Catch Up!

I haven't blogged about anything in quite awhile, I apologize. Classes ended on June 2 for me and Dan, Mara, Nick and myself went to Sydney for a couple days. We did the typical tourist stuff and saw the bridge and opera house all that fun stuff. We stayed in a hostel called YHA Central, which was in the heart of Sydney. That was really cool and we met some amazing people, like we usually do. Nick, Dan, and I went there on Saturday the 4th and Mara met up with us the following day. Nick and I left on the 2nd and Mara and Dan left the following day. 

Since I've been back in Brisbane I've pretty much just been studying hardcore. My life sucks right now, I can't wait for finals to be over with! I'm very determined to do well on these so I've been studying hard. Fortunately I've had some people to go to the state library with and it helps things move along. The library is right on the river and over looks the city it's gorgeous. 

My last final is on the 24th of June and I leave for New Zealand the following morning. I'll be in New Zealand for 4 days arriving back in Minnesota on June 29. I'm not at all looking forward to the long and very tedious flight, but as they say 'you gotta do what you gotta do.' 

Now on to the more important news that my parents will probably flip on me for doing. I have conjured up the idea of studying abroad again! Yes, parents if you are reading this you have read it correctly. I, Adam Gross, plan on studying abroad one last time. Now, I'm taking a more sensible route this time, since I'll be doing my internship this fall I plan on being a stingy with my money in hopes of saving enough up. If I can save a reasonable amount and all that fun stuff, then I will definitely try to study abroad one last time. Before I become a workaholic, since I seem to do that when I get focused on something. 

To finish this off, England 2012? Hopefully. 

Fiji, Birthday and School

I just got back from my little vacation and it was AMAZING! I've been in Fiji for the last week, so I'll start off there. We got to the main island, Nadi, and had to find out how to get to our resort. After a little bit of time wondering around we found out company and they pointed us in the right directions. We stayed in a hostel that was similar to the one I stayed at in Cairns. We only stayed there for one night and then left in the morning. When I say we I mean Mara, Dan, Nick and myself.

 Our first roommate was a girl from Norway who was also studying in Brisbane. She was pretty cool and we all walked to what we thought was going to be a beach, but turns out to be mud and garbage. Anyway we took pictures and walked back to eat dinner. The next morning we got up for breakfast and got our meal that we already paid for. We had to catch a bus to take us to the marina and hop on a boat to take us to our island we were staying at. We thought we were going to be late, because it was taking them forever to get us our food. It arrived in the last second and we had to scarf it down; I doubt any of us tasted it. The bus then got us to our destination and Mara and I checked our bags while Dan and Nick checked us in.

Finally we got on our boat; off to Beachcomber island! It took about 45 mins to arrive and it was gorgeous. We all stayed in the giant dormitory; Dan got the bottom bunk and I had the top. Our first roommate was a guy from Canada, named Josh. He was really chill and was staying for two nights. We all meshed quite well and ended up hanging out the whole time. Our group got a little bigger at the end of the night when we met a girl from Denmark and two more that were studying at the Gold Coast. One was from England and the other was another American. Oh, I almost forgot we also met two guys from England and two more women from England.

The next day we all decided to stick together since the Gold Coast crew was staying five nights and ironically had the same flight as us on the way back to Brisbane. We laid on the beach and met two ladies, one was from Sweden and the other from England. It was awesome how many people you could meet by just traveling. We all hung out for the whole day. The same day Dan and I went parasailing; it was quite the experience.

I don't remember if we kayaked that day or the next, but we did it somewhere in there. It's funny how when I think back on it all the days just kind of blended together. Josh eventually departed to different islands. We decided to do this pub crawl to different islands which wasn't really a pub crawl most of island hopping. That night we all went swimming in the ocean at about midnight.

The next day we got another roommate; a guy from Manchester, England who went by the name of Dom. The guy was really cool and we all started hanging out again. That night we played some card games a few drinking games. It was raining the whole day so not much to do.

