My Parents Come to Visit and New Zealand!

Hi Everyone!

I only have 1 day left in Perth before I head to Sydney for a few days and then finally HOME!! But first I wanted to update you on my parents trip to Perth and then our trip to New Zealand. [This blog won't have as many pictures as usual because my mom took most of the pics on both of your trips, ask her if you want to see more pictures of Perth and NZ]

It was so nice to see my parents after being away from home for the past 3 and a half months. While they were here I brought them to Rottnest Island so that we could bike around the island. 

While I was in school for the rest of the week my parents went down to Margaret River. When they returned to showed them around Perth City and Freo. Then we headed off to NZ for my last study break.

In NZ we stayed in Queenstown, I thought it was of the nicest cities I've ever been to. It reminded me a lot of Colorado because it was really outdoorsy and everyone was really friendly. Here are a few pics from the trip :)

My Mom and Dad with the Shot-Over boat behind them

Basically this was a boat that could spin around and go in water like 4 inches deep. It was super fun!

Remember that in NZ its fall so there were a lot of trees changing colors.
I also was really cold there since I'm used to sunny and 85 degree weather for the past few months

This was from the zip line or there it was called flying fox

My dad jumping off

My mom about to go upside-down 

This is what the tree houses looked like  where we would jump off from

Milford Sound

This was really cool because it was mountains coming right out of the water

So those are just a few pictures from NZ, it was a really fun trip and nice to be with my parents.

Love you guys and see you in the States soon :)

Emily

Things that I miss....

Since my parents are arriving today, which I am very very excited about, I've been thinking about the US a lot lately. Here is just a quick list of daily items that I've been living without for the past 4 months and am very excited to have when I get back to HR!! I also asked people that I've been hanging out with for the past 4 months what they were most excited to have when they get home. Obviously friends and family are first on our lists but here is other random things that people in America might take for granted:

-Dishwasher
-Non-communal washer and dryer
-Oven
-My bike
-My car
-A cell phone that was produced sometime in the past 2 years rather than the brick I have right now that dates to about 2001
-Stop signs (there aren't any here so there is always a possibility to get hit because pedestrians DO NOT have the right of way)
-A good breakfast for under 10 dollars (everything is going to dirt cheap when I get home)

Here are the responses from the Village:
- TV (Specifically watching baseball for my friend Emily O from Boston College)
-Really good pizza (also another suggestion from Emily) I agree with this one, pizza here sucks!
-Apparently they also don't sell bagels at the grocery stores here...Emily again
-Cheeze-Its (specifically white cheddar) and Goldfish (suggested by my friend Katie J from Wisconsin Eau Claire)
-Applebees (that's where Courtney from Wisconsin Eau Claire will be eating her first meal! And where she works)
-Regular coffee (everything here is made out of espresso beans) Meghan M from Boston who is obsessed with Dunkin Doughnuts suggested this one
-Kally is excited to eat at the cafeteria at her school so that she doesn't have to cook for herself anymore
-Laura from Penn State said that she misses Reeses Peanut Butter Cups that are cheap, at the market here I bet they sell for around $15 dollars for a bag!
-Kimbra from Boston also had a lot of things that she would miss: "shopping carts that you can control, having spices/flour, a full keyboard on my phone, a good chef's knife, more clothes, a second shower towel/set of sheets, and friends who keep the kitchen clean
-Some of the Germans also said that they miss the $1 burgers at McDonalds (Friedrich) and a good old American breakfast (Niklas)

It seems like the consensus is that all of us mostly miss American food

As you can tell most of us are VERY excited to come back home, either to the States or Germany, but I still bet that the next few weeks will fly by and all of us are very sad to see our time come to an end in Perth!!

See everyone soon :)

Emily

Guest Post: Heidi comes to Perth!

Hello there dear readers!

As you can perhaps tell already... this isn't Emily. It's Heidi! And I'm here to do a guest post and update you all on Emily's experiences here in Australia!

First of all, I would like to comment that this place is really, really, REALLY far away from Colorado. Like... so far. It took forever to get here! I was impressed. and surprised. 10,000 miles looks far on paper, but in person... oh my gosh. SO FAR. And I got stuck in Sydney on the way, so I was traveling for almost 48 hours from Boulder to Murdoch Uni! Crazy.

We've been doing all kinds of Australian stuff, and it's been fun and strange to be wandering around to all these specific places that Emily knows how to get to but I don't. Getting home from the airport we took a bus and train, and the whole time I was thinking... "What the heck... she is so knowledgeable! Where are we?!" It's been interesting to be a part of Em's life that isn't the one where she met me (in Boulder) and where she has tons of other (really nice and cool) friends who I've never seen before!

Some of our adventures include King's Park (in Perth), Cottesloe beach (where we were almost eaten by huge waves!) and a really cute coffee shop where we got some super delicious cakes a few times. Without further comment, here's some photos that sum up everything quite nicely!

Getting our African drum on at "Stress-free" day for Murdoch- free food! Woo!

