Ready Set Run!!

How you goin’ everyone?! I know there’s been a lot going on back home in Minnie over the past few weeks…and I must admit I feel like I’ve been missing out on a few things being overseas…things that I would have liked to been a part of. My Grandma Donna turned 81 last week!!! This celebration is a huge and exciting thing after everything she’s had to battle with over the past year with Cancer and just some changes in her daily life. I am so proud of her though for all she’s been through and the overall positivity and strength she has shown towards it all and really wish I could have been with the family to celebrate her! My brother Nolan is getting ready to start his senior year of high school recently just starting his first Varsity soccer season! It made me realize that I won’t be able to watch him play his last season of high school soccer...but so excited for him as his year begins. And he’s starting to tour colleges!!! Everyone is moving back to campus right now with school beginning soon….this means everyone is meeting back up and celebrating being together again after being apart for summer…and most importantly this means my best girlfriends are back on campus together and all living in their (our) brand new apartment (castle kinda we are soooo spoiled!). They are all together on campus again after being gone for almost a year because of their own study abroad adventures. Also the fact that I’m missing the first football season back on campus….and playing the Badgers at home (won’t get that next year) and FALL ON CAMPUS AT THE U…MY FAVORITE TIME OF YEAR!!! It’s not that I’m home sick at all really it’s just more of a feeling that I’m missing out on things that I would have enjoyed to be a part of! However, it’s also made me realize what’s really important to me back home and made me want to be able to pay more attention to details back home of those who I love!

Also, I am missing the crazy politics that is going on back home right now with national health care, the economy, and everything. I actually had a debate here in Australia with my Canadian friend Nick (liberal thinker) and Brian my Florida friend (says he loved Bush and used to be a conservative but is now in love with Obama?) about Obama and politics back home. It was a blast…I’m starting to see how much I weirdly like politics…shoot I’m turning into my dad ;)….but it was interesting debating and actually having a Nick on my side about how Obama is making all of these promises that he is not going to be able to follow through on and how the way he is doing things is not helping the country….and this is even his outside look being a Canadian liberal thinker! Our debate got so heated that the three others that we were hanging out with that night disappeared into the other room….

But while I feel like I’m missing out on things back home a bit I am having a blast here!! Last week was kinda a crazy week! I had two big assignments due on Monday…one went well I think…the other probably was one of the worst papers I’ve ever written….wrote it in 1.5 hours. I am still struggling a bit with completely understanding how they write papers here using referencing and theory and everything. But I got my first assignment back this week as well and my Tutorial leader said I did a good job and she was able to sit down with me and just go over a bit about how I can better use theory and things to improve my grade for next time. This should help me with my other assignments as well. First and only mid-semester exam is next week so I’m starting to read and get ready for that.

Lately for fun we went out one night to The Valley…which is where all of the clubs are and where everyone goes out on the weekends. It was a blast! A big group of us went and we first went to a three level club that played mostly house music then after I got bored of this type of music…I searched an Aussie out and asked where I could dance to some hip-hop and she led us to a club called The Church! Which literally is an old church turned hip-hop club!!! They played the best music and it was so much fun…old school hits combined with new hits it was probably better than some of the hip hop clubs back home!

