SYDNEY!!!!!!!

Hi guys!! So I spent yesterday and this morning in Sydney for the 1st time seeing everything and going to a concert! Just my luck- it POURED rain the whole entire day... but that didn't stop us. This blog post is going to be an overload of pictures, I'm sure. It was a really exciting time. Now that I've seen some major Australian icons, I really feel like I'm actually here! My friend Talia and I took the train down to the city and it dropped us off right in the heart of the darling harbour. I was SO excited to see everything that I had my face glued to the train window for about 15 minutes. Lets just say I got some weird looks!

Here's my first glimpse of the Sydney Harbour Bridge!!! It's BEAUTIFUL!!! So much bigger and better and more beautiful than any of the pictures I've seen! I was really happy I finally made it!
Taking it all in...even though I couldn't see the Opera House yet.

I was one happy girl. :)

THE OPERA HOUSE!!!!! AHHHHHH

I cant believe I finally saw it in real life. It was smaller than I had imagined, and also REALLY dirty. Kind of a let down, but still beautiful and cool to see none-the-less.

View of the opera house from our ferry ride around the harbour!

Both Australian icons in the same picture! Double whammy!

Of course, I had to have a jumping picture!

Yeeeeeeeah, not too sure about this. The person taking the picture told me to do it.

View of the Sydney from the ferry!

My cousin Mike studied in Australia, too, and recommended this pub called 3 Wise Monkeys, so we went and checked it out. It was a pretty neat place! We ate dinner here which was... well... not their specialty. Haha!

Having a drink after dinner! After we left the pub, we went and got gelato for dessert! Yummmm... I LOVED having a break from our dining halls food for a night!

One cool thing we saw, was a HUGE temporary play place set up for McDonalds. They brought in all of this massive jungle gym equpment because they were filming a commercial. It was really cool to see how it all worked. The Ronald McDonald I'm standing next to was about 11 feet. It was huge!

The beautiful city lit up at night.

Finally it was time for The Fray concert! It was at the Big top at Luna Park (a permanent carnival stationed on the darling harbour.) You had to walk through the mouth of this huge guy to enter the park. Way cool.

Definitely don't know that Asian girl.The Fray was AMAZING and barely anyone came to the concert!!! This was our view of the stage when we first got there before we moved up to row 6!

We were so close that we could hear him actually singing without the microphone's help! It was incredible!

Right up near the stage. I've never been this close to a huge band before, but I guess that's what you get when they play in a country they're not well known in!

The lead singer.

Standing literally 6 feet away from The Fray is a memory I'll have for a while. INCREDIBLE!

So the concert got out around 11pm and we made a mad dash to the train station. We got on our first train fine, but had to wait for the next one for about 2 and a half hours. It was horrible. And cold. And wet. And I was SO tired. We got back to campus around 5am this morning. The past 24 hours have been wonderful, despite all of the bad weather! I've wanted to study abroad in Australia since I was young, so it was nice to finally be able to experience what I imagined it to be like. I have classes today and tomorrow and then break starts! Fiji next week... I'll never understand why I'm so lucky to be living this life!

Miss you all and love you a ton.
--LP--

Barefoot Lawn Bowling!!

Hi Everyone! A lot has been going on, but I haven't updated because MY CAMERA BROKE! :( The pictures from today's update are from a friend's camera. But regardless, I've been having a good time. Last night we to the Newcastle Country Club and played outdoor, barefoot, lawn bowling. And yeah- it's always played barefoot- that wasn't just an idea of our own! The view of the city from the course was incredible!

A quick pre-game photo at the country club! Little did we know what we were getting ourselves in to!

Here's my action shot of the night! Basically how you play is everyone gets into teams and a yellow "jack" ball is rolled to the other side of the lawn. Then everyone takes their own lawn balls and rolls them down. The closest one to the jack wins the round! Now the TRICK is that one side of each bowling ball is heavier than the other, causing it to roll and wobble from side to side. It's actually a lot trickier than it seems!

