great ocean road.

I realize I haven't written much about what I've actually been doing here.
Too busy being a big emo baby and writing about socks. :/
Haha, but I am done with the sadness--told you it was just a phase!

This past weekend, Monash Abroad took all of us DePaul kids, Loyola kids and any other internationals who wanted to out on a drive along the Great Ocean Road.
[GREAT OCEAN ROAD = A 243-kilometre (151 mi) stretch of road along the south-eastern coast of Australia between the Victorian cities of Torquay and Warrnambool. The road was built by returned soldiers between 1919 and 1932, and is the world's largest war memorial; dedicated to casualties of World War I. (Thank you Miguel's Facebook).]

Well anyways, this past weekend was one of the best yet.
The trek started early in the morning on Campbell's tour bus of fun.
Seriously, best tour guide ever.
Drove for a while until we reached the largest surf museum in the world! (AKA, Surf World Museum) in Torquay (which is also the home of Quiksilver!)
We watched a documentary about these two Australian boys who decided to surf the 50 states.
It was hilarious and nice to see home! They represented Minnesota really well too, so that made me smile :)
You can get a glimpse of the video at-->SURFING 50 STATES.
Sooo funny.

Next it was off to surf lessons of our own!

Besides the fact that it was absolutely FREEZING, surfing was, for the second time, AWESOME.
I'm really disappointed that I didn't grow up in a place that surfing was the norm.
I absolutely love it.
And for only going twice in my life and having absolutely no upper-body strength, I'd say I'm pretty good.
Stood up once and rode in on my knees quite a few times.
The conditions were horrendous though and the wind kept knocking us around. Nevertheless, it was a super good time.

Made a few more stops along the way to where we were staying for the night and saw some wild koalas and crazy birds.
I absolutely love the wildlife in Australia. So different than anywhere else in the world.
Even if some of the animals are scary as hell and make strange noises.

That night my tour group stayed in an actual home rather than a hostel in Apollo Bay.
It was just like being at summer camp all over again with bunk beds and all the girls in one room!
We had our own little kitchen and living room, plus a room with a pool table where we got our drink and dance on.
After everyone pitched in to make ourselves a delicious little meal, we started the party.
<---Wannabe. Of course busting out the oldies tunes like SPICE GIRLS and Sarah played me a little Grease 2 Cool Rider. Went to the local pub and hung out with everyone and went back to the house for a little dancing on the pool table. Typical. Woke up sideways on my bunk bed around 7 am, just enough time to get a decent hour of sleep before heading off to the rain forest. Rocked out my zubaz for the entire day, despite mocking and comments from everyone and their mom. Got the comment, "Either you were really lazy or super hung over to be wearing those all day." I'd say it was a good combination of both, but really it was for the absolute high fashion and style that those babies exude. Whatever, they made for some great photos anyway.

On the way home, we made stops at Loch Ard Gorge and London Bridge. We also stopped at this absolutely gorgeous beach and actually got some sun while we were there. The helicopter tour of the 12 Apostles was one of my favorite parts of the day. I'd never been in a helicopter before and we got a great view of the formations caused by thousands of years of erosion. Doesn't sound very lovely, but it was actually incredibly beautiful.

The three hour drive home wasn't too bad since I passed out for most of it, but we also had some good sing-alongs and chats to pass the time.
The trip really showed me how much I love and care about these people already. We had so much fun together and it really just felt like a little family.
It also gave me a huge bite from the travel bug!

I've been in Australia for nearly 2 months now, which means only a little over 2 months left!
I know that sounds like a lot, but these 2 months have flown by so quickly and I'm sure the next 2 don't plan on slowing down at all.
All I want to do is travel and see as much of Australia and the surrounding areas as I possibly can.
Who knows when I'll be down here again and I just want to make the most of it while I can.

Next weekend I'm heading up to Darwin, which is in the Northern Territory of Australia. I thought I was going to be braving it alone because I'm flying out Wednesday and everyone else is flying out Friday night, BUT Miguel literally called me seconds ago and told me he was able to make it with me. Very exciting news!
I'm sure I would've been fine to go on my own, but it'll be nice to have someone else to explore the new area and make the most of our time there.
Finally going somewhere warm! It's supposed to be in the 90's, so I can't wait to get my sun on.

The following week we are going on a trip to Broken Hill with our Australian Idol class.
This is meant to be like a trip to the outback and I'll even get to ride on a camel!
We get back the day before my birthday, so I basically have 3 weeks of events to look forward to!

Tonight is the ABC Party in the city, so that should be awesome!
[ABC = Anything but Clothes] I think I'm using these cheap-y little bags that Monash gave us at the beginning of the semester to construct some sort of dress/outfit. We'll see how it goes.
Then tomorrow I'm going to hit up Chapel Street for dance class.
My friend Tom introduced me to this wonderful little dance studio called The Space and I've taken a couple of hip-hop classes there. They have huge mirrors and I've gone a bit early or stayed after to work on turns and mess around there. I refuse to lose my dance skill while I'm away for the year!
Haven't actually gone out on Chapel Street so I'm pumped to do that after class tomorrow with my friend Alex. :)

This weekend is already shaping out to be a great one and I think we are going to top it off by doing some sight-seeing in Melbourne on Saturday.
So really I just have months and weeks ahead of me to look forward to!

I do miss you all terribly though! Don't get me wrong.
Just skyped with Mom and the little ones for a bit, but they don't have a camera yet so only got to hear their voices.
I'm pretty positive that I'm going to come home around the 10th of December.
Probably head straight to the Chi and spend a week or so there and then head home through Christmas and New Years until I'm off again on the 7th of January!
Of course, that all depends on my travel plans here and cost and everything, but tentatively that sounds pretty good to me.

I'm off to try to construct my ABC outfit...
Love you all, xx.