Also this past weekend I ran in my first 5K race called Bridge to Brisbane. The race had a 10k and 5k race and there were a record number of participants this year that completed it. So many people did it lots of people walked it too. I ran the race with Ben and while it was a blast and both of our first 5k’s we totally screwed it up. First of all when Ben found out that I ran a lot and wanted to run the 5k he asked how long I usually ran for. I told him about 20-30 min. usually. He replied really that’s it?! And I said what do you mean that’s it?! He says, well when I go running I usually go for like an hour/hour and a half. And I said well how fast do you run? His mind quickly changed when I told him a few days before the race I mapped out a 5k along the river and ran it in 30min. He then said ohhh really….we could run together some time then. As the time I ran my practice race in he told me if you want to take off without me during the race because I’m going too slow that’s fine. And I said alright just remember that you said that ;) So back to race day. We took the city cat ferry boat down the river to the start line which was soo pretty and a good way to get to the race. While we were on the boat we noticed everyone already had their race numbers on…we didn’t. Also we noticed that no one had any bags or anything with them….and of course I did…my backpack with some of my stuff in it. So once we got to the race we went to the info booth to ask if we could get our numbers; turns out we needed to pick them up from them the day before and we could try to run but if someone pulled us out because we didn’t have a number don’t be surprised. Then we asked her where we could check our bag, and she said sorry we only had a bag check at the 10K start. So there we were no number with a bag wondering how are we going to run this?! Ben decided he would carry the backpack during the race. So the race started and we were off…me Ben and backpack. We ran for a little over a kilometer when Ben started to lag behind me. As I remembered in my head that he said yeah go on without me if I’m too slow…I turned around and looked at him and saw the big backpack in front of his body carrying it and him smiling and shaking his head. I ran for a bit longer contemplating whether he would be upset that he now had to run 3 miles with my backpack and without me because I was too fast………I thought about it for a second…..and still decided to take off without him. So I crossed the finish line and Ben crossed it I would say about 8 min. after me backpack and all!! Because we didn’t pick up our numbers we also didn’t get time chips….so we had to guess about how fast we ran. I listened to the time the announcer was announcing and I guessed I ran it in a little under 30 min. and Ben ran it in about 35min. So all in all not to bad with a backpack on your back. Ben wasn’t mad at all about having to carry it really…more so I think a little annoyed that I beat him ;)

One night a big group of us went out for Karaoke at a local pub. I was so excited because I hadn’t been to sing karaoke before….I don’t think that singing on their professional karaoke machine in the basement on our friends the Elfstrom’s house when I was little in front of a small group of family and friends counts the same as singing in public with complete strangers, although singing love shack at the Elfstrom’s was probably one of my favorite things to do when we went over to their house. The girls, me Danielle and Nicole, sang John Mellencamp’s Jack and Diane, and Total Eclipse of the Heart. The boys took it home with Red, Red Wine…Ben said it was one of the only songs he knew all of the words too?! And Brian sang a solo…Save a horse ride a cowboy. One of the highlights of the night though was this foreign guy that “rapped” a William hung version of two Kane West songs!! Wow I laughed so hard at this guy I started crying. Rapping to Kane in “proper” foreign spoken English=entertaining night of karaoke!!

We also took in our first Rugby game a few weeks ago. The Brisbane Broncos is their rugby “footy” team and coincidently their colors are a maroon and gold!!! They were on like a 6 game losing streak and broke it the game that we went to so it was a fun game! It was my first time watching a sport in an outdoor stadium…even though it probably does not compare to the new gopher football stadium….it was fun learning more about Australia’s version of football. I really liked it and caught on pretty fast. Basically they have 5 “downs” to get to the endzone on the other side of the field but the cool part is that you don’t stop after every 5 second play like we do in American football, which I liked. They just start a new play right away and keep going. They call a “touchdown” a Try and they do kick field goals but they kick them from like way on the outside field line. It’s really rough too. They tackle each other like they do in “grid iron” (what they call American Football) but they don’t have pads on. Since then the Broncos have been on a winning streak and are now up to 4^th place with one more home game left which we are going to on Sunday. We’ve also been having a ton of BBQ’s as of late because Ben, Danielle, Nicole, and Nick got a propane tank for their grill finally and so we’ve been using that a lot.

I’ve also been doing a ton of planning for our Spring Break here. (yep remember I’m opposite seasons as you guys…so I pretty much get two spring breaks this year!!!) But there is a group of about 20 of us that are going…all of us are international students but from all over…Germany, Norway, US, London. We are leaving September 25^th at night and road-tripping it for 15hours to the Whitsunday is land coast. Then talking a ferry out to long island where we are staying at a resort there for 6 nights. Then we are going back to the mainland and taking another road trip to Cairns which is even further north and staying at a hostel there for 4 nights…returning on October 5^th by plane back to Brisbane. I’m getting excited for it even though it’s been a lot of work to plan. Whitsundays are supposed to be beautiful!!! They have Whitehaven beach which is ranked in the top 10 most beautiful beaches in the world!!!

This weekend me and Ben are going to go surfing up north about an hour on the coast, and then come back on Sunday for the Rugby game…Sunday we might go to the Australian Zoo. We’ll see what the weekend brings.

