My Address!

Everyone likes getting things in the mail.  Whether it's a letter, a package, or whatever.  If, for some reason, you would like to send me something, my address is:


Lauren Williams
Campus Accommodation Office
14 University Drive
Bond University QLD 4229
Australia


I don't really need anything sent to me but it would still be fun to go to the post office and actually have something to pick up :)

My Very First Triathlon!

Ok, so I got this crazy idea to do a triathlon.  I blame my friend Heather for this.  So, on Saturday, Heather, Natalie, and myself participated in the Bondstock triathlon.  The length of this event was 250m swimming, 9k biking, and 2k running.  In all it wasn't a very long triathlon, but for someone like me who isn't in great shape and has never done anything like this, I was very nervous.  In the end it took me a little less then 40 minutes to finish which put me in 32nd place out of 55 participants.  I was very proud of myself, to be honest.  Hopefully, I will be competing in a full length triathlon in about 6 weeks; so wish me luck!

6 a.m. getting ready to check in

I finished!  And don't worry, I am actually wearing spandex...

The triathletes!

Proof of how red I get when I exercise.  Oh, and I also lost my name and number half way through the race so I was the nameless competitor

I felt very accomplished after the race and hope I am able to do another one!

A Weekend To Remember

Last weekend a group of us decided to explore some of the things around Bond to see what cool stuff we could find....

Friday...

  So, on Friday night we decided to go to Brisbane to see the laser light show and to check out a festival they had had going on.  The show was amazing!  It incorporated the entire city and used so many of the buildings along the channel to make it work.  I was impressed by the magnitude of the event, even though it's difficult to tell in the pictures, and all of the work that must have gone into the event to make it so huge.  There were also plenty of street vendors and attractions to keep us busy for hours!

Clay, Jocelyn, Alicia, Me, and Tyler

They used fountains of water to reflect the different lights and pictures 

I'm not actually sure what this is, but I liked the way it looked so I took a picture of it!

There was an attraction that we went to that had mirrors all over the place and then there would be pictures, or patterns, on the walls that would change every couple minutes

I'm the one with my hand in the air

Kind of the cliche mirror shot, but better

"The Golden Cascade of Light Sphere"

A 24 hour pancake house built into an old church

Saturday...

On Saturday we wanted to explore some of the local mountain areas around us.  We found Mount Tamborine where they said there would be plenty of things for us to do.  They weren't wrong!  Mount Tamborine had so many shops and things to look at and explore.  We went and saw a cave filled with glow worms, checked out a local brewery and winery, went to a cheese shop, and we also went to a...dun dun dun...FUDGE SHOP!!  Definitely my favorite part of the day!  

As we were driving up the mountain, we saw a group of people hang gliding!

It was crazy; they would run and just jump off the side of the mountain!

So much delicious cheese

Heaven

We took a hike and found some beautiful waterfalls

Sunday...

Sunday was our day of rest.  We went to the beach all day.  The beaches here are beautiful.  The water is bluer and warmer and the sand is so much cleaner and softer.  And the best part is, they are never crowded!  Sunday night, though, was the launch party for Bondstock.  It was a pretty mellow event; at least for Bond.  There was a carnival with rides and games followed by a fireworks show.  

It was a busy, nonstop weekend but I made so many memories and will definitely remember it for a very long time!

So Far, Down Under...

AustraLearn Orientation Week in Cairns...

Before heading to Bond University, myself and about 90 other students from The States spent 6 days in Cairns getting to know each other as well as the culture in which we are going to be living for the next 3 1/2 months.  Each day we had lectures about what to expect in our new environment and then every night we simply got to hang out and do, basically, whatever we liked.  Over the course of this week we we were able to experience rain forests, jungles, rivers, and the Great Barrier Reef!  I can honestly say that I've never experienced so many new and exciting things over the course of so short a time, and although I was exhausted at the end, it was definitely worth it!  


I want to forewarn anyone who may be reading this that there are alot of random pictures of scenery and animals because I thought they were so different from anything back home, and therefore it was cool!

Heading to LAX for my flight to Sydney!!

All 90 AustraLearn students having our first meal in Australia!

We took a ride in an Army Duck (a vehicle that can be either a car or a boat) and this is one of the views we saw.

Yes, I threw a boomerang.  It went straight up in the air and then straight down into the dirt...

I don't know if this looks easy or not, so let me just tell you that it's not.

