Australia.... take two.

aaaaand I'm back!! And to be completely honest with you, it's a really weird feeling. Kind of like the whole being home thing was a dream.

I departed LAX at 11:55pm, Monday Feb 25th and arrived in Brisbane early at 7:25am, Wednesday Feb 27th. Oh, but I didn't lose a day completely. My flight actually didn't take off until 12:07am, Tuesday Feb 26th. So there! I did get to enjoy some of Feb 26th.

The flight was okay. I flew Qantas this time around. The terminal was great (Bradley International), and everything went quickly and smoothly. I even got an extra half hour with the family before having to step through security, so that was extremely nice. The plane seemed like it should maybe retire. It was a little old. The first thing to see was a fellow-flyer trying to fix his head rest, only to have it pop off the back of the seat into his bewildered hands. The flight attendants tried to get it to go back on, but ended up having to call in maintenance and everything was remedied. Another reasoning of retirement would be that my light wouldn't light after having pressed the 'On' button several times. And when I pressed the call button to see if a flight attendant could help me, I realized it too was not working. Finally, my movies weren't working properly. They were glitchy, the sound would stutter and the picture were freeze. So I took two Benedryl and slept for 6 or 7 hours. The rest of the flight was fine. No movie meant more Sudoku time for me. I think I only got four puzzles finished, however.

So here I am, in Australia... again.
This time around it's a little easier. Instead of having nothing to look forward to, I now have friends and church to cheer me up. Instead of school leaving me stranded at the airport I have an awesome friend that picks me up with cool signs.

So... it's all good.

I've got my room in order. I've done some grocery shopping (although, my stomach isn't really enjoying food at the moment). And I've defeated the entire moth population of the state of Queensland (or so I wish)... let me explain...
Upon my arrival at my flat I noticed quite a few moths flying around. When I looked at the ceiling I was surprised to find more. When I raised my curiosity to my flatmate, Eddie, he told me that last week was worse. Worse?? And then he proceeded to show me where they were all coming from......... our cupboard, or pantry. He opened the doors and they were flying everywhere. I couldn't believe how someone could let that happen! So I put my foot down and said the moths had to go!! We cleared out all the food, throwing away anything that we thought might have a tiny trace of moth babies in it. Sprayed out the whole thing with bug spray. Wiped it down with cleaner, but not before taking a picture or the disgusting ordeal.

Then again with just a wet cloth. Let it dry, while running around the flat with the vacuum sucking up all remaining moths in sight. Then filled the cupboard back up with the rest of the food. *Phew!!* It was exciting. GROSS. But semi-entertaining. There's still a few survivor moths flying around. But if I can reach them, they die.

Gonna go sleep now, hopefully I'll sleep well through the night.
Tomorrow holds some shopping, but other than that.... well, we'll just have to wait and see.

Until then!

It's time for a Holiday!!!!

This will be my last blog before I head back to California for the holidays!!!
My bags are packed and I'm ready to go!! Took me awhile to figure out what stays in Australia and what goes to the States... but I think I'm done. :) Hopefully my luggage doesn't go over the specified weight. I'm not wanting to pay any extra this time around.

Tomorrow I move out - one day before I fly away - so I'll be staying at Maija's house for the evening. Then come Monday morning I'm on a flight to LA! What's awesome is that my flight leaves at 11:30am Monday morning.... but I arrive in Los Angeles at 10:25am Monday morning. Crazy huh?! Time travel!!!! I'm literally arriving from the future. I'm excited about that.

I don't think I'll be blogging at all when I'm home. So if you want to keep up with what I'm doing for the three months that I'm home - GIVE ME A CALL! :) I am completely ready to have many a conversation of coffee, or lunch, or whatever. :)

I'm looking forward to see everyone!!!

**BLOGGING WILL COMMENCE LATE FEBRUARY WHEN I RETURN TO AUSTRALIA TO FINISH MY STUDIES**

Until then, enjoy a few pictures from our trip down to the Gold Coast this week. Maija, her mom and I stayed at a really nice hotel for the night, did some shopping and soaked up some sun. It was really nice. Nice way to finish off the semester.

Aussie BBQ

This past Wednesday the Nugent family hosted an authentic Australian BBQ :) The occasion was because a few of the girls from Lifegroup - not from Australia - were leaving: Michiko (a girl from Japan), Maria (from Norway), and me (from the States). The other two girls aren't coming back though. Maija's also leaving - which means she wouldn't be able to throw the party when I get back. So it all worked out.