Here's the group of people I went with! I have no clue what his name is, but the guy next to me was by far the best. It was a great night! :)

Anyway, I'm in class right now and I'm sort of getting lost in the lecture- so I should go. But hopefully I'll get my camera fixed soon so I can upload more stuff! I hope you're all doing well! I love and miss you guys! A lot.

--LP--

Hi everyone! Not much to write about today, but thought I'd still update this. My friends and I went to the beach today and then came back and hung out around the dorms. No biggie...

So I'm FULLY aware that this picture is going to send my social life in a downward spiral- but I'm willing to risk that! While I was at the beach today we went swimming and my hair tie slipped out and got into this HUUUUUGE knot at the end of my hair. It took about 45 minutes to untangle. And I was hating life and (OBVIOUSLY) annoyed because my picture was being taken! Any girl who's reading this should really sympathize with me though- it's happened to all of us!

Okay this is a picture of my 2 friends Caz and Talia the other night. Caz is average height but Talia is SOOOOO tall. Anyway- this is what Talia looks like when she's wearing high heels. Almost as tall as the ceiling. It's a little bit ridiculous, but I love this picture. Shes a giant.
Murder week is still going on and today I killed my first victim!!! When I got him alone and said "Hey, you're dead!" He started running away from me at like lightning speed! Soooooo- since that's cheating we went and hung out outside of his door for a while until he finally surrendered. And I felt bad for killing him because he was sooooo nice! Anyway- now I have to kill the person he was going after- some kid named Jack. I'll get him though- don't you guys even worry! ;)

The other American in my dorm's parents are flying here tomorrow and I'm really jealous!

Last but not least- I FOUND SOMEONE TO GO TO THE FRAY CONCERT (IN SYDNEY) WITH ME!!! Such a huge relief. Wow, those capitals were a little obnoxious- sorry, but I'm really excited now- only 9 more days!

I love you guys and miss you all! I'm glad most of you got my letters this week! xoxo!

--LP--

I'm still Alive, I promise!

Hi! So sorry I haven't truly updated this is a while! Everyone has been asking if I'm okay since they haven't seen much action on here. ALL IS WELL! :) So hopefully this blog post will make up for lost time! I've got a lot of info to spew out- so brace yourselves!

Alright first off- last weekend we had our first dorm vs. dorm athletic event. It was a swim meet between my dorm (Edwards Hall), the Internationals, and our rivals, Evatt House. Get this though- your attendance at the event was MANDATORY. I mean, I was going to go anyway- but how can they fine people for not going to a sporting event?! Whatever... regardless it was really fun! We made up degrading chants about all of the other dorms which was more than entertaining. Also- we all (meaning every single student in my dorm) met up at a certain time and walked over to the pool together. It was INTENSE! Here's a picture of us heading over, decked out in our blue and Ted's pride gear! I was about halfway in the middle, so just picture this many people BEHIND me too.... it was a cool sight:

Oh yeah- and sorry for capturing the guy in front of me wearing booty shorts- these Aussies are strange! Another thing that I love about our campus is that there are ducklings everywhere! These are some I saw today, strongly guarded by their mom and dad- but they're sooooo cute! And tiny! And they make the most adorable squeaking noises!
I felt like putting an updated picture of my dorm room on here to show the decoration improvements I've made! Which, sadly, still isn't much. BUT I have a full bulletin broad now which is good! And yeah, sorry for the image on my computer screen- I was watching Clueless :)

Here's some more random stuff that doesn't have pictures to go along:

1. A pointless, random, story- I was walking home from my lecture the other day and this Indian man came running up to me, waving like crazy! So I took out my iPod headphones and said hello. Then he was like, "OH MY GOSH DO YOU REMEMBER ME?!?!!" And so I responded by saying, "No, I'm really sorry but can I have a reminder?" And he was like "Oh well I sat in the seat behind you on the bus during the international trip 3 weeks ago! Your name is Lauren! Remember me?!" Which of course- I totally didn't... but I put on a huge fake smile and got really excited and pretended like I knew exactly what he was talking about. Aaaaand now we're friends. I see him absolutely everywhere. It's awkward at best. Moving on....

