Traveling Buddy

So I joke that my family misses me so much, because first my mom came and then one of my sisters came. My host family jokes that they're waiting for the rest of them to show up!

Janine is a world traveler and so I don't think it really surprised anyone that she decided to come down under and hang out with me for a bit. This was different than when my mom came because I had to work still, but she made her trip over 2 weekends.

Last weekend Janine arrived to pouring rain. Seriously though, I hadn't seen it rain that hard for that long the entire time I've been here, so she picked a great time to come. The weather people kept saying it was going to be a huge storm and get worse in the following days. So our plans changed a bit but the first day she got there we ventured out into Brisbane with one umbrella (lucky we had even that) and walked a ton around the city. I got the best hot chocolate I've ever had, we went up to the temple, botanical gardens, and played in the rain. We were very ready to go home at the end of the day. I'm glad both my mom and sister did not get food poisoning from the plane food like I did...both of them got off the plane ready to hit the ground running. I was not that way. :) Hahaha. The next day when the storm was supposed to be terrible and worse than before, the skies were beautiful and blue. I have no trust in the weathermen here...they pretty much suck. We drove down to Byron Bay and the waves and scenery were amazing because of the storm the day before. I got more fish and chips at Fishheads because they were quite tasty the last time, and because it's awesome to eat fish and chips at the beach. Then we kept driving and stopped at Hastings Point, which is just more beautiful Australian beach, then finished the day at Surfer's Paradise. On Monday I had to work, so Janine did her own thing and then the next day she headed up to Cairns.

Best hot chocolate of my life.

Gray city, vibrant flowers.

Byron Bay...check out that blue sky.

I love Byron Bay. :)

Hastings Point

Since I had someone with me, I could finally get a picture with the whole sign!

Playing with the camera.

This past weekend we met at the airport and went down to Sydney! I was so excited to go back since I only had a couple days there last time. Again, we brought the rain with us after the entire week was nice and sunny, but the rain only came in a couple spurts and then today was fantastic. We got free accommodation because Janine's has a friend from here, so our costs were low for the trip and I was pumped. Saturday we started off at Bondi beach, the most famous in Australia. LOVED IT. We explored on the rocks and almost got drenched by some waves, and we also saw some guys played rugby on the beach. Pure Australia. Then we went to Sydney Harbor and walked around a ton. Opera House, the Rocks, ferry ride, walked across the Harbor bridge, then took the train to Olympic Park where the 2000 Sydney Olympics took place! That was awesome. Today we started in Chinatown (super lame), then walked to Darling Harbor, back under the bridge to Sydney Harbor, botanical gardens, then I had to make my way back to airport to come back to Brisbane. My feet are tired, but it was a great weekend in Sydney. I'm definitely a fan.

NO BUTTS...PLEASE!

That...everything!

I seriously felt like I was in Italy.

Bridge climbers!

At Olympic Park.

The 2000 Olympic torch.

Darling Harbor

Forza Italia!

Botanical gardens.

It's hard to believe I'll be back in the States in a month. But happily I found a place to live in Utah and hopefully I will be able to find a job quickly so I won't be dirt poor for long hahaha.

Movie World and Ekka

There is a facebook page for all of the au pairs in the Brisbane area, on which people can post ideas and places they want to go to. It's great for inviting others to join in your adventures and meet other people from all over the world who are experiencing similar things as an au pair. Since arriving more than three months ago I have tried a few times to participate in things, especially since I'm not driving here and it gets boring playing tourist by yourself all the time, but every time either my idea was completely changed into something I didn't want to or the thing I want to do just doesn't end up happening. So that was that. Finally the past weekend I made some au pair acquaintances!

A couple weekends ago I wanted to go to Movie World and found a couple girls who wanted to go as well. So I got a ride and hung out with 2 girls from Germany for the day! We had a lot of fun and it was great to not hang out by myself at a park haha. But I will say...America does amusement parks like infinity times better.

But that's ok, it was still fun times. :)

At least there were a couple good rides.

We saw a 4D movie.

BATMAN!

Then last week Wednesday was a public holiday and I went to the Ekka. This is a giant fair and showcase combined that is famous in all of Queensland, with lots of different farm animals (mostly cows), wood chopping contests, food, showbags, rides, and performances. I went with a girl from England and another from Germany. The first thing I saw was the wood chopping contest which was legit, something I had never seen before. I bought a strawberry sundae, and didn't buy any more food because I completely filled myself on free delicious samples. :) Can't get better than that!!! We didn't ride any of the rides because they cost a fortune, but we did go into the showbag WAREHOUSE and I got so overwhelmed with everything they had in there. Saw some prancing horses and a zillion people. It's ridiculous how much money people can spend in this place. We didn't end up staying for the night show, which we probably should've, but I had a headache and none of us wanted to wait around a couple hours for it to start. So I got lost coming home (misdirected), but was able to make it to institute which I feel good about since I would be missing church for the next 2 weeks.

Mt. Warning

Since being back from my holiday things haven't been too crazy. 

My first Saturday back I just did some more exploring around Brisbane.

We went to Southbank last Friday night to go to a noodle market. I got to eat some Indonesian food which was tasty and they even had a dragon running around.

You can't really see the dragon haha

Soutbank wheel

I got food but my host family didn't, so afterward we went to this Japanese restaurant nearby and they ordered some sushi...which turned out to be very raw fish haha. Obviously. I have issues with fish...I don't enjoy eating it so much but I had never tried sushi so I ate a roll and another piece of fish. Yep, not my favorite hahaha. That's ok, I will let other people enjoy their sushi and I will enjoy my hamburger. :) After that we went to a market at West End and I found a vintage thrift shop...I was in heaven!!! Got a couple things and it made me happy! I'll be going back there for sure. And also to eat at this market, because they had a street vendor with Napoletana pizza with a wood over. DEFINITELY going back there.

Baby!

I thought that was a real person when I first saw it after getting out of the car in a dark alleyway...haha freaked me out!

This week I started realizing how few weekends I actually have left in this country. I leave in 7 weeks and that is not much time to do the things that I still want to do! So I really wanted to do a hike while I was here. Before I never felt like people in my ward would want to come, and it's been difficult organizing activities with other au pairs in the area for some reason for me. But I made a plan and my fellow YSA in my ward pulled through for me!! On Friday night I went to the temple to see a girl in my ward go through for the first time in prep for her mission, and then on Saturday 6 of us from the ward drove down to New South Wales and hiked to the top of Mt. Warning! We left pretty late and didn't start hiking until 3:00pm, but we got to the top to see the sunset and then got to hike back in the dark. We brought flashlights though so we were ok. It was actually really awesome, because on the way down sometimes we would just stop and turn off our lights and look at the sky through the trees. It was so dark and we could see lots of stars. We even had a spiritual thought just sitting in the dark all together. It was a great day and I'm so grateful people wanted to go! The hike wasn't too long, only about 9 kilometers roundtrip and we finished the whole thing in about 4.5 hours. Close to the summit you are pretty much rock climbing and there are chains to help you pull yourself up. Pretty intense at that point but absolutely worth it and the top! That is why I love hiking. The view makes everything worth it. I'm sad we couldn't stay longer but we wanted to get down the part with the chains before it got dark, because that would have been scary. We were all pretty dead afterward but felt accomplished, and it was a great day to get to know everyone better. :)

Brisbane by night

Mt. Warning hike!

Chewbacca was up there.

Crossed something else off of my bucket list!