 All the delicious looking food at the Freo (Freemantle) Markets, which run on weekends and are full of yummy things to eat. [Freemantle]

AMAZING gelato before we got beaten up by waves at the beach.  There's just nothing quite like gelato and sunshine to brighten a day! [Cottesloe Beach]

 The water looks so friendly... but no! Attack of the killer agua! I really liked this beach because it was so, so blue- I was very impressed. [Cottesloe Beach]

Fish and chips, post-beach. Several things to note here: We ate lots of different kinds of french fries (I'd definitely say we're connoisseurs by now), and also, food is super expensive. Kudos to Emily for eating out with me so much! [Cottesloe Beach]

Here are some artsy photos of our delicious slices of cake at the prettiest coffee shop ever! As a barista, I really like going to coffee shops, so this was the perfect Heidi activity! The first slice is Tiramisu (mine) and the second is Honeycomb Cake (Emily's). [Leederville, Perth]

We also made dinner quite often with all our market veggie purchases, my favorite of which was a huge bag of fresh basil for $2. That, combined with the food photography setting on my camera, led to some pretty serious cooking photo shoots!

I can't write a guest post without mentioning the amazingness that is feeding kangaroos. Here is a picture of me enjoying it immensely:

And just for cuteness' sake..... d'awwwwwww! A joey!

Yesterday we took a trip to Rottnest Island, where the only form of transport is bike and there's amazing beaches and mini Kangaroos who were quite friendly and all over the place. We snorkeled, I got sunburned, and the general carefree nature of biking around an island was just lovely! Here's our group:

Our first stop, where we saw lots of fish:

Emily and myself at the above-mentioned coffee shop:

And finally, we found the perfect way to personalize (excuse me, personalise) any pair of sunglasses in an extremely Australian way:

In conclusion, I'd like to say that I had a fantastic time in Western Australia and visiting Emily- Not only was it awesome to see my friend, but it was also cool to see how she had settled in so far from home and was so comfortable in a place that was totally foreign to me! (Cue sentimental music) I know it can be trying to be around the same person for such a long period of time, but Emily made me feel right at home and did a fantastic job of showing me the area and giving me a unique taste of Australia! Thank you so much for having me, Emily, and I hope I can do the same for you while I'm in Germany! Hooray!

Cheers,
-Heidi

Bali

Hello Everyone

Over my 2nd study break I planned a trip up to Bali with 5 of my friends that I have met at Uni. It seems like I have been doing so many trips since I've been here! Bali is just north Perth and is part of Indonesia. It's actually closer to Bali than to Sydney from Perth. Here are a bunch of the pictures that we took while we were there. I think that for this blog post the best way to describe the country and everything that I saw on my trip is through picture; so this will be a really picture heavy post. The main religion is Hinduism so it was really cool to see how much of that was incorporated into the culture.

This women is making an offering outside her home. This was done multiple times a day. Some of the items that were in the offering were crackers, candies, cigarettes, and flowers. 

The offerings on the street would start to pile up. They weren't thrown away but rather swept away or clogging up the sewer drain after a few days

This was the front of our hotel in Kuta. So beautiful and super cheap!

On our trip we went to Kuta which is a touristy in the South. This is where tons of Australians hang out at the beach or by the pool at the hotel. 

The view from out hotel in Kuta. We were right on the beach and the waves were the biggest that I've ever seen. There was no way that I was going in that water

After we spent two days in Kuta we drove up to Ubud which is a much more relaxed part of Bali. There are a lot of rice fields surrounding the city and its more of an artistic area. We hired a driver and he drove us all over the island to see all the temples and landmarks on the West side of the island.

There were a lot of these really deep canyons throughout the center of Bali

This is how a lot of the entrances to houses in Bali looked, the sons live with their families in the same home that they grew up in. So constantly the house needs to be expanded.

Floating Temple: there are stairs near the bank of the river that are always flooded. Along with the gate on the outside of the temple

This is at one of the monkey forests that we visited. The monkeys were all over the place and I didn't like the feeling of having so many monkeys around me at once. See the next picture to see how I really felt about being there :)

One of the most traumatizing moments of my life. Keeping your palms open was a sign that you didn't have food. No monkeys jumped on me but they all got way too close for comfort!!

While in Ubud we went on a bike ride through rice fields and local communities. This was the coolest part of the trip for me. Its was so beautiful!! All of the scenery that we rode by was amazing and all the people in the local villages were so nice.

Mt Batur, which I think is actually a volcano. 

This is the real color of rice growing! It was so green!!

 

Some of the rice fields on the bike tour near Ubud

The whole group during one of the stops on our bike tour

All of us drinking tea/coffee at a plantation near Ubud.

This was after our bike ride at the owners house. We ate a traditional Balinese meal which was amazing! 

I had so much fun the trip. It reminded me a lot of Egypt which I didn't expect when I first arrived. We couldn't drink the water and were always being ripped off since it was obvious that we were tourists. But the people of Bali totally made up for that. All of the people that we met while on our trip were so nice and genuinely cared about making your trip enjoyable. 

