By The Amazing Grace

Welcome back one and all!!! Let the show begin!!

Ok so first off Tuesday was a good day. I didn't start packing until Monday night so I spent most of the morning Tuesday finishing up. Putting little things in my bag and things I suddenly realized I'd need, like my box of contact lens. Ya know, stuff you don't normally take with you when you travel because normally you don't travel somewhere for six months. Don't cry Aunt Tara, I'll be back in a flash :) That flash will have Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, a couple of family birthdays including my own, and maybe Easter, but hey, that's no reason to cry ;)

My mom took me to Pirate O's where not only was she scared by the same electronic snake twice but we also picked up gifts for our travels. My mom and daddyo are on their way to Washington to visit Lisa and Marisa. Have a safe flight mom and dad!! I picked up some novelty Utah things, truffels, honey, chipolte sauce, and salt which I gave to my host mum and dad to say thanks for letting me stay with them. Later my dad, mom, Tristan, and myself went to the Olive Garden for a quick lunch. It was good. Then my parents dropped me off at the airport and I agree with Tristan thirty seconds of goodbye hardly does a six month absence any justice. 

If you haven't heard of it you should check out Australian football. It's pretty fast paced and cool.

I caught all my flights on time and had a blast waiting and waiting during my long layovers. My really long flight from San Francisco to Auckland was really comfy, well as comfy as a plane ride can be. I was able to sleep most of the time which was awesome. When I got to New Zealand I re-read an email I had received earlier last week from Maureen. Originally I thought it had said that she was going to pick me up from the airport. She had asked for my itinerary and said she had gotten the day off but it said that she would be waiting at the house for me. As hard as I tried not to I started panicking and freaking out because I had no clue what I was going to do. I finally broke down and paid for 45 mins of wifi and talked to my mom and asked her what I should do. Taking a public transportation was ruled out because of it's 6 transfers and walking to other bus stations in Brisbane. Then I was thinking that taking a taxi would be a good idea but sure it would cost a lot because it was about a 61 mile drive. My mom told me to ask the information desk how much it'd be to take a taxi so I could know how much cash to take out. When I got to Brisbane, my nerves were on edge, and when I asked the lady at the currency exchange office if she knew about how much it'd be to take a taxi to Mooloolaba I lost it. She was very nice but keep telling me to toughen up and not to worry. 

OOOOOO! My first Australian rain storm!! I just heard thunder!! So cool! I'm thinking I'll take a nap :)

So it turns out that alarm doesn't work. Note to self, DON'T USE THAT FOR SUNDAY NIGHT!!!

Now for some reason my internet isn’t working :( You know tho that if you’re reading this I got it fixed. Hopefully that happens tonight.

I asked the girls at the information desk how much a taxi would be and she said over $100 because it was so far away so they bought be a shuttle ticket which took be all the way to my destination nice and easy for half the money. They were all really friendly which was nice since I was such a big baby about the whole thing. Throughout my super long day of traveling I was only called a man twice! That’s a new record! Once by a flight stewardess and once by one of the dudes that check your passport. I don’t know how long the flight attendant had been sitting there saying sir but I eventually realized that she was asking me what I wanted to drink. The passport guy asked how sir err he meant ma’am was doing today.

My first day here went by without any big crazy things. I met both Andrew and Maureen. They are both really nice people. Maureen is about 60 and Andrew is 52. They don’t have any kids just  a toy poodle name Bunnie that is 14 years old. They are both really nice people and I think I’m going to like them a lot. This morning when I got up I got a bowl of cornflakes and when I went to clean the bowl and put it back Maureen(the host mum) was up. She saw i had already eaten she said, “Oh you already ate. Good. I just put the spaghetti away. I wasn’t sure if you wanted some spaghetti on toast.” Now, I’ve heard of a lot of weird things people eat but that was just pure random. Who would think of that? And how does spaghetti become a breakfast food? Is it because it’s on toast? When did toast become a magical transformers of foods?! 

After breakfast she took me around to the vet office and the pharmacy to pick up pills for her and her dog, then we stopped at Underwater World for her piece of mind that they knew I was starting Monday. I had told her that I had recently emailed the supervisor Katie but she still wanted to go which is all good. After we came back to the house, but I didn’t stay long. I walked to the store and picked up a few things I needed, and forgot other stuff that I still need. After that I walked down to the beach where I was amazed that I live by the ocean. THE ocean!! It mind boggles me. It’s so cool!! I stood in it and tried to de-boggle my mind about the whole thing. So cool!!

After that not much has happened. I started writing this, got jet lag, took an accidentally hour nap, ate dinner and that leaves to right now! So sorry Kelcie I haven’t had a good solid cry since I left but I have had tears leak out while freaking out. But everything is good and I know this only the start of a crazy life changing adventure. Tomorrow Andrew said he’d take me to the plaza, which sounds like the equivalent to a mall, to get a phone. I don’t know what else will go on tomorrow. I’ll probably spend more time at the beach since I’m sure they had their stuff they like to do over the weekend. I looked up where the closest LDS ward is to this house and it’s about 2 . 5 miles away which would be a about an hour walk. There are no busses that I saw that go to near it. I’ll let you know how that all goes. 

Grandpa, I have some disappointing news regarding the toilets here. I’m very sad to report that the toilets I have used so far do not swirl when you flush. They just roar and gurgle in a loud kind of way and somehow the do-do goes away. It just looks like everything is getting tossed around to me but apparently not as it’s gone in the end. 

Kelcie and Deidre outside of this house it smells, I don’t know, the first word that comes to mind is semi-tropical. But when I was down in the ocean it smelled salty just like oceans do. The air is definitely thicker here and is heavy to breath. Maureen thinks it’s dry tho so I’m curious to see what humid air to here is like. 

