New Flatmates

After my inter-semester travels to the Pacific Islands and Australia I have returned to find many a new resident here at Whitaker. We were about 75% exchange students last semester and most of them were only here for one semester. They have gone home to be replaced by a new bunch of people. Meet my new flatmates:

Here we are cooking a Friday night family dinner. Sarah and Laura in the front are my new flatmates from Germany and Australia respectively. Josh from England is technically our neighbor, not our flatmate, but he spends more time in my apartment than I do. Sam is only a temporary roomate because his flight in not until August 2nd but he had to move out of his apartment a month ago.

It's a nice bunch.

Australia, Part 2: Brisbane, Gold Coast

Day 5. Last night I departed beautiful Sydney and flew over to Brisbane. I walked around the city for a bit but spent most of my time at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.

Day 6-7. After last night's one-hour train ride to Surfer's Paradise in the Gold Coast, I woke up to a beautiful day of reading on the beach, drinking hot chocolate...and, well, a bit of shopping. You'd think Surfer's Paradise was a small beach town but it really looks much more like Miami Beach (and made me a bit home-sick actually).

Australia, Part 1: Sydney

So after Tonga, Fiji, Wellington, and Samo, I spent the last week of the mid-semester break in Australia! I spent the first part of my Aussie week with Libat, Jonathan, and Yali in Sydney, one of the coolest cities I've ever been to.

DAY 1.

View of Sydney from the airplane.

Rose Bay where Libat and Jonathan live.

I took the ferry into the city and the view was just amazing.

Gourmet foodmart on The Rocks where I got to sample tons of delicious cheese and dipping oils.

Aboriginal art gallery.

View from the Sydney Tower.

Anzac memorial in Hyde Park.

View from the evening ferry back to Rose Bay.Dinner with Libat, Jonathan, and Yahli!

DAY 2

After a bit of Dora...

...and some Skype with the family...

...we took a day trip to Watson's Bay.

In the afternoon we went over to beautiful Bondi Beach.

DAY 3

Another lovely day excursion, this time to Manly Beach.

DAY 4

I spent my last day exploring Darling Harbour.

At the aquarium.

The Chinese Garden of Friendship.

And I ended my trip to Sydney with a cupcake in honor of Miss Darwell and her love for Australian decorated cupcakes.

A Week in Samoa

Arrival at the airport.

Capital city of Apia...not much to see, we escaped the next day to the beaches.
Bus ride to Taufua.
The beach fale at Taufua where we spent two nights.

Tufua Beach. Deep swimmig hole where we spent the afternoon with some Aussies. That ladder was slippery, very long, and scary to climb down!

View from the ferry crossing over to the other island, Savai'i.
Swimming with turtles in Savai'i.

View from the bus.