Currently my friend Heidi from CU is staying with me until Thursday and then on Monday my parents are arriving. Its going to be a busy month of May! I'll try to do more blog updates about Perth and local adventures that I've been taking rather than just trips that I take on my breaks. I leave a month from tomorrow. I can't believe that my semester is almost over and that I've been living in Australia for 3 and a 1/2 months!! Can't wait to see most of you when I get back to the States :)

Love

Emily

A Quick Update!

Hello Everyone!!

I just wanted to give a quick update before I leave for my next study break. The last three weeks of school have been pretty crazy with papers and school. I've been exploring the depths of the city more and enjoying the "fall" weather by going to the beach. Tonight I am leaving for Bali which I am really excited for. Its a small island just north of Perth in Indonesia. I'll be there until late Sunday night. So expect another update soon :) Then my friend Heidi comes and then my parents and then finals! Everything is going by so quickly. I hope everyone back at home had a good Easter (not quite the same here, but still fun!) Love you and talk to you soon :)

Emily

Northwest Trip!

Get ready for the longest post ever. So for the past 10 days I have been without a phone or a computer. I think that this is the longest period of my life that I haven't been connected to the outside world. For my first study break I traveled up the Northwest coast of WA (Western Australia) with 50 other study abroad students. Here is a map outline of the path that we took over the course of 10 days. (I'm not sure why its white in the middle but its just desert in there anyways so that doesn't really matter)

In total we drove 4000km which is around 2500 miles. Or the distance from Maine to LA. Basically it was a ton of driving and I'm fine if I don't set foot in another bus for another month. So here is a synopsis of my trip. Hope you enjoy it!

Friday we left Perth and drove up a little past Gerealton to Northhampton. Because we left during morning rush hour traffic we took the scenic drive along the west coast and saw some gorgeous beaches as we made our way  through Cott Beach and Joondalup. 

This was at Natures Bridge off Kalbarri National Park

Murchison River also in Kalbarri National Park
(here we saw some wild kangaroos near the river)

This is what a lot of the trip looked like since there was so much driving 

From there we headed up to Hamelin Pool where the stromatolites are located. As you can see above they aren't visually exciting. But basically they allowed humans to survive on Earth because they started produced oxygen into the atmosphere billions of years ago.

As a geologist my dad was really excited for me to see these 

There were so many beautiful sunsets throughout the trip. Its so different from CO where when the sun sets behind the mountains it gets dark immediately. Here I've noticed that its after the sun actually sets that the sky is most beautiful

By this time we are in Shark Bay where Monkey Mia is located. What makes this area significant is that every morning wild dolphins come in for a snack. As you can see above the dolphins come in very close to the shore, but you aren't allowed to touch them. They are also given just a snack so that they learn how to hunt for their own food and aren't dependent on humans.

Also in Monkey Mia we went on a boat ride which was really nice after being in the bus forever. 

We also visited Shell Beach, there isn't any sand at this beach. The shore is made out of little white shells. There was no one at this beach because the shells kinda hurt to step on. Also the water was pretty salty and shallow. They said that it was as salty as the Dead Sea but I didn't think that it was that bad at all.

From there we spent a two days in Coral bay where we spent time on the beach and got to snorkel in Ningaloo Reef. Here are a couple of pictures from the dive (thanks to my brother who bought be an underwater camera for Christmas :) )

This is another picture of the bus since there was so much driving by the end all of us were so ready to get off the bus

This next part of the trip was my favourite! After we went along the coast from Shark Bay to Coral Bay we started to head inland. We stayed at Karijini National Park. When I pictured the "Outback" when I first choose to come to WA. I envisioned the really red dirt, shrubs, and nothing around for miles. This is exactly how it was out in the bush. Since its the end of summer and still kind of hot we were some of the only people in the park. I don't think I've ever been so secluded in my life. The main attractions of the park are the gorges (seen below) and within the gorges there are freshwater pools. The pools were amazing!! We also saw the thorny devil and a dingo while in the park!

One complaint about being in the outback. FLIES!!!! They were horrible. Everyone bought fly nets because it was unbearable to be outside without one on

We also had time to hike around the gorges and look at all the local plants and cool geological features

 

These pictures don't do justice to the beautiful places that we visited. Just google Fern Pool or Circular Pool to see some amazing pictures of the different pools in the park.

Towards the end of the trip all of us were really ready to get home lol (who even knows what the 26th parallel is haha)

During the trip we camped at different locations including a farm, the bush, and a sheep sheering farm. I am a pro at setting up and taking down a tent.

This picture has a long story that goes along with it. We were looking for another fresh water pool somewhere out in the bush that turned into a major adventure. Our tour guides ended up driving us around the the outback on such a bumpy road (aka an area with no grass). During the few hour long drive we got stuck, had to take the trailer off, and hit some major bumps. I thought that it was so much fun! Driving through the outback like that is totally what I expected Australia to be like; it was amazing!

Overall I really enjoyed the trip and feel like I saw the "real" Australia. There is no other place in the world that is like Australia. I just can't get over that there are pine forests, beaches, deserts, and wheat-lands all within a few thousand miles of each other. I am loving my experience here and am so grateful that I am able to spend 4 months in such an amazing place. I'll post again sometime soon, let me know if you want any pictures or posts about anything specific!  :)

Love 

Emily