Ifeast!

Everyone who cooked for iFeast! (I am in the blue kimono on the left. My Japanese friend Mayumi had a spare for me to wear while serving food!)

Last night (Sunday May 6th) we had and international feast. People from our international house got the chance to form groups and make up to 3 dishes for their country! Since there are about 30 Americans living at iHouse, I decided to help the Japanese team. We made red bean mochi, sushi and okonomiyaki. Red Bean mochi is a dessert made with red beans and sugar inside of a cookie dough and rolled in coconut. Okonomiyaki looks like a pancake or pizza that is made out of seafood and cabbage and topped with special okonomiyaki sauce. The dishes were not too difficult to make, but sharing a kitchen with about 20 teams and serving for 200 people was no easy task. We spent about 3 hours cooking on Saturday and 4 hours on Sunday before the big feast. It was delicious! Some of my favorite dishes were:

-chocolate balls from France

-mango smoothie from Sri Lanka

-goat from Kenya

-Kangaroo stew and lamingtons from Australia

-Pad Thia from Thailand

-noodle stir fry from Korea

-apple danish from Austria

There were so many more good one! United States made macaroni and cheese, apple pie, puppy chow and buffalo chicken dip which were all delicious as well! It was an awesome night and one of my favorite experiences at Ihouse!

We had some help for the China and Indonesia team with the sushi rolling

Serving okonomiyaki at iFeast

Red Bean Mochi

Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road

AFL game at the MCG

 I spent this past weekend in Melbourne and it was amazing! My roommate Kayla, Kenzie from KU and I caught an early flight Saturday morning to Melbourne. We started by walking the city to Federation Square, the botanical gardens and Flinders Street before we headed north to the famous Victoria Markets. That night we went to an AFL "footie" (Australian Football League) game at MCG (Melbourne Cricket Grounds). St. Kilda Saints beat the Melbourne Demons in an exciting match. A crowd of about 30,000 came to the game in a stadium that fits 101,000. It is only the 5th round of the season so crowds usually aren't too big yet. The atmosphere was fun, even though it rained, but we were undercover and did not get wet. I decided I prefer an Australian football game to rugby. Footie is the more popular sport around the Melbourne area and rugby is more popular in Sydney. They play on a circular field and try to score the ball between 2 central posts untouched for 6 points or anything else for 1 point.

12 Apostles at Sunset

Then, Sunday morning we met up with 6 other people from the Wollongong International House and rented cars to drive the Great Ocean road towards Adelaide. Leaving at 9am, we drove about 8 hours along the coast, making many stops and taking tons of pictures. At our furthest point, we started seeing some of the famous limestone rock formations including the 12 Apostles, London Bridge and the arch. The drive was amazingly beautiful and our weather was perfect. We watched a magnificent sunset at the 12 Apostles before driving the shorter way back to Melbourne. 

London Bridge (middle part fell in 1990)

Graffiti Alley

On Monday, we again walked the city. This time we went along the river, to Chinatown and through arcades (alleys) in the city. My favorite were the unique alleys we found. Some had a lot of personality including the graffiti alley and others were very ritzy. There were lots of different street shops and heaps of people in them. Melbourne is a very cute, quite city with amazing artsy architecture. Many people in Australia seem to be either Sydney lovers or Melbourne lovers. I am very split on the 2 cities and love them both, but almost everyone I was traveling with preferred Melbourne. The last thing we did in Melbourne is go to a rooftop cider beer bar. They had nine cider beers on tap of flavors apple, pear and berry. We all had a cider and watched footie before catching a late plane back to Sydney. I am so happy I had the chance to see Melbourne and am already recommending it to everyone back in Wollongong!

Another "arcade" or alley in Melbourne

Mudgee, Australia

This past weekend I went to my friend, Caitlin's hometown in Mudgee, NSW Australia. Mudgee is a town of about 8,000 and known for its wine country and mining. Caitlin's home is outside of town in the bushland country with sheep and alpacas as pets. It was about a 4.5 hour drive northwest of Wollongong over the Blue Mountains. We stayed in her house and threw a Mexican themed birthday party with her parents and little brother. It was so much fun and all of her friends brought "swags" which is a sleeping bag/tent to sleep in outside. The weather was a bit too chilly though and most people slept inside. On Sunday, we were planning on going to the rugby union match called "City vs. Country" (similar to the All-Star game) but drove back to Wollongong instead to get school work done. The game was held in Mudgee this year and televised in Australia, Europe and New Zealand.

