Blame Park Lodge

I apologize for not posting anything in ages, but the internet has been awful lately. I can get into my e-mail and facebook, but rarely anything else and to be quite honest with you, after a couple days of not posting I kind of forgot I was even keeping this. So sorry to any of you who may actually read it.

Last week was a pretty chill week at school. We did not do too much and Adam did a lot of the teaching, which was kind of a nice break from all the teaching I did last week. I only worked 4 days last week because we left for Melbourne late on Thursday night. There was about 8 of us that went and it was a great little break from Sydney before our last weekend. We finally got to our hostel around midnight after a short delayed flight out of Sydney. After checking us all in we passed out, however, unfortunately the beds were extremely hard and squeaky whenever anyone moved the slightest bit so I didn't really sleep much.

Blair, Meg, and I had to wake up around 6am to get ready for our tour of the Great Ocean Road. We had a long drive to all of our points and we slept a bit on the way down. We saw some amazing beaches and drove on the cliffs right along the water. It was absolutely gorgeous and I have been totally spoiled with beaches over the past 8 weeks. I know it isn't summer, but the beaches here are gorgeous and nothing else can compare. We saw wild kangaroos and wild koalas. The Koalas were adorable, just snuggled up in their trees. One even ran in front of our bus and another along the side of the road. He was close enough that I just wanted to pick him up and take him home. There were also these really colorful birds that would come and sit on your hands and head. It was really cool. On our tour we went to see the 12 Apostles, they are amazing pieces of stone in the water and sometime in my lifetime they will all disintegrate into the ocean. There were some absolutely beautiful sights on the drive and it was absolutely worth it. We made it back to the hostel around 7:00pm and got some dinner and then got ready to go out with the girls. We met up with everyone over at the Casino for some drinks and gambling. I decided to play $5 and once I lost it I would be done. I played roulette and made about $15 before I ended up losing that $15 again. I only had my $5 left and thought about just cashing out so I didn't loose anything, but when I went to sit down at the table after someone had left I found a $2.50 chip on the floor. Of course I picked it up and decided to play it. We were on the lowest table so I could only play it on a number, I picked a random number and guess what?!?! I won....$80. As soon as I figured out how much each chip was worth and how much I had total, I was done and quite content with my winnings for the night. The rest of the girls wanted to go out, but I was exhausted so I decided to go back to the hostel. The girls were back within the hour so it didn't really matter anyway, they said it was a bust.

Saturday morning we all slept in until about 11am, which was glorious. Meg, Denning, Blair, and I went out to walk around Melbourne and just see the city. It was fun, but decided we needed to come back for a bit of a rest. We relaxed for a while and then got ready for the rugby game. We got some drinks and dinner and played some card games before the game. We walked to the game with just about the entire city to cheer on the New Zealand All Blacks instead of the Qantas Wallabies. The game was really fun and we had a great time attempting to understand it. The people around us were so fun and they have a great friendly fan relationship with each other. Although they get really quiet when something big is not going on. It was a bit weird for the entire stadium to get quiet and not be cheering the entire time. We met up with the girls to head out for the night after the game. It was alright and we made it to a couple bars before coming back around 2.

We slept in Sunday again and then went to St. Kilda. We had lunch and then walked down by the beach, it was extremely windy and we didn't end up staying long because of how cold it was. We came back and took a nap before meeting up with Tori at the Casino for dinner. It was great to go out and get a really nice dinner (that wasn't too expensive either).

We had a early flight Monday morning and got back to Sydney around 8:30 and I was to work by 10. Adam and I have been doing a lot to work with the kids for the multicultural expo on Thursday. They have been making decorations, finishing their road trip, and practicing the Fifty Nifty United States song (which I know have stuck in my head constantly). I am a little nervous about Thursday with all of the parents being there, but it should be a great experience.

Only 11 days left in Sydney! We have a pretty big weekend planned and I can't believe it will be my last weekend before I fly back to the States. I love Sydney, but I am kind of excited to get home and enjoy some relaxing time at the beach in the warmth.