2. Another random story- I was talking to Aunt Judy on the phone the other night about my trip to Fiji, and she decided to look it up. So she typed "Fiji" into Google and the first thing that came up was a breaking news report about how a typhoon just hit the island. THANKFULLY, it's no where near where I'll be going- but it was quite a weird coincidence. I just re-read this paragraph and it sounds like SUCH a lame story, but I promise it was neat at the time!

3. St. Patrick's Day was fun... but I'm leaving it at that.

4. I feel so disconnected from the United States since ALL of my major news websites have been switched to Australia's versions. I can no longer see CNN.com, Yahoo.com or MSN.com in American format. I can tell you all about the latest gator attacks, and our current local news though! Also, a ton of online games on my PC don't work over here either. Minesweeper and Solitaire are about the only ones left.

5. Australian's call tank-tops or wife-beaters "SINGLETS" and its reeeeeally annoying! And also, no one here has ever heard of a Tootsie Roll, or a Tootsie Lollipop of any form. What the HECK. I know that these are really random facts, so just bear with me! Ha ha ha.

6. Last but not least- these are the most important 3 Aussie lingo words that I've been messing up since I got here. SO just so its clear to everyone, when someone is "mad" they're not upset. When someone is "pissed" they're not angry. And when something is "bloody" it's DEFINITELY not bleeding! Just throwin' it out there!

ANYWAAAAAAY, now that I've rambled on forever I think I'm going to get some sleep! I love you all and I miss everyone at home like CRAZY!!!!!!! You guys reading this are the best!

--LP--

Easter Break Plans

So.....I spent all morning at the travel agency and no big deal or anything, buuuuut this year I'll be spending Easter in FIJI!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe that this is actually happening. This kind of stuff does not happen in the life of Lauren Price. I'm SO SO SO excited. With that said- the New Zealand idea is out of the picture due to financial reasons, but I don't even care. I'll be in Fiji from April 5th to April 13th and we're doing stuff like: learning how to sail, going on a cave tour, kayaking, snorkeling the reef, a summit walk, going to a Fijian tribal meeting, swimming in the open water with manta rays and staying on the island that the Tom Hanks movie "Castaway" was filmed on! I can't even express how excited I am! I can already tell that this is going to be a wonderful week in paradise!

--LP--

Ramp escalators, Pink Limos, and Karaoke!

Hello Hello Hello! It's 2 o' clock in the afternoon and I just woke up. Sweet. We got home from karaoke at about 4am this morning, so I'd say it was a pretty successful sleep! But before I get to that, here's some other stuff first! So okay, Australian malls are a lot different then American malls. At the first store you go to, you get a cart (or actually PAY to use a cart) and then that cart you bring around with you to every store you go to. For example, if you start grocery shopping first, you'll take your grocery shopping cart with you to the hardware store, and the clothing shops and etc...its weird. But then that raises the question of how do you get up or downstairs with your cart. Soooo dun dun dun DUUUUN- a ramp escalator! Instead of our stair ones, they have these ramps that you can bring your cart on. They're actually pretty hard to stand on since the incline is so steep! Oh yeah, and you've gotta call it a trolley- not a cart. Anyway I think it's fascinating!

After shopping we were supposed to be going back to the dorms but we passed a hot pink, stretch, Hummer limo so OF COURSE we followed it until we got good pictures!
It was sooooooo pretty! I seriously want that.
Okay so later that night we all took the train down to this bar for karaoke called "Kent!" and yeah, the exclamation point is part of the actual name! On our way there we were all thinking of songs that we wanted to sing... until we walked in and realized its not fun karaoke- its karaoke for serious singers! FAIL. So only one girl from our group preformed a song...but dang the rest of us went NUTSSSSSSSS for her and shook the whole place (pictures coming...) Here's the girls from our group. I'm not sure where the guys were for this...

