New Castle Adventures

Our group has moved!! We left Anna Bay to get back to our CVA house in New Castle. New Castle is a great city. Its mainly based on coal mining with one of the largest coal exporting ports in the world. Lots of industry and lots of beauty as well. Its really strange to see how the two mesh in one place. But here they have really cool beaches and shops and its a real urban area. This week we've been going out to a place called Ash Island to get rid of some of the invasive mangrove trees that reside there. Its some pretty hard work and the gear I have to wear looks pretty ridiculous. It was really hot today. Sooooo now for a little recap. we had some free days in new castle after we left anna bay which was fun I spent a lot of the days just walking around and talking to locals, finding out more about this city. Also one of the free days we went to a nature reserve called BlackButt and had a koala encounter which was awesome. The male was very angry and bit the handler so he got us the female which had a little baby with it!! such a great experience, they are a lot fluffier than I thought they would be. Another thing I didn't realize was how expensive everything here is!! Its like every meal turns out to be $20 :| and there aren't fast food places everywhere where I can get food for cheap. I've only seen like 3 McDonalds a KFC and a pizza hut. but I guess that's a good thing :P Im starting to get really homesick! its been especially hard because I don't have wifi all the time and when I do get wifi everyone at home is asleep. Like right now its 4:30pm here but 2am back in wisco and 3am for my mom in NC. Sucks. But when I do get wifi its good. Missing everyone though! But im at a library where they only let you use the wifi for an hour so I've got to jet! hopefully will be back on tomorrow evening. :)

Soo more in depth :)

So i have a little bit more time on wifi today so im going to go more in depth of what happened. So yesterday we went around to a bunch of diferent places around Anna Bay Australia where were staying until thursday and i saw a BUNCH of kangaroos and got really close to them. We also went to this beautiful look out when the sun was setting and the moon was HUGE! Theres diferent stars out here to so thats super interesting to look at. I also got to feed a bunch of pelicans with fish heads haha. But ive also been volunteering on the beach of Anna Bay. Its a beautiful beach with sand dunes. There were also camels that i got to ride a couple days ago to :P who knew that there were camels in Australia? But ive been weeding a bush called Bitou bush which is an invasive species from South Africa that takes over and kills all of the natural flora. It grows in huge bushes so its pretty hard to get out. Also weve been planting more of the natural plants that belong on the shore line. Its been super awesome because weve literally been working right on this beautiful beach. The house im staying at has the most gorgeous view of the beach and i love waking up to it every morning. The sunset everynight is also gorgeous. I dont think ive seen any other sunset as beautiful. Weve done alot of work out on the beach planting and weeding so every night ive been pretty tired and knocked out haha. The group im with is 8 other students and 2 leaders. The students are from all over, two from england/whales one from canada, one from taiwan, one from california, and two from Iowa. They're a pretty chill group and we've all gotten along fairly well. Im really enjoying my time here volunteering and i feel very accomplished with the work that weve been doing. It gives me alot of self satisfaction knowing that im keeping such a beautiful beach nice and clean. Also getting rid of invasive species is a very important thing considering sustainability. Ive been having a blast though and been missing everyone back home!! <33 will write more when i have wifi again. :)

NO WIFI OR PHONE

Sooo yeah I underexpected the amount of WIFI i was gonna have here in australia. Its been my volunteering weeks this week and ive been here for four days now without wifi. Mom has been blowin up my facebook but sorry! havent been able to answer! But ive been having a great time. we were in New Castle Australia for a night after we landed in Sydney. My jetlag was SOO bad. We then took a train to New Castle and stayed there for a night. Theres a lot more to tell but my Wifi time is limited to the next five minutes! I will keep updating my journal and righting in it every night so if you're really interested there will be rememberence! I just cant get on here every night and update it or bring the pictures. That will happen when i actually get wifi. I dont have a phone either.. so contact is limitied until i get back to the states!! Having a great time though!

LAX

So just chillin in LAX with Karli and Shelby. I picked them up in my rental car earlier today and we went to Venice beach and Santa Monica pier. These two girls are on my volunteer program and are super nice :) They are from a very small town in Iowa and have traveled to Ireland before so its good to find some people with interntaional travel experience. Super fun girls to im glad im traveling with such chill people! We had lots of fun today romping around Los Angeles. Had some dinner at bubba gump shrimp company on the santa monica pier. The only 2 things i hate about LA though are the traffic and the parking. The two days that i was in LA i probably spent ~$30 just on parking :| but i had lots of fun in LA definitely glad that I got a rental car. Im just chillen in LAX now about to board! Will update about that long flight once i land!! :) if you wanna chat about something hit my up on facebook.

Los Angeles

So im heading into my last couple hours in the U.S. Yesterday I spent the afternoon waiting mostly for my rental car/luggage... But after all that waiting I took a long cruise down the Pacific Coast Highway. Throughout the day however I developed a really bad throat infection and its still hard for me to swallow! Dx I went to Urgent Care here in Santa Monica and they gave me steroids, antibiotics and pain killers. The inflamation in my throat is super nasty and hurts a ton. So most of today I slept in my hotel room. Yesterday i took some cool pics though! Los Angeles is super pretty and has so many diferent beaches. I also cruised through Malibu and saw the outrageous mansions. There are also a lot of people driving super nice cars. Ive probably seen more lexus' and corvettes here than anywhere I've ever been. Hopefully this throat infection goes away and I wont be miserable on this 20 hour plane ride I'm taking tonight! My flight leaves at 10:10PM Pacific time so for all you wisco folks, Im leaving at 12Pm. Wish me luck!!

Where im planning to visit in Los Angeles

http://vimeo.com/user4127226/santa-monica-pier-aquarium Spending a day exploring Santa Monica Pier and the cool aquarium :)

15 More Days!

15 more days!!! I cant even describe how excited I am. All day I have been making a packing list in my head and thinking about the logistics of my flights. Time to get prepared!!