The following day was the day before my Birthday and we planned to celebrate it that night, because once the clock hit midnight I was 21 and that fact that I was leaving in the morning. Dom and I kayaked in the rain and wind, which made for a pretty good workout. The night was so much fun I don't think it would of been possible to have a better 21st. The people I was with made it that much better. I also met three ladies from Norway, who were really friendly. I pretty much loved everyone I met, maybe it's because everyone is so happy on vacation.

The next morning it was finally nice, but it was our time to leave. We said out goodbyes to Dom and got on the boat to catch our ride to Nadi and get back to Brisbane. I planned on going out to the city with everyone from my floor, but I had some serious doubts after the prior night. I managed to dig up enough energy to have a guys night and go out with them. We went to a couple bars and it happened to be another amazing night. I had the best week of my life and celebrated my birthday in two different countries within 24 hours. Lets be honest, how many people can say they've done that?

Now that all that is out of the way I'm staying up until 2:30 a.m. waiting for a phone call from my manager. I'm going to try to start some homework and my paper that is coming up. My family should be in Australia now making their way to Brisbane throughout the week. I'm excited to see them on Friday and hopefully I have enough to keep them busy for their stay.

I'd like to give a little thanks to everyone who made my birthday unforgettable! I love you guys!

One last thing, I can't believe I have less than two months left. Where has all the time gone?

Catching Up

Alright, I haven't blogged in awhile been super busy getting read for midterms and call. Now that I am done I will  catch you all up on my life so far. So, I had a midterm on Monday in Public Economics 60 minutes 5 essay questions; I think it went pretty good. I guess I'll find out soon enough; the questions weren't hard or anything the difficulty was getting everything I knew down on the paper in 60 minutes. I just got done with my International Finance midterm and overall I think it went well some things were a little tricky, but I'm hoping for a HD (A).

Tonight virtually our whole floor and probably all of the college are going out tonight for some celebration. I think  tomorrow a couple of us are going to explore the city a little more since I haven't really been able to do that. I want to see some museums, the botanical garden, and of course ride the City Cat at night.  On a side note our netball team is unstoppable. We haven't lost yet and we don't plan on it.

Next week I have another quiz in my Money, Banking and Finance class. It shouldn't be to hard the first one was rather easy and I've gone over most of this stuff in former classes.

My new small netbook is working pretty good and my normal laptop has completely crashed now, which resulted in a little panic. I had to get Microsoft Office installed on this so I can do my assignments that are coming up.

Only a week left until we get to go to Fiji! Dan get keen!!!

Melbourne

This past weekend I had to joy of going to Melbourne with some friends to visit out Canadian friend who is going to school there. She was kind enough to let us stay at her place, so we didn't have to pay for accommodation. We left Thursday night and were supposed to arrive just before midnight, well that didn't happen. I can safely say I won't ever fly Jetstar again, initially I thought it wasn't going to be pretty good. Our first flight was delayed for a hour. I could of lived with that, but when it was time for us to leave our plane was once again delayed for about a hour and a half for technical reasons.

We got into Melbourne around 1 am and got a shuttle bus to some random place, then a cab to another random road and finally Cassandra met us by McDonald's. Thursday we didn't do anything since it was so late, we sat around talking until about 5 am.  Thet next day, Friday, we took a train into the city to explore it. The city is AMAZING, but I think I say that about every city I've been to. We walked around the whole day and saw a bunch of interesting things. My favorite is probably the graffiti walls all over the city. I have picture of them on my Facebook and it's possibly the coolest thing ever!

Friday night we went to a AFL game (Australian Rules Football) and we had no idea how it was played or who the teams were. Canada (Cassandra) knew the most and tried to explain it to us. We decided to flip coins to see what team we were going to cheer for. I happened to get St. Kilda Saints along with Canada and Mara; Dan and Jenny got the Richmond Tigers. In the first period it looked like it was going to be a lopsided victory for the Saints, little did we know it would be a really good game. The second period the tides turned and the Tigers were up by like 10 or something. They held the lead throughout the third period and heading into the fourth we were only down 6, I think. The fourth period was by far the best and most exciting. The Saints started to look sloppy and were trailing pretty good, but we turned it around and tied it up and took the lead in injury time. It didn't last long though, the Tigers ended up scoring and taking it back and we were down 95-93. In the closing minutes we got two quick scores and tied the game and with second left it looked like we could squeeze out a win, but unfortunately they blocked the last attempt and it ended in a draw. Oh, and I was able to buy an authentic AFL jersey for the Saints for only $30!