The night was a lot of fun! For the main meal we had a lot of meat cooked are the barbie, sausage rolls and salad. And for dessert we had Pavlova, Lamingtons, ANZAC biscuits and heaps of Aussie lollies. Reeeeally good. :)

After we ate some of the girls hopped up and started showing us how to do the Nutbush - apparently it's a dance that everyone learns in Primary school. So everyone knew it... except Maija... she was having some trouble :)

Following the Nutbush a few girls left and the rest played Pictionary - not quite an authentic Australian game, but fun nonetheless. And me and Maija won! :) Try drawing "bless" or "yes"... they're difficult.

Enjoy the video!!


music by Regina Spektor, "On The Radio"

Palazzo Versace - pigging out on the dessert buffet...

This past weekend my Lifegroup decided to do a little outing. An end of the year - bring Lifegroup to a close - goodbye - safe travels - good luck on exams kind of thing. So Maija has been wanting to go to this dessert buffet at the Palazzo Versace on the Gold Coast for awhile. When she mentioned it to all of us, we quickly said "yes, we'll go". And the whole getting dressed up? Well... there's an end of the year formal for our youth group, United, that I'm going to be missing... so a few of the girls - including myself, thought it would be a nice replacement for me. :) So we all got dressed up, took three cars and headed down to the coast.

We got there around 8:45pm, quickly got a table. It was so great! The guy that seated us even pulled out the chairs for all the ladies! But we weren't seated very long. Because as soon as the guy explained how everything worked, we were all out of chairs and heading to the dessert table. And man did we have choices! It was great!!

The two guys you'll see in the video are Maija's brother, Ryan and his friend Isaac. It was Ryan's birthday the next day, so we took the opportunity to sing "Happy Birthday" to him while at the table. And we didn't have any birthday candles, so we just used the candlesticks that were on the table. :) You work with what you've got!

We had a LOT of fun. Laughed and pigged out on delicious desserts. The night wasn't over until late, and boy were we tired the next day. But it was worth it!


music by Craig Armstrong, "Ball"

The Beach!!!

Today was a gorgeous day! A beautiful Saturday... so why not go to the beach?!

Maija invited me to go along with her, her brother and a couple of their friends down to the Gold Coast for a nice beach BBQ and some nice sun bathing. :) How could I refuse?!

So around noon we headed down to the coast. When we got there us girls (Maija, Alyssa and I) took a nice stroll up and down the beach. A little windy and cool, but not horrible. Still beautiful.

The guys, after taking their precious time showing up in their car, started up the BBQ and grilled up some sausages, chicken and steaks. After everything was cooked and our stomachs were growling, we enjoyed a nice beachside BBQ. It was delicious!!! Not too long after we were finished we gathered our things and headed out to the sand where we found a nice spot. Us girls took in the sun while the boys decided to go jump in the water (too cold for my taste). After a nice little nap and some chatting we decided to join in with the boys in a nice game of cricket!! I - for the life of me - couldn't get used to holding the bat (do they call it a bat?) down, so I pulled it up baseball style and took a crack at the tennis ball that way. :) It was fun. Around 4:30 we packed up our things and headed back up to Maija's house. After some discussion, we all jumped back in the car, went to Blockbuster (yup... they've got those here) "hired" a movie, walked next door and ordered a pizza from Pizza Hut (yup... got that too), headed back to the house and just relaxed.








All in all it was a really really nice day.

Mexico in Australia???

So tonight I was able to experience a Mexican restaurant in Australia. :)

Maija and I went to Montezuma's "the taste of mexico"... and it actually wasn't that bad! It was maybe just under El Torito. I don't quite understand their "Nachos". It was a plate of probably 15 chips laid flat out in a circle with beans and - what looked like tomato sauce but was supposedly salsa. I miss Pico de Gallo... nice chunky salsa. But it sufficed.

I had Chicken Enchiladas and... well... I did have a Margarita. Had to... it's a Mexican restaurant. :)





I am looking forward to going to Chipotle when I get back though...

California Fires

Just wanted to let everyone know that I'm thinking and praying for everything surround the fires in SoCal. I really hope everyone is okay and that your family and houses are safe.

Australia is thinking of you too!
The fires have been covered on local news.


Stay safe!!!!
Love you all!!


Roudy Saba, after returning home to find his house burned down,
"...I prayed and said, 'You know what, if you don't answer our prayers you got something better for us later'...And he will...He'll provide...He will provide" (CBS News)