Early May, I went to the Gold Coast to see some friends that I met in New Zealand. They are studying in Sydney and travelled to the Gold Coast for the weekend and since it's only about an hour train from me I decided to head down and have a reunion. We enjoyed some time on the beach and then (somewhat impulsively) decided to go zorbing. If you are unsure what that means, I've included a definition below...

zorb·ing

noun /ˈzôrbiNG/  A sport in which a participant is secured inside an inner capsule in a large, transparent ball that is then rolled along the ground or down hills

It's funny to me that they call it a sport, because well... you are basically rolling around in a hamster ball. Anyway, it was really fun! I can't explain it that well but basically you go in the ball with another person (usually 2-3 people total) and then they fill it up with a little water and release the ball which rolls down this large grassy hill. It sounds a bit mundane but it's actually very exciting. You think you will hurt the other person, or get a knee in the face but really you just slide around and giggle and almost lose your swimsuit. Basically the definition of a good time.

Me and Rachel with our Zorb Ball

As many of you know, my dear friend Krystal flew 9,000 miles to come visit me in Brisbane. And let me just say... it was exhausting! I mean that in the nicest way possible of course and we definitely took advantage of the short time we had to together to reunite. I am going to keep this summary brief and attempt to sum up the 10 days in about a paragraph. This is not because that is all the writing space it deserves but, instead, simply because I am about 3 weeks late, and I'm running out of time. Plus, I am busy studying for finals ;) Also, Krystal and I will be inseparable this summer anyway so if you want the full scoop on our adventure together we would be more than happy to chat your ear off for as long as you want. One thing I will include in the summary is our bedtimes, because I think you will find them refreshing and humorous.

Krystal arrived on Friday. We hugged and screamed obnoxiously, I cried just a little, and Krystal expressed her intense desire to take a shower. We took the train back to my house where we promptly dropped off her stuff and went shopping of course. We spent the afternoon on campus (because I do have class you know!) and Krystal slept in the grass. That night we went to a BYO restaurant for dinner and proceeded to drink copious amounts of wine and gossip about everything that had happened from February-April. Bed time: 9:30 pm. Saturday: beach day. Krystal played in the ocean  (child) and I suntanned on the beach (mother). Bed time: 8:45 pm (for the record, sun is tiring). Sunday we went to the Koala Sanctuary. We played with kangaroos, cuddled koalas, and then best of all we took a boat cruise from the sanctuary back to the city! We drank and giggled and Krystal said "she loved her life" about 17 times. Oh, and Krystal picked out a mansion for her and Patrick to live in on the Brisbane river. We then ate burgers so fast that we didn't talk to each other and then went home. Krystal napped but still.... bed time: 10 pm (koalas make you sleepy). Monday was spent (literally) shopping in the city! It was my first time shopping since I've been here (yay for breaking bad habits and then falling right back into them). After shopping I had more class and then we ordered pizza (another first). Bed time: 11 pm (or so, it was kind of a big night). Tuesday we went out on the town searching for some delicious Mexican food and margaritas (harder to find than you would think, but we found them don't worry). After covering everything that happened from February to April we needed to gossip about what's to come (May-unknown) which seemed to be a lot easier with a few margaritas. We then went to a bar (impressive I know) and played trivia, which we lost but still managed to get hit on twice before leaving. Bed time: Midnight. Wednesday we started our vacation from a vacation! We packed our bags and headed to Surfers Paradise for two days where we had a splendid time. We stayed at the beautiful Marriott Resort (thanks Krystal's job), drank free wine (thanks Krystal's job), and gawked at the cute Marriott bell hops (thanks Krystal's job). We spent the day on the beach and the night with our "fun card" on a group pub crawl. Lots of bars, dancing, and socializing.. but still, Bedtime: 1:30 am. Thursday was DREAMWORLD! Not much to say: we rode roller coasters, saw baby tigers, and watched a children's Madagascar show. It was basically a perfect day. We took the train all the way back to Brisbane that night...so, Bed time: 10:30 pm. OMG FRIDAY ALREADY!!!! Tonight was the night we were going to an official Australian rugby game woot! Aaannndddd, it rained. SO we watched the game, got soaked, went to a bar after, met some weird people, left, I tried to steal an umbrella and cut my hand open, the man at McDonald's gave me bandaids (but no food), went to Burger King instead, took a taxi (still raining) and yet, bedtime: only 1 am. We.Are.Wild. Anyway, Saturday came around and I had an exam (weird!!!!) so I studied all day with my lovely friend by my side (listening to my heavy breathing) and took the test (which I did quite well on by the way). After that it was raining again so we went to the store and got some traditional Australian food (Kangaroo and Shrimp) and of course some more wine and decided to have a feast indoors! Bed time: 10:30 (partial food coma). Sunday was Krystal's last day in Brisbane :( So we shopped some more and ate some more (things we are good at). We went to a fabulous little Italian restaurant for dinner and gossiped some more for the final time. (I'm just saying, if neither of our careers work out and we just marry some rich dudes we would be really good at the whole Housewives of New York or whatever. We are really good at getting beautiful and going out to eat at cute restaurants and gossiping for hours. It would be a reality TV show hit) OKAY FINE IT'S MONDAY and Krystal had to leave. I promised I wouldn't cry so I didn't, but I did wait in line with her at the Airport as stayed as long as I could without an actual boarding pass.

It was so wonderful for Krystal to come visit, and see what my life is like down under. Now I don't have to explain all the annoying things that I go through every day like standing at the bus stop where the bus never comes, and getting ripped off by taxi drivers, and wondering why they call it Hungry Jack's and not Burger King. But most of all, it was great to see my very best friend and take a week off (kinda) from school to vacation with her! It was an extremely successful trip with heaps of activities during the day and wonderful sleepy nights, plus as Krystal said, she didn't get a Translink citation for illegally using a student bus card and she didn't see any snakes. Yay!

Thanks again Krystal for coming to play with me in my temporary home that happens to be really far away from you. See you again soon!

(Okay that was a giant paragraph(s), but you get the idea...)