold coast yet, there are so many different things to see here in the city.  Surfers paradise is very “touristy” so many of the shops jack up their prices.  There is much more variety when you get out of surfers. Because of this shopping is easier in broad beach where there are larger shopping centers. 

The Finishing Touches!

So its getting down to the wire here, the count down is now in the single digits! Can you believe it? Because it does NOT feel real to me yet.  Just 9 days until I embark on this 5 month journey to the gold coast, to study, experience the world, new cultures and have the time of my life… but mostly have the time of my life.
For the people that know me personally, this past year has been one of the most trying times of my life, but with the support of my friends and family, the turmoil is behind and I can move forward with the confidence to take on this trip without the safety nets I have grown so used to at UNH.   I look forward to putting myself out of my comfort zone and meeting as many people as I can while in AUS.  I will keep my blog posts short and sweet! Just enough to keep you guys up to date on the newest adventure!

Today my best friend Chelsea came over to help me start packing.  This task has been looming over my head for the past few months now.  Let me tell you… I'm not what you would call an "organized person" I'm the type of person who goes on vacation and forgets to pack shirts… literally everything but shirts… (its happened before.. York Beach Maine, 2009) Not my finest hour, but my best friends learned made a packing list for all future trips I went on after that fiasco.  With her help I managed to get a good chunk of my packing done, which is a huge weight lifted off my shoulders, I am very pleased with our progress.  I will be posting updates on how the packing is going throughout the next couple of days, because I'm sure it won't always go as smoothly as today did.  Keep in mind that I have only 1  checked bag UNDER 50  lbs to pack for 5 months, living on the other side of the world!…. wish me luck, because I'm going to need it!