In 2011...

Currently reading:

Just starting :)

Currently listening to:

sounds like summer, but feels like home

Just watched:

I give it a C+

I am back after nearly half a year. No promises to sticking to this thing, but I thought I could start with an easy recap of 2011.

2011 may have been the most chaotically exciting year of my life.

I don't wish its return, but its memories will forever be ladened in my heart. These memories were some of the best and some of the worst, but all of them pushed me on to something new and undiscovered.

Most of my best memories were spent with the people that I love, and for the early months of 2011, these people had new faces. For in 2011, we...

traveled to The Land Down Under

swam in the Great Barrier Reef

mastered public transport

were aired on national television

ate some really bad food....

but ate some really good food too

we danced...

and danced...

and danced some more

we slept under the stars in the Outback

and jumped off bridges

In 2011 we also had to say goodbye...

to the memories we made in Oz

and from a place called home, we had to say goodbye to a loving grandmother...

In 2011, I spent my summer...

at our favorite beach

but not until I beat mono

I began my senior year of college and....

moved off campus

stayed up ridiculously late, doing ridiculous things...

like discovering Pinterest...

and Skyping until the AM

In 2011 we...

watched our best friends get married

fell in love

made memories in an enchanted lake house

we told stories of the good ol' days

and we reunited frequently

I am thankful for the year 2011, and I already anticipate the moments, hours, and days that 2012 will bring with it.

Great Barrier Reef

I should be working on one of three papers I have due in the next week, but for my mother's sanity (love her heart) I am updating my blog :)

This weekend I traveled to the Great Barrier reef with 9 other Americans from my program. Our flight was due out at 6 am and public transport does not run in the wee hours of the morning, so we got the bright idea to sleep in the airport. Well, when we got there at 11 pm, we were promptly kicked out because apparently airports close at night in Australia. To Maccas (Aussie name for McDonalds) we went! ...and spent 5 hours waiting there

Once we arrived in Cairns (3 hour flight), Becca Aubrey and I went to find our hotel. Big shout out to Penny and Gary Towler for the hotel, it was a fabulous sleep our first night :)

On Saturday we all boarded our boat for the reef. There were roughly 100 on our boat for the day. We made stops at two different reefs. I signed up for an introductory scuba dive where you go down linking arms with 4 other people and an instructor. The three other people in my group weren't feeling so comfortable with going down, so I got my own little private tour with the guide and I absolutely loved it. I got to swim around on my own and touch clams and coral, and I even found Nemo :) I did lots of snorkeling too- thanks to my roomie's awesome camera, I got lots of pictures of the reef.

We flew home Sunday morning so that we could get back for classes on Monday. I wish I could be back in Cairns, it is a great place and a phenomenal little holiday spent with friends :)

So it is about 55 degrees here and I feel like I am dying of cold. Sadly Sydney has spoiled me into thinking it can be warm all the time. I am wishing I brought warmer clothes right about now. Becca and I do our best to keep warm (and well fed) by eating lots of Nutella and leaving our layers of dance attire on until the morning.

The adventures are still going strong here in the Land Down Under- I do miss home for all new reasons each day. Today it is mostly for mom's cooking and a warm house to come home to. Some days I am ready and other days I think it will be pretty tough to leave this place... I have six weeks left to enjoy it!