Friday night we decided to take it easy and didn't go out and stayed in, it was a mellow night, but was much needed. The following day some of us went out to the country and the rest of us went back to the city. We visited the stadiums of the city, their new cricket/soccer stadium, the AFL one that was watched the game at and finally the Australian Open tennis stadium. Once we were done there we walked across the river to the CBD (central business district) and tried to find a place to get kangaroo. After searching and having no luck we were about to give up until the last restaurant on the road had it. We ended up getting it; the meal it self was alright the sauce they put on the kangaroo wasn't that good. It did cost us $25 and we hardly got any food for that too, but it was all about the experience.

Saturday night was the last night in Melbourne so we hit the city. We planned on not sleeping at all and just heading to the airport once we got tired of going to bars and stuff. A group of us went out and went to a couple bars; most of their bars you had to pay a cover fee. I wasn't to fond of that, but I couldn't do much about that. After about three or four different bars we decided to hit up the casino. Once we got there the security guy said we couldn't go in if we've been drinking, but decided to let us in anyway since we weren't drunk or anything, nice guy. Dan and I hit up the roulette table and started with $10 and hit a hot streak right away. Red was the hot color and we kept winning, at one point we were both up $120, but then a bizarre twist of fate and we ended up losing all of it plus some, that gambling. One of the guys we were with though borrowed $5 from Dan and put it on a random spot and actually won, so he got $175 and paid for our cab ride home. We stopped at McDonald's on the way home to get ice cream, Dave (the $175 winner) bought 10 Big Mac snack wraps and decided to share the wealth. We all got fat on Big Mac snack wraps.

After that we went to the airport at 4:45 am and literally sat/slept until our flight at 7:35 am, but out flight was delayed and we didn't leave till about 9:45 am, the time we were supposed to land. We landed at about 11 am and Jenny left us at the train station. So, Dan and I caught the next drain 30 mins later, because we had to put money on out go cards since I was at $-12.47. After we caught the train and got to the train station we got McDonald's again. Then we caught a bus back to campus and we finally arrived at 1:30 pm or something like that. It's been a long day and we haven't slept much, but it was awesome!

Assignments, Traveling, and Queens Street

Last week was slightly busy, I finally have been to all my lectures and tutorials. My first assignment was due last week and I'm hoping I get good marks on it; I'll be finding out on Thursday. I'm still getting used to things here and should probably start my paper/presentation that is due next week. On top of that I have a quiz in a week in the same class; this week should be pretty busy for me. 

So, a date has been set and plans have been made, we are going to Melbourne from March 31 to April 3. I'm pretty excited we are finally getting some traveling done. I've found it harder and harder to find days where everyone can go, definitely wasn't as easy as first anticipated. I'm still working on finding a weekend to make it to Sydney. There are a couple people on our floor who want to go to Fraser Island for like a weekend and we are working that out too. It would be heaps of fun, since we've all become really good friends and a camping trip would be nice. I want to go visit the Whitsundays maybe even sail them, but we'll see how that works out. I do still have New Zealand coming up before I head back to America, which I'm excited about. Fiji is about a month away and that should be a really fun time, super exited! 

This last week a bunch of us went to Queens Street and went shopping. It was a good time, I bought two pairs of jeans and a pair of dress shoes. Queens Street is pretty much their giant shopping street. It's pretty nice you can walk to all different stores and go into a mall like area and then go outside to the shops out there. It's in the heart of the city, so it's usually quite busy. 

We went to the valley this weekend too. It was quite the experience, even if we didn't really drink, everything is even more expensive there. The valley is where all the clubs and stuff are and downtown is where all the bars are; we spend most of our time downtown. This was the first time at the valley and my first time to a club and I enjoyed it.  

Oh, to wrap it up here I got tickets to the State of Origin game; it's a really big rugby game where Queensland plays New South Wales. They do it every year and it's a best of three; we are going to the first game. Other than that I think I've mentioned just about everything. 

