Oh this has gotta be a good good life

Sometimes I can't believe that I am legitimately living the life I'm living right now. Yes, I'm dirt poor and living on a not-so-unlimited credit card budget, I have to sleep with one pillow every night instead of four, and I still have to write a 2500 word paper and take a Marketing final before Friday.. but I'm having the time of my life and still can't grasp the reality that I've been able to do so many things most people never get to do in their entire lives.

For instance, last weekend my friend Julie and I went whale watching. WHALE WATCHING right on the coast of Australia, and thanks to Groupon we got our tickets half price! This time of year humpback whales are migrating north towards Queensland to mate and have little whale babies so Julie decided this weekend would be the best time to catch them in action on their trip up.. and I'm so glad we did! The experience was truly amazing. The cruise lasted about 3 hours and during that time we saw so many whales. I can't even explain how cool it was, I was "ooh-ing" and going "WOWWWW!" every time a whale popped up for a breather. I'm still in awe over it.

Most of my photos ended up coming out not so nice so I stole these from the professional photographer who took pictures of the whales that day!

he got me in the photo! woo!

Once we were on dry land again Julie and I decided to check out the Royal Botanical Gardens which looked to be very similar to NYC's Central Park. Very cute, very green, and it ran right along the shoreline of the Sydney Harbour. Doesn't get more relaxing than that. While we were walking through the park we came across the Government House and thought why not check it out? Turns out the Government House (aka where the Prime Minister/past Governors of Australia stayed) was this huge castle-looking building that reminded us a lot of Princess Mia's castle in The Princess Diaries. But really, see for yourself!

Am I right or am I right? Anyways, when we went up to explore the house we found out that there was a tour being held to show visitors what the inside looked like, AND it was free so of course we joined in. Our tour guide was this cute old Scottish woman who took us through the house and showed us meeting rooms,  beautiful dining room, drawing rooms, foyers, and an insanely large ballroom. There were no cameras allowed inside so I'll leave it up to you to imagine how beautiful it was. I even managed to point out portraits of different Governors of Australia that I learned about in my Australian History class! See, I DID learn something while being here.

After the tour we wandered around more of the park and then headed back to campus to rest before we headed out for the night with our friend Karee.

After we rested up Karee, Julie, and I headed back downtown to have dinner on Darling Harbour and watch the fireworks.. another Australian Bucket List activity. After examining the menus of almost all the restaurants we decided to not pay $30 for a bowl of pasta and settle for some $10 chicken schnitzels at this very relaxed restaurant/bar on the harbour, and I have to say it was pretty good! One thing I will miss about Australia is Darling Harbour. It's in the center of the city and has literally everything you could possibly want while traveling in Sydney... food, attractions, movies, hotels (one at which I'm interning at), entertainment theaters, and fireworks every Saturday.

When we finished eating we hopped on a train and headed over to Circular Quay where the city was hosting VIVID SYDNEY - a festival of Lights, Music, and Ideas. To put it in short the city was basically lit up with a bunch of light installations and interactive games. The Opera House even had projections on it. It was a really cool thing to see. Though we were tripping over hundreds of tripods and freezing we still had a great time. It was really cool seeing the whole city come together to see these amazing displays.

Finals started this week so everyone has been held up in the library or their houses studying. My friend Sam left for America yesterday so Tuesday night me and my friends made pancakes and had one last movie night with her to say bye. Our friend Rachael is also heading back home Monday and then me, Alexis, and Julie will be leaving Karee and Mariel to go home on the 30th. Needless to say its going to be a very emotional 2 weeks.

On the plus side, the Lady Gaga concert is this Wednesday! I'm so so so excited to see her perform again, especially since this time I'll be seeing her in a whole new country. CAN'T WAIT.

Until next time! xoxoxox