For those of you who wanted my address, this is it:

 3/110 Amarina Ave.

 Mooloolaba QLD 4557, Australia

On a last final note, a big shout out to my mom and dad, I could have never done this without you!! Thank you so much!! Cya later!

My giant two level plane

 A random plant growing on this plank thing

Andrew's bike

Me being sneaky and taking a picture of Maureen

Aussie brand of car, Holden

Bird of Paradise, a fitting name

All soda water, gross

Mail man, what Andrew does

Light switch and fan, weird....

Missing A Day

Hey there one and all. Greetings from Mooloolaba :) By the way, that's pronounced ma-lou-la-ba. As strange as is may seem after a 28 hour flight, but I am dead freakin beat! Therefor this is just a blog to let you all know that I am here safe. I'll write more tomorrow which will be Friday for me. All you lazies in the northern hemisphere are a day behind. Haha :P I'll give you all the gory details at that time as well. I'm so tired tho so I'm shooting off to bed now. See you all so soon :)

ps this place is amazing an beautiful!!!!

Goodbye Dry Sky

A big western Howdy ya'll!!! Today is the day. It is the day that I leave. To where you ask? Let me direct you to a lovely blog post that will enlighten you. Please click here if you wish to be more knowledgeable. Saturday was a good time seein' all your lovely faces and sayin' good bye to them. It's going to be sad to be away from such great people for so long but I'm positive it's going to be an awesome trip!! I'll be sure to post here often so that everyone who cares to can know what's going on in the land down under. I'll be sure to post something before the week is out so everyone can know I didn't die. It is a possibility as Kelcie was threatening to kill me and all I wanted to do was live in a hobbit hole. Is that such a sin?! Apparently, in the eyes of some crazy radicals. Psycho fanatics *shakes head* tsk tsk.

Well, I suppose this is a final goodbye to all you lovely people. I'll try not to miss you all too much. I'll also be sure to have plenty of fun for any one who would want a share in Australian summer sunshine. Until we meet again, I love you all. I'll write real soon :)

It's Baltic!!

Hey there everybody! So the last few days were just as awesome as the rest :) Time seriously flew by. I was there and back again so quick, it almost doesn't feel like I ever left. But to prove to myself, and any other doubters out there I made a short 5 min video with pictures summing up my trip.

Monday was the first slightly rainy day. Leo called it a sun shower. It was just raining very lightly but consistently. We bopped about town for a bit and then listened to music while we waited for the rain to stop so we could go play with his camera stuff. After shooting a wee bit of footage we headed back home for a good ole fried ulster for lunch. He wasn't in the mood to cook and so burnt my food. Jerk....lesson learned tho. Make sure he's really hungry and in the mood to cook before you have him make you anything. By the time lunch was eaten he had completed my challenge of not smoking for six hours. I told him that I'd kiss him if he could go six hours without smoking. So after lunch I kissed him. The dude sure knows how to make a girl remember him, I mean how will I ever be able to forget him now?! He was my first freakin kiss! He nearly lost his mind going so long without smoking but he made it, finger lickin and twitchy. 

Later that night Mick came over one last time. It was a good time watchin Mick and Leo interact and seeing what life was like in Northern Ireland. As Mick left I said goodbye as I thought it would be the last time I would see him in a long while. His grandparents also said goodbye and I thanked them for letting me stay there and gave them a hug. We woke up at six and left the house a little after six forty. Randomly Mick showed up as we neared the bus station. Apparently the two meowing, barking weirdos planned for Mick to meet us at the bus station so I could give him a goodbye hug. What makes them weird is that they planned it while he was over in the same room as us but they did it over text!!! I swear there's something in the water there that make them all a bit cuckoo!! Mick told me to come back soon or they'd have to kidnap me. The ride to the airport was a sad one. Leo said he almost cried a few times and almost didn't let me into the airport. When we finally said goodbye after I left him I almost started crying. I turned around to tell him something and he was gone. I got all panicky but kept going. It's kind of a good thing he was gone because I don't know if he could've got me on that plane if he had still been standing there watching me. I miss him so much. The flight back wasn't as bad because the layovers weren't as long but it's been a lot harder to get back on our time. The second night back and I'm still wiped out. By the time I'm normal I'll be leaving for Australia. Crazy!!!

I had such an awesome time and I can't wait to come back someday!!! A BIG thanks to Leo and his grandparents, I really enjoyed my stay!! My last day of work is tomorrow. After work it's Nu Skin's Lagoon day. That'll be gr-r-r-reat!! Well that's all form me. I'm dead beat tired. Signing off from the comfort of my bed, this is Tony the Tiger!!!

Rugged 'N Green

Not a whole lot happened yesterday, thought as the days are winding down and as it gets to closer to the day I leave the later starts we are having to the day. I think I'm slowly killing Leo waking him up at seven every morning. After getting up Leo cooked a good old Ulster fry. Leo claims it's stuff that puts hairs on your chest.

It was a really good breakfast. Very delicious and fried. That's probably why it was so good. Fried is almost always better. You know that's right!! Fried wheaten, soda, and potato bread, fried egg, and fried bacon is what Leo's fry consists of. Mmmmm-mmmm! It was just dandy! After our heart attack meal we went on a three mile walk to an old mill. When we got back we just watched movies and hung out at his house. No, all you dirty people. We didn't just make-out. Get you're flithy minds out of the sewers! Leo will sadly tell that you that we have not kissed once. Though, he claims I'm not leaving this country without a "proper kiss", whatever that means. Because of when my plane leaves tomorrow I won't be posting anything tomorrow on my blog. I'll write about my last two days on the Emerald Isle when I get home. It's been a really good time and I'm sad that my time is already over but I'm sure I'll be back to see this country again sometime, you can't get rid of me that easily Ireland!!!