Brisbane's breakthrough

The day had finally come, after five days of being in a 14-hour time difference my body had adjusted. We slept in. Out of the three of us that were in a room together, not one of us bothered to set an alarm because I was so bright eyed and bushy tailed so friggin early every morning!  Looked at the clock. Looked at it again... waited for my eyes to adjust or for it to magically start rolling back, but no such luck. We had 10 minutes to get dressed, grab breakfast, and make it to the bus. Here goes nothing... Pure chaos. Somehow, 10 minutes later we were piled on a bus headed to our Community Day location. Success. But that was a close one!

Today, our task was to help reach the 2,000,000 tree initiative. Goal? Plant 2,000,000 trees in a year, or something. Being that there was just significant flooding in Brisbane, it helped our efforts - it made it so much easier that there was soggy ground. So we grabbed hats, gloves, shovels, and trees and started planting.



Generally speaking, this is my look when my friends aren't around.

 The day's goal set by the leaders was to plant about 500 trees by 2pm. That gave us a healthy five hours to get some serious tree hugging done. It was 104 degrees (F) and about 80% humidity. Much of our group was significantly hungover. Thankfully (and a little bit surprising) I was not one of them... but watching them moan in agony made my life feel just a little bit more spectacular. By 11am, we were ready for some lunch. So we all grabbed our smashed sandwiches out of a cooler, each took an apricot bar (oh sick), and a juice box. Found a spot in the shade and shared a laugh at the kids getting in trouble (we were in the backyard of an elementary school and the naughty kids would be sent out back where we were. This one chubby little boy got in trouble and was kicked out, so he laid down on a table in the shade and waved an Australian flag until he fell asleep. We were all pretty jealous - he had about a 30 minute nap and we were all sweating our faces off.)

Like good little working bees, after we were finished we got up to finish exercising our Green Thumbs and found out we had actually exceeded their goal and planted 800 trees in just under 90 minutes. We shattered any record of all previous AustraLearn students. Booyaaahhhhhh. We were stoked. The leaders made a call to the bus and an  hour later we were all entering air-conditioned heaven. Since we were fast workers, we earned a few hours to ourselves. A lot of people went to the pool, a couple people napped, but I knew that if I didn't start uploading pictures of my trip that my family may start to disown me. So I sat down and finally started to put my week online and share my trip with all those that missed me.

Friday night. Free night. Okay, this was it. The big one. I had been in Australia for 5 days and had made it to bed, almost before the sun had set, every night. This was my night. Time to get dolled up and tear up Brisbane. We walked down to Queen Street (after gathering many native's suggestions) headed for the Beach House and got to witness history in the making. Currently, Egypt is in the process of trying to overthrow their President (Mubarak).

There was a speaker in town that was speaking against President Mubarak and these people marching were in support of the speaker. The demonstration was very controlled, police were everywhere, but it was very powerful... they were loud and organized. It raised alot of attention!

It was time for dinner!! We had certainly worked up an appetite being super tree planters by day (and as far as I'm concerned we earned a little fun in our lives!). And we had come to the perfect spot. There was a deck that overlooked much of the strip and we were in the center of the nightlife. The duo that was entertaining us was beyond incredible. I've listened to alot of music in my day... and these two won't be easily forgotten.

As the night rolled on, so did the beer; for our friends at the next table, that is. There was a group of about 10 and they all worked together at a nearby local hotel. It was Friday night and time to kick back for them. As the spirits flowed, the dancing started, and we made new friends. These girls left an imprint on me... We had "Lady Gaga" who was just straight up stoked about life. And if you'd let her, she'd be honored to serenade you. The other girl was all about starting the dance party and getting her new, American friends on that stage with her. So, we danced. And we danced and we sang and we danced some more.

This night just felt like a breakthrough for me... a breakthrough I had been waiting for. Even though I get along with just about everybody that is on the trip, I'm all about one-on-one relationships. I finally started making better friends (and we weren't drinking!) and found some dance partners... cuz this girl cannot be without dance partners! The part I was struggling with the most about being gone, is not having my favorite people: to confide in, to vibe with, to dance with, to chill with! And up until that point, I was missing my bff's terribly. Although my favorites from MI (and my girl in New Orleans) will never be replaced... I had to have some fill-ins til I'm home. :o)

Our night started to come to a close and "Lady Gaga" had one last bit of wisdom to share with us. She started it off as "You girls have a choice...". Pretty much in a nutshell, she explained that we were sexy American girls and these Australian men don't know just how sexy they are. BUT, we have the power to unleash their sexiness. It was the most ridiculous thing I've heard in quite some time (and is most likely only entertaining to those that had the privilege of enjoying this with me) but regardless, I don't want Gaga, her crew, or that evening to be forgotten.

Brizzy was coming to a close. We had one last full day left. And as excited as I was about Sydney (and being able to unpack and NOT live out of suitcases anymore)... I wasn't letting a single day of this trip pass me by. I slept with a smile and had my alarm set for the following morning...