And for those enquiring minds…….yes I mention Ben a lot……….and yes, I like Ben a lot………..so……….for those of you who said I’d find a cute Australian boy over here, you were wrong!! I found a German! ;)

Until next time! Cheers!

Mallory

Bacon, Beach, Barbeque, and Surf

Hello everyone back home!!

WOW it’s been a busy past two weeks!! I’ve done some traveling, started classes, and had some really fun nights here in Brisbane. Overall the adjustment has been pretty good over the past two weeks. My last grocery shopping trip went well…I’m getting better at buying food I can use to make a variety of things. Since classes have started my days have gotten a little busier which is good! But so far I’m having a hard time adjusting to having so much time where I don’t really have anything to do…unlike back at the U. For those of you who know me well, you know I love to keep busy busy busy…and while I knew I wanted to live a little more relaxed life with school, work, and involvement in other things being in Australia, I am itching to add at least one thing on to my plate to take up a little time on the weekdays. I’ve searched out the QUT Christians group which I have not been able to attend anything yet because of other conflicts, but hope to soon, and I’ve started to casually search for a job that I could work like 10 hours a week. I don’t have any classes on Wednesday or Friday so I figure why not work a few hours and have a little more spending money on the weekends and going out to eat/buying groceries. But I’m not sure if I’ll be able to find anything that will take me for just that.

The weekend of July 17th-19th I took a trip to North Stradbroke Island for the International Student Orientation Trip. The island is about an hour outside Brisbane. My friends Danielle and Ben both went on the trip with me. After I arrived we were assigned rooms and I shared a room with a German girl and two Norwegian girls. There are soooooo many German and Norwegian international students it’s crazy. They were pretty nice but it was kinda annoying when they would talk Norwegen together and I just kinda sat there since I couldn’t really join in the conversation. But it was ok I escaped to meet up with Ben and Danielle every chance I got. That day I went on a hike along the rocks on the coast and then at night we had a big beach party with music and a fire which was a blast! I met a girl named Jeanette (who is also German) and I danced with her all night. The next day I went Kayaking which was hilarious….trying to ride the waves in and getting tipped over was so much fun. Then it was the best part…I had surfing lessons!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so much fun!! I did really well too; I got up on my second attempt and rode the wave all the way into shore. The teachers didn’t believe I hadn’t done it before. I’m in love and I need to get out more to go surf! That night everyone went to what we thought was a bar pub place and when we got there it was like the Australian version of a VFW but they call them a Bowl Club because they have lots of lawn bowling leagues. There was a live band playing which was interesting and there were definitely some weird interesting people there but we made the best out of it. The next morning I woke up and went on a long run on the beach which was AMAZING!!!! Then I chilled in the sun and we went home. The weekend all in all was a blast! I got to know Ben and Danielle so much better and made a new friend…Jeanette!!

Then it was my first week of classes. So far so good, three of my professors are really cool and really good…the other is for market research and he’s not very easy to listen to..throw the topic on top of that and the fact that it’s Thursday nights from 6-8 after I’ve already had 3 other classes and that equals a really though 2 hour lecture to sit through. Overall the classes are going to be manageable!! Lectures and everything are similar to back home but every class has a discussion small group piece and there are no weekly assignments. Our grade is based on a final exam at the end of the semester and then one big project which may be divided into two parts in the semester. So, while this is nice for traveling and other things I want to do it’s not so good to keep me on task and getting things done. But they definitely do not do homework like Carlson does or like we do back in the states; but Carlson epically! It’s really nice to not be surrounded by people who make you feel guilty for not reading the chapter for the week before you come to class!!

