Tuesday, July 27, 2010

things are starting to wrap up

So in less than 4 weeks my Australian adventure will be over. It has definitely been an adventure. I have met some friends I plan on keeping in touch with for a really long time and done somethings I will probably never be able to do again in my life. An adventure of a life time for sure but I am ready to get back to normal life. Missing friends and family always comes with leaving home for an extended amount of time but I have even got to the point that I miss work. LOL crazy I know but it might just be due to the awesome work group I have.

Any way I haven't been up to too much lately. I've gone exploring a couple times but no where new. I went to Burleigh Heads for a day and surfers for another. Got a lot of souvenir shopping done :D I also went and watched Inseption the other day. It was super good. Everyone says they were really confused but I feel it made sense. Maybe I was just tooo confused that I just thought I knew what was going on but who knows.

Oh yeah I also turned 21. Crazy I know. My awesome roommate took me out for dinner with a few of my other friends. I got Ribs and Chicken plus a drink "Fruit Tingle". Not that great but it was ok. We then went to East, a club, for a little while. Took a birthday shot with the friends but that was about it. We then headed back to my Varsity Shores for a party. Someone was celebrating their birthday on the 17th. It was then finally the 18th and they sand to me :D. After the night was over, about 2, I went to bed. Then woke up at 8, feeling fine mom, and went to dream world. Australia's best Amusement park. Definitely does not compare to Cedar Point but it was fun. I road a train for the first time to the park.

Any way I can't wait to get home and actually celebrate my birthday. :D

Well that's all for now. A few more weeks of class and only 17 days until my parents get here.

See everyone soon,

Cheers,

Chris

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Hello there.

Soo It's been a really long time since I blogged. I've just been so busy sorry.

First of all I went to a Rugby Game. There is a professional Rugby team called the Gold Coast Titans and their field is only like a 20 min bus ride away. It was a lot of fun. I had been watching Rugby a little on TV so I could understand a little better as to how the game worked. Best part was the Titans won. We were seated in the end zone and got to see a few Trys (like a touchdown). It was crazy fun. Oh I almost forgot. I sprained my ankle kind of bad and limped for like 2 weeks. I did this the day we went to the Rugby game. It was sorta painful because we had to walk quite a bit. lol

The next trip I went on was a 2 day trip to Fraser Island. This was a lot of fun but not exactly what I was expecting. First of all I had to catch a bus at 5:45A.M.. Worse part was one of my friends alarms didn't go off so I had to send the security guard after her. We then had an hour bus ride to Brisbane where we picked up a few people. They're names were Nadia (France), Maki (Japan), and Alena (Czech). We all become friends and had a lot of fun. During the trip we drove on a beach highway. It was craziness. It was a state declared highway that you could drive 80 KMH on made of only sand. We also got to see a ship wreck and some inland lakes. We also got to see wild dingos. There were signs all over warning about the danger of leaving small children alone. LOL. We then stayed a night at a little hotel type place that had a bar. We had a few drinks and watch some Fifa world cup. The next day we went into the rain forest and saw a few more things before heading back. In all the trip from Fraser to Bond Uni was like 5 hours.

A few weekends later I went on a one day trip to Moreton Island. We once again go picked up at 5:45. ugh. Crazy thing this time was I had the same tour guide as last time. We are now friends on facebook. lol. Luckily this time it was only about a 1.5 to 2 hours ride to the island. Well that's if you don't count the 2 hour ferry ride but that was fun. After we got of the ferry we went to the middle of the island where we did some sand boarding. I was like sledding on sand. A lot of fun. We then went and did some snorkeling around sunken ships. There were a ton of sweet fish but I no longer have the water proof camera so I couldn't take any pictures. Overall Moreton was awesome.

The next exciting thing I did was go to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. I got to pet and feed kangaroos again along with emus this time. I also got to go on a ropes course. It was so much fun. We did the hardest part and let me tell you it was hard. I was soo tired afterwords but it was worth it as we got to do a huge zip slide.

Other than those adventures I haven't done much. A lot a lot of studying as classes here are not easy at all.

Well that's all for now. I posted pictures on my shutterfly account again. See you all in a month

Chris

PS: I finally talked my parent into coming out to visit. Their coming out while a take exams then were going to go to Sydney for a few days and fly home together. :D

Friday, June 4, 2010

Surfing Pictures

My Surfing Pictures are on Shutterfly. Go have a look. It was truly one of the most fun weekends ever.

Monday, May 31, 2010

Surfing Weekend

So this past weekend was probably one of the best weekends of my life. It was sooo much fun.

So on Friday we left Bond Uni on a bus at about 8:30 P.M. This bus was a huge charter bus and was really cool. On the bus we watched a couple movies and listened to a huge group of Brazilians sing song to Portuguese. In all the bus ride was around 5 hrs with two 20 min stops. When we finally got to Spot-X it was around 1:30. We were all really tired but we didn't get to go to bed right away. First of all we all met in the eating area and had a 20 min talk and then got a tour of the area. We then went on a little walk to the beach and finally got to bed at around 2:30.