Here's Beth singing! She was incredible! And she won the $20 prize they were giving out! She lives on my floor and is really really really sweet!

So drinks at this pub last night were ridiculous! They were $9 bucks for a tiny tiny tiny mixed drink (as shown) and only $4 bucks for a beer. I don't understand that. Oh- and I have a feeling that I'm going to regret putting this picture up later, but for now its okay- I had my first enjoyable beer in my life! It was exciting aaaaand it was definitely a long night after that, so I'm going to stop here with the pictures! Haha

How's everyone at home doing?! NAU friends- I hope you all have fun on Spring Break! Daddy, Betty, Andrew and other extended family- I miss you guys LOTS!!!! Anthony, Katie and Hauren- Love and miss you guys too.... Today I'm obviously not doing much since it's basically already over. I think tomorrow night we're doing another picnic on the beach with more people so that should be fun. By the way- thanks to the people who sent me mail! I've gotten 3 letters this week...each one makes me SO happy! All is well on this side of the world, hope its good over there too!

--LP--

Pub Crawl and McDonalds!

Hi! So tonight was the Ted's (Edwards Hall) Girl's Night Out Pub Crawl for 2010! The theme was black and white and something bright. Buuuuuut it kind of failed because it was ugly, AND raining hard outside. Here's Jess, Katie, Talia, Claudie and I before we left! Caz was a wimp and stayed home tonight to do schoolwork!

This is a group photo of most of the girls who went...and a couple boys who snook in. I'm on the left side, but you've gotta find me yourself its too hard to explain! As you can see, it was raining really hard so a couple girls took the poncho option. Not me, of course!
Here's us at our first pub... CBD, I think it was called. They had $2.50 champagne sooo we had a couple of those but none of us could drink much since we have 8am classes the next day! Look Dad- I'm balancing my social life WITH my school work! You proud?
A reeeeeeally huge and cool peace sign in the middle of one of these creepy alleys we had to walk though.
Soooo eventually, we all ditched the rest of the girls and made a stop at MCDONALD'S!!!!! Oh my God, it was like heaven to have fast food for the first time in like 3 and a 1/2 weeks! You don't even understand! Anyway- here they call McDonald's "Mackers" (pronounced Maccas). Its weird. No McDonald's, or Mickey D's- just Mackers. Regardless- WONDERFUL way to end the night.

While the 4 of us were walking around town, we saw some really sketchy gangsters and thugs so we decided to be smart and we called Caz to come pick us all up. We owe her one, but still- great choice. It was creepy. Once we got back to the dorms, my corridor had a lovely surprise waiting for us! Someone had covered our whole hallway with paper towels and in front of all the boys' doors it had rude remarks about them. It was totally juvenile but the things they said were SOOOO funny! Unfortunately, I can't post any of them on this blog because they were all pretty vulgar- but just take my word for it.... it was a good laugh!

All in all I'd call it a pretty successful night in Newcastle! Tomorrow I have to wake up for breakfast, and then go to a lecture, followed by a group meeting, and then 2 tutorials. LOOOOONG day- but I guess I can't really complain since it's kind of like making up for every other day of the week I have off. I don't know WHY I have been so homesick this week but I'm starting to work through it- which is good. Things have been really fun here lately! I love you guys!

--LP--

Just so everyone knows...

...there is not a SINGLE Starbucks in Newcastle, Australia. Can someone PLEASE explain to me how there are Starbucks' in 3rd world countries like Ghana and Ethiopia but not ONE in this huge metropolitan city?! Not okay, just NOT OKAY....!

Alice in Wonderland 3-D!

Hellooooooo! So last night my friends and I went to the "cinemas" to see Alice in Wonderland in 3-D! The movie itself was okay, but I think the only reason I liked it was for the 3-D part! There were a ton of people there to see the same movie and we couldn't go in to the theater until about 5 minutes before. SOOOO to burn time, we played in the arcade! This is me losing terribly to my friend Jess on the race car game! Also can you guys check out the awesome tan lines on my arms?! I wore a t-shirt around town this week and got a little too much sun I'd say!

