Thanks Brisbane! It's been grand.

An entire day stared us in the face: No plans. Nothing on the agenda. We could do whatever we pleased. So, naturally, Tour-Guide Todd suggests going to their Farmer's Market and almost the entire group decides to join. Go figure... free day, and we choose to go with Tour-Guide Todd. But what a pleasant surprise, it was!! Great prices, "junk food" (or what Australians consider junk food, at least), and the freshest fruit that I've ever tasted. After walking past numerous booths with luscious fruit, I caved and bought a peach. Holy smokes!  I had juice running down my arm, peach in my teeth, and looked like a 2-year old trying to conquer this thing, but it was ta die for!!! It was also at the Brisbane market that I discovered chocolate shakes as we know them, are no longer. I found a place that was advertising "shakes". So, my sweet tooth made the decision that a shake was my next purchase. Come to find out... a chocolate shake is code for "really cold chocolate milk". Yep, no fish looking face, face turning purple because you're sucking so hard to get the ice cream shake through a straw. Now? It's just chocolate milk. One more thing to add to the list of "In America, I should've never taken advantage of..."



[Stolen picture of] Queen St.



After a few hours we were bored and sweaty. So we made the executive decision to go to the Gallery of Modern Art. But somebody didn't do their research... and it had just closed. Instead we decided to take a stroll down Queen Street one last time just to have the chance to check out the shops, locals, and whatever else we wanted to get into. We stopped at a little deli to have lunch and I had the most delectable Turkish Pocket (don't ask what it was... I'm beyond asking what the food is I'm about to eat - I find I enjoy it more if I just don't know). There is a Target in the strip, so I had to check it out!  And it's totally different!!!! Target in Australia is not the place to go for decorative, overpriced items. It is very much a clothing store. It has other items too, but it's not the general store that I was used to. Which is a total bummer, because Target is one of the things I was looking forward to most. (Sounds funny, but when you're 10,000 miles away from home, a silly store like Target is home).

It was still only mid-afternoon. A few people were headed to the Botanical Gardens, which sounds fantastic!!! But at that point, I was exhausted. The week slid by and we were constantly on a bus heading to our next venture or undertaking these long, exhausting days that were planned for us. I politely declined on the Botanical Gardens. It was time for a shower and a nap. Afterall, it was about 1am at home - my bedtime. :o)

Jojo's was for dinner. We considered going back to the Beach Club for the 2nd night in a row just because it was too epic to pass up. But, since this was it for Brisbane, we decided to enjoy a glass of Riesling and some overpriced pasta at Jojo's. And wow, we were SO glad that we did. This pasta was the most savoury thing - beats any American pasta I've had.

After dinner, the anxiety and excitement was starting to seep in, so a few of us headed back to the hostel and started packing our bags. Dustin took care of most of my packing to get me to Australia, including the air-sucking bag stuff, so I kinda assumed that there wasn't a chance in the world of fitting all of my stuff back into those same suitcases. (Just like when you pack to go on vacation... it always fits on the way there but it's strategically impossible for it to be put back for the trip home). I'm quite positive, a "strategic-packing angel" came down and laid his hands on me... because it fit.

What did not fit, on the other hand, was all of our luggage on the bus, for the trip to the airport. That poor bus-driver was putting suitcases under that bus for 45 minutes in 100 degree heat. He earned his paycheck that day, poor guy! The nerves kicked in... I sat next to "Bama" on the bus. We talked about home. We talked about the trip. We talked about getting back on an airplane and how 5 days was not nearly enough to recover from 30 hours of traveling.

We checked our bags.

We ate Subway (and I enjoyed my last bag of American Doritos - Thanks Mrs. Schuiling!!!)

And we took off.

This was the first view of my new home. And when my heart jumped out of my chest. I was in Sydney, Australia. And it was home. It was another one of those moments where I was humbled. I couldn't help but close my eyes (in the midst of my obsessive picture taking) and say a prayer of thanks.

Flight was smooth. Somehow we were all lucky enough to have our luggage show up when we did. Amy arrived (our contact while here at ICMS). We loaded onto a bus, took over the radio with our Biggie Smalls and Snoop Doggy Dog (cool, we're awesome Americans). Thankfully, we had the opportunity to take the scenic route home and got to see the beach we'd be visiting everyday, local hot spots, restaurants we should keep in mind, the Corso, and of course general scenery. Because, afterall, we are in one of the most beautiful places on EARTH!!



Beautiful even on a rainy day.





The entrance to the International College of Management, Sydney.



We had just missed the biggest heat wave of the past 100 years; The prior week, temps were upwards of 115 degrees (F). They day we arrived, Sydney was finally experiencing some relief; and some rain. So as we were driving into school (towards the beach), we faced a parade of cars leaving the beach (traffic jam style).

Once we made it up the infamous hill on Darley Road (that we now walk every single day), the bus could not make it all the way down the drive. So we all filed off the bus, unloaded luggage... and down came drops. It started to pour. People started grabbing random suitcases and running. But since we had never been here... they were running for the door; any door. We had not a clue where we were going. I was towards the back and thank goodness, at the exact same time I was picking up the last few wet suitcases from the sidewalk, the senior guys came out to help us with luggage (it's customary for the senior guys to assist with move-in).

We walked into the castle. And my heart sunk.