The next morning we got a wake up call at 7 A.M. It was raining pretty hard but we were all still excited to go surfing so we got up and had a quick breakfast. Cereal and Australian Bacon which is basically Canadian bacon / cooked ham. We then met in the surfing school place at 8 and got a quick list of rules and safety precautions. At about 8:30 we finally got to put our wetsuits on and take a surf board to the beach. We did this in twos as the boards were quite big and kind of heavy.

Once we finally got to the beach the instructor showed us how to get stroke and stand up on the board. It was pretty simple on land but a little difficult once we got in the water. After about 30 mins on the sand we were given the ok to go in the water. I was the first one out there so the instructor gave me a little help and I caught the very first wave. It was amazing. I got up and surfed on my very first try. We then got to surf for about 3 hrs. It rained the whole time but no one cared because we were in the water anyway and the ocean was really warm. In all the first session went pretty well. At the end I was actually getting up consistently on my own.

After the first session we went and got lunch. I had hot dogs, pineapple, and some Salomi. After eating we went back out for our second lesson at 2 P.M. By this time the rain had stopped but the waves had gotten quite a bit bigger and rougher. When we all got into the water the change in waves caused a few problems at first but ended up being a lot of fun. I even got to go out a little farther with one of the instructors and catch one of the biggest waves of the day. It was so sweet. By the end of this session I was doing a little better but was extremely tired.

After getting out of the water at about 5 we changed and talked for a while until dinner. I got to know the other people in my room. In all there was 9 girls and me in this room. lol. 5 of the girls were my friends for Bond (all Americans) and the other four were from various places. Laura was from Scotland and she came with Sebana from Ireland. They are doing an architect internship in Brisbane. The other two, Constanza and Daniela were from Germany they are studying in Australia too. After talking to everyone for a while we finally went to dinner at about 6:30. I had Porch Schnitzel, fries, pineapple and some chocolate cake thing. It was all pretty good.

After dinner the real fun started. There was live band and a bonfire. After listening to the bands a little I went to the bonfire where I met a ton more people. First of all I met 5 girls from Canada, Melissa, Stephanie, Stephanie, April, and Amanda, who are getting teaching degrees up on the sunshine Coast. I then met a huge group of people from Great Britain. One of their names was Harry and his middle name was Peter so everyone called him Harry Potter. I also met another guy named Chris who was pretty cool and hung out with us for the night. The rest of the night was just me talking to everyone and watching people get drunk off of goon, an extremely cheep and disgusting wine. I only had one glass and couldn't take it so just talked to everyone the rest of the night. At about 11 just after the DJ started I went to bed because I was so tired.

The next morning we had another 7 A.M. wake up call. This time it was sunny out but for some people that was bad as they were a little hung over. And no mom I was not one of those people I only had one glass of cheep week goon all night. After having another breakfast of the same thing we went out for our third and final surfing session. It was extremely hard to get into the wetsuits though because they were so wet and cold from the day before. After we got out suits on we went back down to the ocean, had a quick stretch session where the instructor told us of a few trick we could try, and then hit the ocean. The waves were perfect this time. Some big and some small. Perfect for all of us beginners. The surfing went well and I even got in once trick. I jumped and switched feet. I actually landed it and stayed on the board for about 5 seconds afterwords.

After our last surf lesson we changed, packed, and had lunch. I just had hot dogs again. I then went and bought a hoodie package which came with 15 pictures that I will be posting once I pick them online. We then boarded the buses for another 5 hour ride. This time we took a quick 45 minute stop in Byron Bay which another very nice tourist town. I got some Gelatto which was really good.

Well over all the weekend was great. Next up is a Rugby game and Frasor Island.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

More Pictures!

Hey so not to much new has happened lately but I did just post more pictures. I got the Scuba dving ones developed and I posted a few from the beach. http://christopherberger.shutterfly.com/

I should have a stories after this weekend though. Going Surfing!!! wohooo

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Classes Started Today

So I finally have started classes today. Not sure what to think yet but they don't seem to horrible so far.

As for last week it was extremely busy. There was a ton of stuff to do on campus and a ton of people to meet. We did things like go to a trivia night, bowling, ride the bus and the beach. This was the first time I ever road a public bus and it was kind of interesting but I'm getting the hand of it and it's not too bad.

The beach was absolutely amazing. The waves are crazy. I did some body surfing which was a lot of fun. My first time i failed epicly and got my face jammed into the sand which hurt a little but I got better. I caught some really good and went really really far. It only took a few scratches to get the hang of it.

I also went to my first rugby game ever. It was actually kind of boring but it was just our club team at school so I am getting tickets to go to a professional game on June 11th.

