Aussie, Aussie, Aussie Oi, Oi, Oi

Just as I promised, I am trying to blog more often! After all the chaos of the past few weeks of traveling, you'd think that this past week would have slowed down a bit, but with only 2 months (I know, already half over!!) left of study abroad, I just cannot afford to slow down at all.

So you're probably wondering what the title of this blog means. Well, in Australia, there is a common saying that gets chanted and it is "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi." I've been giving this some extreme thought and I recently decided that because all of the boys wear their shorts so short, when they walk by people shout "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie" at them, and the boys say "Oi, Oi, Oi"...well... because.....just use your imagination ;) haha If there are any other thoughts on this, I would love to hear them!

Ellie, Andrea, and I...just a little visual proof that I still have my tan and I'm still having fun!

This past week our group went on Torchlight Tours of the old Fremantle Prison. It was in operation for over 100 years and just shut down back in '91, and did I mention that they say it's haunted?? Yeah. I went in thinking that it wouldn't be that bad, I mean it was going to be dark and all I would have is my flashlight, but I had Kaylee (my roommate) by my side so we'd be there for each other. Honestly, it wasn't even that scary, UNTIL (dun, dun DUuuuuuun!) they had a fake body fall from the sky, and had people jump out to scare us. They were all actors, but I was literally in tears at one point from the overwhelming amount of emotions of happiness, fear, and humour. They let us keep our flashlights as a souvenir, so at least we have something to show for all our fear.

We also got to make a huge community dinner of all our favourite Easter foods!! It was absolutely amazing and super refreshing to have a taste of home cookin' again. We had homemade cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole, ham, lamb, pasta salads (made by your very own and a few of my mates...aka friends), as well as many, many other dishes! It was a valiant effort from everyone, and we even had an array of tasty desserts....I was in heaven! (Thanks dad for the mouth full of sweet teeth! haha) They even let us have a small Easter egg hunt afterward!

Speaking of Easter surprises...check out the picture below! Mom sent me a HUGE package full of Easter goodies and surprises. Including a few of my favorite things, Reese's mini peanut butter cups. Get this, they don't sell them here in Australia!

My Easter surprise from Mom and the family!!

Proof that I am spoiled rotten because my mom sent me such an amazing card and package!!! I love my family!

This past week I have been working hard on getting caught up on my sleep as well as my homework. I had a presentation last Monday that I had worked on pretty much the day it was due; however, today I received my scores for it AND I got a High Distinction on the presentation and a Distinction on the accompanying paper. An HD is the highest grade you can get at UNDA, and that particular presentation and paper are worth 30% of my final grade for the class! Needless to say, I am EXTREMELY happy!! Also, I just received the score back from another presentation I had given, and I was pleased to have received another High Distinction on it! That was with Joe Pekarna, another St. John's student, and I was so happy when I received my grade in my email that I literally ran, yes I RAN down to find him and then proceeded to do a happy dance!! Maybe I can do this whole "Australian student" business after all! :)

This is what happens to me when I get locked up in my room to work on  homework.

I start modeling with my scarf! OH BOY...

We were challenged by the other housing buildings to raise money for a Leukemia foundation. With only one day to raise money our house managed to raise over $100!! Over $50 of those dollars were raised by Amanda and Sydney, two of the girls from Saint Ben's. They went busking (aka playing an instrument and singing on the street with a hat out for money to be placed in.) My friend Molly and I joined in the singing for a few minutes, and it was a real hit with the people of Freo!!

Sydney is on the left and Amanda is on the right

I also provided a bit of background beats with my hands and the pavement :)

We also played yet another great game of NETBALL!! We are improving so much and only lost by ONE point! I think if the refs stopped making bad calls, thinking we weren't intelligent enough to get the game of netball (which to be fair, a few weeks ago we didn't even know which side of the court each player should stand at during the start of each quarter, but still!) Granted we were playing one of the other lower ranked teams, but we still managed to play a pretty solid game scoring 20 points!! With three games left, I am optimistic that we can win at least one of them!!

This past weekend our group celebrated Mike Lockwood's 22nd birthday! The festivities were most enjoyable and I think he really enjoyed all of our participation in celebrating with him! Kaylee and I even made him a make shift birthday crown from an old folder. Complete with "cotton balls" made of torn apart ends from q-tips. Yeah, us college kids have to get crafty! haha

A few of us spent the remainder of the weekend back at Rottnest Island in a cabin that we rented. The first night was quite rainy and rather dreary so we spent our time chatting. That night we indulged in some games of Truth or Dare, What If, and even a little story time. It was rather hilarious! The next day was much nicer so we went to a spot called The Basin and lay out all day! We soaked up the rays and did a little exploring. Kaylee and I went and found the light house and did some manouvering through the land mine of rocks. We sure like to "dance." haha

Some of our cabin crew!

We found this little cavern to crawl into. There was water down below!

Getting tan on the white sand beaches of Rottnest Island off the Western coast of Australia!

Rottnest Island ♥

Posing with the lighthouse

I made a new friend...this is Mr. Quokka!! Quokkas are all over Rottnest Island and they are kind of like a mini kangaroo!

Well folks, that pretty much sums up my life from the past week. We've been having quite a few adventures along the way, and I've been enjoying every minute of it! The past couple of days I've been fighting off my head cold and trying not to get home sick. Nothing like being under the weather without having your mom and dad there to bring you some soup! Hopefully it gets better soon! Otherwise, that's about all for now. The next couple of weeks are going to be quite hectic, so I'm gonna try to keep my head above water!