I was able to hold a koala!  But this is not it...

This is, in fact, the actual python I held.  Obviously.

I believe they said this kangaroo was only a couple months old.

If you look closely, there are cuts under the crocodile's eye.  The crocodile from the pen over broke in and attacked this one.

We were walking around one night and found this group of people playing drums!  So, of course, I joined them for a little bit :)

On our way to the Great Barrier Reef!!

It was definitely the bluest water I've ever seen.

Instead of paying for a cab, we decided to run 30 minutes through the rain to get something to eat.  

Heading to more rain forests and jungles for the day.

The coolest looking duck I've ever seen!

A kookaburra!

The bird's facial expression cracks me up!

A tree kangaroo...

And then a kangaroo striking a sexy pose!

A two week old crocodile that was only about a foot long!

This annoying little bird wouldn't sit still long enough for me a take a picture...

This was a chicken we found crossing the road...

Everything was so green!

The trees and plants went right up to the sand and, in some parts, the actual water.

The time in Cairns was definitely a good thing.  It allowed us to become immersed in the culture a little bit before heading to the actual uni.  We were also able to make friends right away so as to avoid the awkward beginning stages of friend making at the uni and could then head straight into the orientation and craziness of life on campus.  

Bond University Orientation Week...

On Monday the 5th, we finally arrived at the university.  To put it simply, this campus is amazing!  I looked up pictures online as well as watched videos that were shot here but nothing could have done it justice.  I still find myself walking around amazed at where I'm going to be living for the next few months.  I'm living in the Accommodation Center on campus, basically one of the dorms.  I'm so happy I am too because it's the cheapest option and alot of things are included that I would have had to pay for had I been living somewhere else.  Basically, it's like a hotel; we actually have housekeeping who come every week to change our sheets and clean everything.  Definitely a good choice!  Also, each room has it's own bathroom so that was an unexpected, but definitely welcome, surprise.  

After coming from Cairns and being completely exhausted it would have been nice to have at least one day of down time to relax and get settled.  No.  We were thrown right into the middle of O Week at Bond.  Here's a quick run down of how our week went:

Monday...

Welcome meeting with our Senior Res Fellows and just regular Res Fellows,

Followed by a pizza party in our dorm rooms, and then a toga party that night...

Tuesday...

Campus tour...definitely helpful since the place is huge!  

Then there was a cocktail party for which everyone got all dressed up!

The APU girls!

And then after the cocktail party there was a hypnotist show.  It was the first time I've ever been to one and it was hilarious!  I don't know that I would go to another one, I definitely wouldn't spend money to see one, but it was entertaining and definitely made me laugh.

Wednesday...

There was the kick-off for Wednesday by the Water, which is something that they do every week.  It's just a time to hang out with friends and you get a free meal out of it!  

There was a blow-up obstacle course at Wednesday by the Water and so, of course, I did it.  Considering the thing was blown up and it was floating on the top of water I'm not sure how I did this...but I ended up bruising my knee pretty badly.  It looks pretty red here but it ended up turning a nice shade of blackish blue.

And then Wednesday night there was a trivia/comedy show.  My team, the Baboons, won 2 out of the 10 rounds for the trivia.  The comedic portion of the show shouldn't have even been called that.  It was rather disappointing.  Not at all what I would consider comedy, it was more like a guy getting up and just telling random, not funny, stories about his life.  Something that is worth mentioning, though, is the amount of food we ate that night.  My group went to the cafe and ate a full dinner.  We then went to the trivia night and ate about 4-5 pieces of pizza each (this is impressive considering I don't even like pizza).  And then, to top it all off, we ate all of the candy we won in those two victorious rounds!  We were definitely proud of ourselves.

Thursday...

Tight 'N' Bright party!  I didn't realize how excited everyone got about these kinds of things.  We seriously shopped around for a couple hours trying to find stores that weren't sold out of things we could use for this party!  Definitely a fun night!

Me and sunburned looking legs!

Best picture!

The girls!

My group plus some of random people from the hall who joined in.

Friday...

We had nothing going on at the uni on this day so we all had a lazy day and then went and explored Surfer's Paradise that night.

Saturday...

Today the uni organized a beach day for all of the students.  So myself and about 250 other Bondies travelled by bus to Broadbeach to just hang out and do whatever we wanted to.

Orientation week at Bond was fun, exhausting, crazy, and definitely memorable.  I'm so excited about what else the semester is going to bring!