Trip #5: Heron Island (Great Barrier Reef)

Sooo… to keep it short and sweet, this trip was nothing short of ::insert ALL synonyms of “amazing!” here:: Courtesy of WU, this trip was for my marine environment class. After an 8 hr bus trip, followed by 2 hrs on a catamaran, we arrived at the Heron Island Research Station last Friday afternoon.

Two hours later, after some orientations and paperwork, we were in the ocean…SNORKELING! Now, I’d never been snorkeling before, and I’m not the greatest swimmer, but after a bit of practice w/ some other students and the professor, I was a snorkeling machine for the next few days. Saturday, the class went out on two boats and snorkeled in the middle of the ocean. It was like 1000x better than Finding Nemo lol…so many beautiful fish, gorges and coral, a sea turtle, and about 3-4 small sharks lol (they were pretty far below me so the instant fear of seeing a shark went away pretty fast).

"All the single ladies, now put your hands up!"

Ok so you don't have to be a single lady to read this... but we saw Beyonce in concert this past Sunday and it was AMAZING!!! Carmen and I ordered the tickets last semester so we've been looking forward to this for a while.  The last time I saw her perform was at the Big Jam sponsored by WGCI in Chicago in like 2003(?) I know it was right after her first CD came out...needless to say, I was long overdue.

From start to finish, "Crazy in Love" to "Halo," she didn't disappoint.

One Fine Day

Last Saturday, we (Carmen, Alison, Tiffany, and I) decided to get out of Duch for the day. First stop, Gallery of Modern Art.

We saw a few pieces along the way but the main exhibit was about Easton Pearson, an Australian fashion line. Pretty interesting to learn about them…who the designers are, how they choose their fabrics, signature pieces throughout the years...

The best part was the replica workroom. Check the vid.

I’m pretty sure it was meant for children but there were plenty of adults making fashion dolls too lol.

After the museum, we walked over to the Brisbane River to take in the Brisbane Festival activities; mainly the fireworks show that evening (think: Taste of Chicago on July 3). All in all…good day!

For more info:

Easton Pearson

Brisbane Festival

Trip #4: Brisbane!

Soo… Ok it was really my family’s trip to Brisbane but it felt like I had a mini-vacay too.  My Dad, Nikole (my stepmom), and J (my little bro) came in for a little less than a week and it was great! Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t warm enough to visit one of the beaches on the Gold Coast but we had a good time anyway.

They took J to the Koala Sanctuary and got a chance to experience the CityCat ferry. Nikole looked up some of the best restaurants in the area so we ate pretty good J (nice change from Duch food). I was so glad to have some familiar faces around and spend time with them…it was almost like I was on break from school. J and I also got a chance to spend some much needed quality time together.

We played with his cars and the AFL football I got him, rode on the ferris wheel, ate ice cream, watched the movie Cars, and talked. 

I miss him soooo much when I’m away at school…but that’s what makes our brother-sister time together even better :-)

So little time...

Sooo... I'm late with updating my blog... I promise to post updates and a few photos later... but it's "mid-semesters" (a.k.a. midterms) season... yeah...