Here's all of us with our 3-D glasses on! They were really unflattering but still SO fun to wear! Ha ha!
Some more random things to know in case you ever visit this country: Aussies call the mail box a "letter box." And if you say you're "going to school" it means you're going to elementary school and people will look at you weird. You always say I'm "going to uni" or something else. And lastly- people say "How you going?" Instead of how are you or how's it going...it's hard to catch on!

Slow day today, but I'll post again tomorrow!
--LP--

Mail, Mail, Mail!

Before I start with my mail schpeal- look at what I bought yesterday in town! An ICE CUBE tray that makes ice cubes into the shape of Australia! Okay granted, I don't have a freezer sooooo it was kind of a pointless purchase but I dont care! It's awesome! I'm SUCH a tourist.....

Anyway, if your name is on this list- be watching for a postcard or letter from me in about 2 weeks!! If your name ISN'T on the list, leave a comment with your address and I'll send you one!!

-Aunt Jill/Uncle Gig

-Andrew Price

-Daddy and Betty

-Aunt Judy/Uncle Mark

-Nicholas and Maria Hands

-Katie Bechtel

-John/Jeremy Cudzich

-Mike, Jamie and Kevin Butts

-Tawn Watkins

-Lauren Heldt

-Alexa Holshue

-Katie Silverman

-Karen McFarland

-Veronica Poore

-Renee Blas

-Kate Unger

-Eileen Hands

-Anthony Monaco

-Grandma/Grandpa

-Linda Dougherty

Ahhhhhhhh, as you can see- my hand is about to fall off! :) Anyway, they should be delievered to you guys towards the end of this month.

Have a great day everyone!

--Lauren--

Night on the Beach!

Hi everybody! Today I spent all day cleaning my room (again) and doing laundry (which is FREE- so nice!) And then tonight my friends and I grabbed take-out dinner from our dining hall and brought it to the beach for a picnic! It was mostly raining, and cold and overcast- but still beautiful! I don't think I'll ever get sick of seeing the ocean! Anyway- this first picture is of us at a coffee shop on the boardwalk. I know it's REALLY dark, but hopefully you can squint and see it okay! (L to R: Caz, Talia, Me and Jess):

There was a beautiful rainbow while we were drinking our drinks at the cafe. It was called "Liquid Gold." I mean don't get me wrong it was good- but I think the name skews the reality a little! :)
Just in case you guys forgot.....
There were crazy rock formations everywhere. In this one it was a natural mini pool with coral and sea life in it. I thought it was really neat!

Part of my wonderful group of friends :)

Trying to fit in....hey, I saw the surfers do it to each other so I thought I'd give it a try! ANTHONY: Notice my shirt? I think you'd like it!

NEWCASTLE BEACH!
This surfer was meditating before he went out and conquered the waves. He was awesome!
A group photo after we played some beach volleyball...and BOY, was that a sight to see! I think we need a little-- no, a LOT more practice!

Still fun though!
Here's a picture from this morning. Basically, in Australia you have to pay to use the shopping carts, but if you need a cart with a baby seat attached it's free....sooooo we kind of bent the system and used the child seat to hold "our babies" (aka: our boxed goon!) We gave them names, strapped them in and everything. It was a little over the top- but still very funny to see the looks we all got! :)

Tonight was really awesome. It was great to get off campus for a little while and I always have fun with these girls. We're making it a weekly routine to picnic on the beach from now on. Good times all around! ALSO!!! I have 2 weeks off for Easter break and I'm spending one of them rotating between friends houses! We worked out the schedule today, and I'll be in 3 different Australian cities with them and their families. I can't wait- it was so nice of them to invite me home! Today was good. I'm a happy girl- can't complain!

Love to you All!

--LP--