Where has the time gone?

This is it! The beginning of the end. It's hard to believe, but in just over 5 weeks I will be making my way back to the United States! As usual, I have been a very busy girl. I'm so glad I've been writing everything down because I would not have remembered a thing! I'm going to try and keep this relatively short.. I'd rather not spend an hour and a half updating like last time!


So a few weeks after we got here, the t.v. show Australia's Next Top Model started a new season and we watched just about every week. For the last episode, they had a live finale at this amusement park, Luna Park, in Sydney. My roommate Hannah and I thought we'd go and try to get tickets, thinking it would be basically impossible. We waiting around for a while before the show started, seeing if anyone was selling tickets. Finally we went up to the ticket window and Hannah asked if there were any extras we could buy. We were told no, but if we stuck around they might need people to fill seats. Well, an hour later there we were, sitting in the front row of Australia's Next Top Model live finale! It was unbelievably lucky. Our seats were better than the majority of people who won tickets through contests or from companies associated with the show.

Now if that isn't amazing enough, this happened to be the most monumental live t.v. moment in Australia. I'm not sure if you saw anything about the show - it made international news! At the end of the show when it was down to the final two contestants, the host Sarah Murdoch announced the wrong winner. It was terribly embarrassing for her and you could tell she was mortified! Click here to see a video clip of what actually happened. It was incredible to be in the audience for that. How lucky were we?? After the show was over, Hannah and I stuck around and got to meet and take pictures with the models, the host, the judges, and anyone else we could ever want to see. We stuck around even LONGER and were interviewed by the local news! haha How crazy is all of that?

Hannah and I with the stage in the background

Host Sarah Murdoch and I


















The next day Hannah and I climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was quite the experience being up there! It was a very well organized trip. We had jumpsuits, harnesses, gloves, hats, radios, handkerchiefs, and headlamps all provided for us. It was about a 3 hour journey from the time you suit up to the time you get back down. We were lucky enough to catch some of the sunset while we were up there. Very pretty!

Hannah and I with the Sydney Opera House in the background

Hannah and I at the peak of the Sydney Harbour Bridge















This past weekend all of my roommates and I took a nice little weekend trip up to the Gold Coast in Queensland. Kind of reminiscent of Florida, especially since they have towns called Palm Beach and Miami right next to each other! We stayed with friends that are also in Study Australia. Only downside to the weekend was that it rained the ENTIRE time we were there =( Kind of put a damper on everything, but we still had a good time. While we were there, we went to a wildlife park where we held koalas! Soooo adorable! I don't have any pictures because my camera decided to malfunction, but maybe I'll borrow some from my roommates and update this later.

From here on out, it's a downward slope! I had a quiz this past Monday and a test Wednesday. Next week, I have a presentation Monday, a major essay due Friday, and also a group project due Friday. I am officially done on October 22. The week after that is "study break" so clearly I will be doing lots of studying. The two and a half weeks after that are the examination period. I'm lucky enough to only have one exam on November 11, and I'm home free! That leaves me with quite a bit of spare time, so Hannah and I are taking a 3 day, 2 night camping trip in the outback! I'm really excited to see Uluru and Ayers Rock on this trip. Once all that business is over, I'll be hopping on a plane on November 17th! Until next time...

Love, Em.