Soccer Game

Last night I went to my first ever soccer game; it was the Brisbane Roar and boy did they roar. The game started at 4 pm and went to about 7 pm and was filled with all sorts of excitement. I went with 2 Australians and 2 other Americans and we decided we wanted to have some team spirit and I bought a flag and Dan got a scarf. The game started out just fine and it seemed like it would be an easy win for us. The first half ended scoreless and when the second half started it was raining.

The rain only made it harder for the teams to score. There was several close calls and for a moment I thought they were going to score. The closest coming at the end of regulation when they got a break away and were wide open for a shot and the whistle blew to signal the end of regulation. I thought we escaped a close one, little did I know it was only to get more interesting.

It turned into over time with two 15 minute periods and the winner at the end would be crowned champion. The first period started and it seemed like we had a chance to score, but the tables turned. The opposing team scored twice in the first period of overtime; at which point everyone thought it was over, I mean it was scoreless for 90 minutes what are the chances we get two goals in a period. The first period ended 2-0 for the Mariners.

At the start of the second period of overtime it seemed like it was over. The Roar didn't seem like they were into the game anymore and the Mariners were just wasting time. A ton of people were leaving with about 5 minutes to go and we also started to, but right when we got to the gate to leave we heard the cheering of a goal and a mob of us ran back in to see what was happening. To our surprise we had finally scored a goal, but we still had doubts with 3 minutes to go that we would score again. At this time we had perfect seats since we ran back in and got on the lower level. With one minutes remaining we got a corner kick and scored our second goal off a header!!! Talk about suspense this put us into penalty kicks and the rest is history.

Here is a link about the highlights totally worth watching so make sure you do it!

http://www.foxsports.com.au/Football/roar-comeback-to-take-title/video-e6frf423-1226020741232?subcat=1111112039253&site=FoxSports

Easter Break and School

It has been awhile since I posted last, I had a cold and am just getting over it now. So, to catch everyone back up, I forgot yo mention I was going to Fiji for my Easter break. We have it all planned and paid for it'll be two other Americans and myself going and we have 1 night on the main land and then 5 nights on Beachcomber island. I'm pretty excited for it everything is set for use just need to show up at the airport! I'm doing that on April 24th and coming back April 30 (my birthday). I'll still be able to celebrate my birthday with everyone here on campus in Brisbane, which is kind of nice.

On to what I've been doing this last week; I've had a nasty cold and thankfully it's about gone, I just have a cough every now and then. Last night we were going to go to Pizza Hut for their buffet somehow we got messed up with the buses at Mt. Gravatt and missed it, so we just went into the city and hit up Queens Street to find a place to eat. For everyone that doesn't know what Queens Street is, it's the main street in Brisbane where all the stores are and places to eat. We roomed around there looking for a place to eat for awhile; there were long lines everywhere, but we ended up settling for Pig 'n' Whistle. I think that was the name, don't quote me on it. It was kind of expensive, but we were all just hungry at the time and ordered anyway. I spent $20 for a burger and some chips (fries). Even with missing the bus to take us to Pizza Hut, I still think it was an awesome night. I'm just keen to go to downtown Brisbane any night. I like living close to the city; it's a nice change from living in St. Cloud where I have to drive an hour to get to a real city. There is always so much going on in Brisbane. After we were done eating we walked to Southbank and looked around; I took some picture on my mobile phone, but I'm still figuring out how to get them on my computer.  

On Friday we are all planning on going to Queens Street for some shopping; I mean we all want to look fashionable. I'm pretty excited for that, get me some Australian style. Tonight I'm going to a soccer game; I'm not that big of a fan of soccer, but I'm only in Brisbane once might as well do it all! I also am getting a fair bit of assignment in class and I'm definitely not used to it. I'm still getting used to the self-teaching aspect of uni here. 

I also just got a gym membership here too. Our floor has been pretty good about it and we usually go for runs  at night, so at least we are trying to stay in shape. I think I'm going to try to get a ticket to the State of Origin rugby game at the end of May. I think we are going to Sydney in a couple of week and Melbourne. Hopefully we can get to Fraser Island. I'll try to keep up to date with my blogs. Cheer!