Easter Break


This past week I had off of school for Easter Break (similar to Spring Break back home). On Sunday morning I flew into Townsville, Australia. We only spent a couple hours there before catching a bus south to Airlie Beach, but still had time to explore the town a bit. Townsville is a mining town that sits just about in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef along the east Coast of Australia. It isn't as touristy for the Great Barrier Reef since it is about a 2.5 hour boat ride to the reef, but is good for traveling to Magnetic Island, a beautiful National Park.


Snorkeling Whitsunday Islands

Airlie Beach

We arrived in Airlie Beach that night. Airlie Beach is a touristy town which is known as the link to Whitsunday Islands. There are over 70 of the islands which are close to the coast and have coral of the Great Barrier Reef near to the islands. The biggest attraction is the beautiful White Haven Beach (3rd most photographed thing in Australia, 1 is Opera House/Harbor Bridge and 2 is Ayers Rock) which is a long beach made of 98.1% pure silica. We learned that NASA used silica from that beach for there aircrafts because it is on of the most plentiful and purest deposits of silica in the world. Our first 2 days in Airlie we spent relaxing at the free lagoon and at the markets. Although there were beaches, swimming in them is not recommended due to the jellyfish populatoin that tend to hang around. There are deadly jellyfish that paralyze you with one sting. Our third day we went on a boat raft where we snorkeled in two different locations by Whitsunday Islands, took a bushwalk on an island and when to Whitehaven Beach. We unfortunately didn't get the weather we expected. It rained and the wind was at 30 knots, but the water was a warm 30 degrees C (86 F!). The coral was beautiful, vibrant and close to the surface which was good to snorkel and there were hundreds of different fish! On the bushwalk we saw some of the biggest spiders known to Australia and ants that Aboriginals eat for their unique flavor. They had green butts and tasted like a sour warhead candy! We went to a look out of the islands and also walked along Whitehaven Beach. Although we didn't have perfect weather, it was still a beautiful location!


ants eaten by the Aboriginals on Whitsunday Island



Whitehaven Beach, Whitsunday

That night we took an overnight bus to Cairns, which is the most popular destination to snorkel and dive the Great Barrier reef. We met up with friends from Wollongong and about 20 of us rented cars and drove around the rainforests. We stopped at many waterfalls, a figtree and a dairy farm. We spent three days in Cairns and it unfortunately rained all of them. Our last 2 days we weren't able to spend by the lagoon so we did some shopping instead. It was so fun to see a different part of Australia. All three towns were big tourist population and summer homes to Australians. Not many people live year round in those towns.
I am now back to Wollongong and back to classes. Although "Spring Break" is over, I still feel like I am on a 5 month Spring Break!


Waterfall in Cairns rainforest

Mom and Dad arrived

Mom and Dad have arrived in Wollongong! I spent Friday showing them around Wollongong, the uni, the beach and the international house and met up with my new friends! On Saturday morning we watched the sunrise before they headed into the Blue Mountains. That night, I went on a Harbor Cruise in Sydney with the International House. We had perfect weather and a gorgeous night on a boat with views of the Opera House and Harbor Bridge. Back to school again today, but excited that KU is going to the Final Four. Hope my Jayhawks can bring home the title this year!

Surf Camp

I am officially a pro Surfer! Well not really, but here is the evidence:
I had surf lessons last weekend on Seven Mile Beach about a half hour south of Wollongong in the town called Gerroa.

This second picture in on the clostest beach to the international house in Wollongong. The beach is called North Gong. In the distance you can see the lighthouse, one of the well-known sites of Wollongong.

First Week of Class

The Three Sister in the Blue Mountains

I am in my second week of classes at University of Wollongong. I am taking 2 engineering courses, a statistics course and history of Australia (AUST 101). So far, my teachers have not been too difficult to understand but I am still easing into classes.

My first weekend in Wollongong I took a trip to the Blue Mountains. It is a mountain range west of Sydney known for its blue tinted mountains and a special rock called the Three Sisters. I stayed in a small touristy town called Katoomba. I went abseiling down a mountain, went hiking, saw the Three Sisters, ate kangaroo jerky and went to a zoo. I saw my first kangaroo, wallaby and koala since I have been here!

This past weekend I took the train to Sydney with a bunch of people in the international house. We went downtown on Saturday for the Madri Gras Parade. It was a fun group, but unfortunately rained a lot and kept the crowds away.

We have had many rainy days recently and areas in New South Wales are having flooding problems. It is predicted to rain every single day of March! This is new to many people my age because this year is ending an 11-year draught in the Sydney area. Rain or Shine I am still determined to learn to surf! An Australian living in the international house was kind enough to teach me. I 'sort of' got up on my third go. I still have a lot of room to improve!