Before that though we are going to go to a surf weekend. I'm super excited. We get to to stay two nights on the beach while having three surf lessons and even a bonfire on the beach. It sounds really cool. There are also going to be a bunch of live band there so that should be really fun. It's going to be the last week in May so I will make sure and post some pictures then.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Pictures

Pictures are up at http://christopherberger.shutterfly.com/

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Great Barrier Reef and arriving at Bond

On sunday I went out to the great barrier reef. It was soo pretty. First to get to the reef though we had a two plus hour boat ride. This was really fun because the front of the boat had two huge hamock like things on the front that we could sit in. This was a really good way to get wet but I found a corner that only got wet once or twice. Once we finally made it to the reef we took a smaller little boat to an island where we got to snorkel. (these picture are on my water proof camera so I need to get them put on a CD). There were so many fish and I got to touch a turtle. It was awesome. After snorkeling for about 45 mins it was then finally my groups turn to scuba. This was so much fun. We just swam around the reef for about 45 mins. We saw a stingray, a giant shell, and even nemo =D After we got done scubaing we had lunch on the boat while it moved to another spot. We then got to scuba again in this new spot which there was no island at. It was a little waiving but there was a huge drop off we could swim around and see a ton of fish. Finally after everone was done we took the boat back into shore but this took even longer than 2 hours because we went by sail.

The next day (Monday) we had to say goodbye to our leader Russel who was really cool. He really helped us get ahold of being in Australia. We then took a 2 hour plane ride to Brisbane. Then we had a 1.5 hour bus ride to Bond. Once we finally got here (about 3 pm) we threw all our stuff in our room and went over to the Uni to see it. It's so pretty. Pictures are coming I promise. We then did all the first time school stuff like getting our Id's and email addresses and stuff. We then went back to our room to unpack. Finally, it is so nice to not live out of a suit case anymore. When we got back to our room my roomate Felipe was here. He is from Brazil and seems cool. I also got to meet one of his friends Xavier from Caledonia. One of the neighbors roomates was also here. Here name is Basia and she is from Poland. She is soo funny.

We didn't do too much on Tuesday went to Bond and got more information. Stuff like bus passes and books and access to the gym. I also went to a resume seminar because I am applying for an on campus job for a little extra spending money. The main thing we did Tuesday was go to a welcome party where there serve wine. It was crazy the school was serving alcohol at there party. So strange. At the party we met more people from all over the world. One from Norway, Canada, North Carolina, Ukraine, Sydney and more but I don't remember.

Well thats all for now. Cheers.

Chris

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Adventures

So Australia is pretty much amazing. I finally met the fourth Bond Student. I think we're all going to get along quite well.

After meeting Kristin all four of us went white water rafting. We went in the mountains of the rainforest. It was beautiful. I took some pictures with my water proof camera that I will develop after the great barrier reef tomorrow.

Friday was even cooler. We went back up into the rainforest and went to rainforestation which is an Australian animal/aboriginal place. We went into this enclosed area that had wallabies and kangaroos running around that we could pet. It was so cool. Then we got to get our picture taken with a koala for free. Then we went up to an old hippie town and went to the markets. We then went back and took a nap before dinner and a pub crawl. The downtown area is really nice.

So today is Saturday and we are sitting outside by the beach in a really cool restaurant that has free wi-fi. Cairns is so awesome but I can't wait to go to Gold Coast and move in. Miss you all.

Cheers,

Chris

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

I'm Here

So I'm finaly in Australia. I'm using free wi-fi at McDonalds right now so I'll post pictures when I get to my room in a couple weeks. So here is my airport adventures.

So first of all I get to the Detroit airport and g0t told my tennis bag is too big so I had to stuff everything into my backpack. Crazy because there was a guy with a guitar bag :P. Then I finally get to Chicago and am sitting at the airport and they change my gate so I have to run to the opposite side of the airport. After the 4+ hours flight to L.A. I have to ride this bus thing to the international airport which took me forever to find. I then got to meet two of the three other americans that are going. They both seem really cool. It's going to be a lot of fun. After sitting in the L.A. airport for over 4 hours we finally get to board the plane to Sydney at 10:00 L.A. time. The plane was amazing. We all had our own screens which we could choose between over 100 movies plus play games. I only watched Sherlock Homes because I slept a lot of the way. The plane ride was over 14 hours long but actaully went really fast. There wasn't too many people on the plane so there were extra seats for extra room. So After we touched down in Sydney two days after I left (we left May 3rd and it was May 5th when I arrived) the real fun started. First of all my visa was not completely filled out or something so I had to step asside for a few minutes wile they fixed it. Once I finaly got through customs we had a hour delay which was killer as the three of us were so anxious to get to take a shower and go to bed. Finaly we made it after around 24 hours in an airplane plus over 10 hours in an airport and took a shower. Then got our cells phones and went out to eat. Then we all went to bed at like 8 o'clock local time but we were so tired.

So now it's my first full day and we walked to mcdonald before we go white water rafting :D. The best part is the mcdonalds is right by the ocean so were stopping by there in a few before we head out. Like I said I'll post pics as soon as I can.

Cheers everyone!

Chris

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Yeah!!!! It's almost time to leave!!

So.... I leave on May 3 from Detroit and will be arriving in Cairns, Australia on May 5. I don't know if I will have Internet access while in Cairns but on May 10 I will be arriving at Bond University. My final destination =D

Shutterfly.