Fur Sherbert I'm living on the Gold Coast

After finally arriving in Brisbane and realizing that my quarter filled Bacardi Limon bottle spilled in my luggage, we headed to our new home for the next four months.

The Infamous Gold Coast

Let's just go about this in sections.

1. The Meriton

The beautiful hotel that I call home right now. Oh lord I can't even tell you how blessed I am to be living here. Thanks mom and dad for making that happen. We live in a corner suite on the fifth floor. 502. We have this unbelievable living room, a dining area, and a kitchen. Equip with everything you could need. We also have a wrap around balcony with a table on it. Yes I am living the dream. My room is beautiful. I have a comfy small twin bed, that gets cleaned once a week. And yes to top it off, we have a cleaning service. Where the Meriton is located is two minutes walking distance from the beach and all the shopping places you would need. As well as clubs and bars. I am in love with the Meriton.

2. Beaches 

If you think any of the beaches in America are the most beautiful beaches in the world, you clearly haven't been to Australia. These beaches bring beautiful to a whole other meaning. The sand is baby soft. If you stomp your feet on the sand, it makes a squeaking noise (odd but very entertaining). The ocean is definitely a lot cleaner than in the states. The current is a lot stronger and the waves are huge (on a good day). They are always populated, even in winter considering winter here is still warm.

3. Nightlife
I can't even start about the nightlife in Australia. Every day is a day to go out and have beers or cocktails. In America, we love our beer, but Australians do it better cause most of their beer has more alcohol content. We've been going to so many different places to find our favorite spots. Tuesdays is ladies night at Sin City, aka ladies drink free. That's what I'm talking about. Wednesdays is when Anthony, Gia, and I go into Surfer's Paradise for the day and go to happy hour at the local Surf Club. Let me tell you, I look forward to Wednesdays as soon as Wednesday ends. That's saying something. Beer Garden is awesome. Very chill environment, awesome music, $10 jugs, and pool. Envy is awesome. So close to the Meriton and it's the perfect place to dance. East is an older crowd so I definitely won't go again. Bavarian Bier Garden is our Thursday happy hour spot. $10 burgers and awesome beer. Don's is the on campus bar and I'd say for the most part it's a great time. If you couldn't tell, we go out a lot here. I don't hate it, but my wallet does.

4. School
This is the one thing inconveniencing my vacation. Classes aren't too bad, but I am in such a relaxed mood here that I just don't ever want to go. I'm definitely nervous for my International Business class but that's alright. You win some, you lose some. Image and Photography is a lot of fun. A little boring at times because it's all about repetition. Australian History may be the worst class ever. Did I mention that I hate taking History classes? Love, Sex, and Relationships is really interesting and I kind of enjoy that class. I guess we'll have to wait and see once the course load kicks in how relaxed I'll be.

5. Money
Oh don't let the beautiful country fool you. Everything is expensive, even McDonald's (aka Macca's here). Hard liquor is a significant amount more. Exactly why all I drink is boxed wine. We found awesome restaurants that have cheap deals for meals. Sundays at Waxy's there are $2 steaks which are delicious and a decent size. Best deal ever. Surf Club has mediocre food for under $10. Not bad for a poor college student. I think money is the only downfall over here.

6. Shopping
The fashion here is amazing. So many cool patterned shirts and totally different style for popular clothing. There are tight clothes that are popular but for most part it's flowy beach clothes. Lighter materials but so comfortable and worth it. They have awesome jewelry because around here there are so many street markets that you can go to. Definitely easy to find gifts for all you lovely people back home.

Randoms
The people are definitely a lot nicer and relaxed here. This is great for friendships, but not for service. Since waitresses get paid around $20 bucks an hour, your table is not much of a priority. This is a real eye opener because it teaches you to be more patient. Another weird thing is that pedestrians don't have the right of way. Definitely a problem for me considering I love to just cross the street when I want to. I've met a bunch of awesome people out here and I am so happy I came. Oh and the weather. Beautiful. I've had one day of rain since I've been here. The rest have been gorgeous sunny days.

So I think after everything that I have said in this post you can guess that I never want to leave. This place is amazing and I can't tell you how grateful I am that I am here.

The Beginning.

My apologies for those who have been waiting eagerly to hear about my experiences on the other side of the world. I've been trying to write this first post for about a couple of weeks but I don't even know where to begin. I figured the smart thing to do is to go in order.

FIJI

For those who don't know the mess behind what was supposed to be a relaxing 4 days in Fiji, I'll give a short and simple explanation of the chaos that I had to experience. My flight from John F. Kennedy Airport was delayed THREE hours due to a defective sensor on the plane. With my luck, there was no other flights that would get me into LAX with time to make it to the flight to Fiji. I finally arrived in LAX at 11:15, but the only problem was I had to make an 11:30 flight to Nadi, Fiji. Sprinting with my backpack and carry on across the LAX airport, we made it to security with 5 minutes to spare. Little did we know the flight we were supposed to be on left 15 MINUTES EARLY. So long story short, Gia, Brit and I had to spend a night in LA only to take a flight to Fiji the next day.

Now for the good things. Fiji is one of the most beautiful islands I have ever seen. So many mountains, trees, clear water, and awesome beaches. We missed most of the activities we were supposed to take part in, but this just meant we had more time to swim, snorkel, relax, and drink with all the new people we met. The food in Fiji was so fresh. They caught and picked every food item that they served us. The people on this island were so welcoming. It was actually amazing to see how content they are with their "simple" lives. We are so obsessed with the internet and our cellphones that it is so eye opening to see and actually talk to people who really don't even need those types of technology to be happy.

Enough about Fiji. Let's talk about Sydney, Australia. 

Beautiful. Absolutely amazing. I'm obsessed.
It was awesome to explore such a new city and see those amazing landmarks that I've only seen in the Mary-Kate and Ashley film, Our Lips Are Sealed. I got over my fear of heights (well kinda) by climbing the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Absolutely stunning. You were able to see all over Sydney and we actually learned a lot about the city itself from our guide.

The next awesome thing we did was go to the zoo where we were able to pet and take pictures with koalas and kangaroos. They aren't as friendly as you think but they are really soft and interesting animals.

Oh I forgot to mention. We stayed at the mansion where they filmed the Great Gatsby. Just to let everyone know, it is totally different inside and out. Definitely a lot of editing was done on that film to make it look that beautiful.

We also went on a harbor cruise which was awesome. We all dressed up for a night on the harbor. Let's just say that the Sydney Opera House is way more beautiful at night.

The main thing we did in Sydney was drink... I know very surprising. But honestly, it killed me to buy alcohol there. It was about 8 dollars for a shot and even more for the mixed drink. The worst part about the mixed drinks is that they only are allowed to put in ONE shot of alcohol. So I basically learned it was cheaper to just buy beer or a shot.

So much more happened in those first two weeks of being down unda that I don't know where to stop. But I don't want to blabber on too much more. Posts about Bond and the Gold Coast will come soon.