Spring Break Is Here!

Well folks, this will be my last post before I go incommunicado for two weeks. As some of you may know, we are now on mid-semester break. I just finished up a hard week with two big essays, one for history on the Great Depression and one for pop culture examining the “representation of the relationship between place and cultural identity in teen literature and film”. Boy am I glad to be done with those! Up until last night, I hadn’t really had the chance to be excited for the amazing adventures ahead; I was too busy worrying about my essays. Last night around 5pm I was in the student services building finalising my paper and turning it in right on the deadline (always a procrastinator). On the walk back to my room, a feeling somewhere between relief, relaxation and excitement came over me. I just felt like sitting around, and that’s pretty much what I did. After dinner I just went out to our pool and kicked a ball around with my buddy Cory. Then I just sat around with the roommates and watched a movie. Eventually I started laying out all my stuff (I had made a big packing list a couple days before so packing didn’t take long) and getting my documents in order.

I’ll outline our trip so you get an idea of the itinerary. I don’t want to go into too much depth because I’ll do one massive update when I get back with all the details you could ever want. Anyway, the first week I’m going to the south island of New Zealand with my friends Cory and Mike, both Americans. This was the trip we booked right after we got here, back in July. We basically go all around the south island on a bus to different hot spots like Fox Glacier, Queenstown, spend a night on a boat in Milford Sound, and even stay at a sheep station in the Fjordlands! After that week is up, we fly back to Sydney and then up to Airlie Beach, which is pretty far up the east cost of Australia, where we are meeting up with our other friend Patrick. From Airlie Beach we leave on a two night sailing adventure around the Great Barrier Reef. After that, we all head down the coast to Hervey Bay. From there we jump on a ferry over to Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world. There we will go on a 4x4 safari tour where we get to drive these jeeps all around the island. Apparently you can’t swim in the ocean because it’s a breeding ground for tiger sharks, but there are over 50 freshwater lakes on the island. After that, we must return home to the drudgery of school. I’ll actually have to go to one of my classes about an hour or two after I get back from the airport!

I’m sure there will be internet access along the way, and I may be willing to do a small update or two, but most likely I won’t write again for a few weeks. Hope everyone has a great two weeks and check back in around October 15 for an update!