That Friday night I had Ben, Brian, Nicole, Danielle, and Jeanette over to my place for dinner. It was the first time they came over to my place so I was excited! I even cleaned the apartment before they came. I vacuumed the entire place, washed up the table and the countertops and everything! I like where I live and I like most of my roommates but the two that live in the upper level are PIGS!! They don’t do there dishes and when they do they don’t even get them clean all the way so it leaves the three of us who actually live on the kitchen level with the mess to look at and we always end up doing them because we can’t stand it anymore. But all my roommates but Lium went away for the weekend for a big music festival called Splenda so I decided to have my friends over. I ended up making breakfast for dinner..which the Germans thought was CRAZY!!! We made pancakes, eggs, bacon, breakfast potatoes, and OJ. I soon realized why when I moved in my roommates gave me this paranoid speech about how the fire alarms work. The fire alarms in my apartment complex are super sensitive and one is really close to the oven, so it goes off often when you’re cooking things on the stove. There is a button on the wall you have to press if it’s not really a fire so the fire brigade doesn’t come out. If you don’t press it within 30 seconds then they come and if it’s not a real fire you get charged $1000!! Needless to say after the fire alarm went off the second time from all of the bacon we were frying I got super paranoid!! Of course I pushed the button each time but I was in the words of my friends “pretty much freaking out”. We set the alarm off one more time and then I decided bacon cooking was done!! As we sat down to eat I was excited to learn that Nicole (from NY) also dips her bacon in syrup!! We talked about how good it was for a while and Ben (German) responded, “I think I’m going to puke!” It was a new thing for them to put syrup on their pancakes (they usually just put sugar on theirs) let alone put syrup on meat!? Ben claimed he was “sick” for the rest of the night.

The next morning we all met on campus at 7:45am to go for a day trip to the Gold Coast with the International Student Group again. This time Ben, Brian, Nicole, Danielle, Jeanette, and another new friend Lucy, all went. I also met Jens who I have Global Business with and Thyge and Christophe. We took a bus to an animal sanctuary where I got to play with kangaroos and see Koalas!! Then we went to a surf life saving club to eat lunch where I had really good beer battered fish and chips! There we had an introduction to what the rules are at the beaches in Australia for swimming and surfing and we got to see what the surf lifeguards wear and what they look like. We chilled at the beach nearby then headed to Surfers Paradise. My group of friends booked a hostel for the night but the rest of the group went back to Brisbane. It was my first time staying in a hostel but it was fun because we got a room for 6 and we were all in the same room. That night we went out on this Backpackers pub/club crawl which was sooooo much fun! It is a big bus filled with all the people staying at the hostels in the area and they bring you around to the best clubs in the area. The night was so much fun! I quickly learned that Jeannette is my new dance buddy; she loves to dance as much as I do and we danced all night together. The next day we hung out on the beach all day…but it was really cold and I spent most of my time in a sweatshirt. Then we left around dinner time to go home and I got to ride on my first train. The Germans couldn’t believe I hadn’t been on one before.

Then it was back to reality and another week of classes. Monday I went with Ben to the rock climbers club, a student group on campus that rock climbs on the rocks just opposite the river of campus. This is for real rock climbing…no plastic climbing helpers here!! Ben has all of his own climbing stuff so he’s serious and I just went along because I thought it would be fun! I had to do it barefoot and it was fun but I didn’t get very far. I thought it was hard to do the indoor rock climbing walls but this is sooo much harder! It was fun to do though because you do it along the river at night with the city line in the background and the lights shine up at the rocks which makes a really pretty setting. It’s free your first time but then after that you can pay $60 for the semester to do it every Monday and Wednesday. It was fun….but I don’t think I’ll be joining anytime soon.

This past weekend was pretty chill. Friday night we went to see Public Enemies here at the cinema on Southbank which is super cheap to see movies…just $6.50 for students…and that’s Australian dollars so it’s even cheaper for me!! Then we woke up early Saturday and went for the day to a beach in Sandgate. The beach wasn’t very nice…really small…but it was really nice weather so I laid out in the sun for a while. The best part was we had a barbeque (you don’t say grilled in Australia which I learned from my roommates) on the beach. They have built in electric barbeques at most beaches in Australia. We did chicken, shrimp, and tofu (for Danielle) kebabs with peppers onion and pineapple. They were sooooo good and so much fun to make. We all stood around the grill and talked and ate in the sun…could you ask for a better time?!

This week I have another week of classes…some homework to do since I have a short 5 min. presentation for my e-marketing class to do next Monday about the company I’m going to do an e-marketing plan for; I’m doing Feed My Starving Children. Then on the weekend we’re going to Noosa, which is on the sunshine coast north of Brisbane about an hour and a half train ride. We rented an apartment holiday unit for 10, me, Ben, Danielle, Nicole, Brian, Nick, Jens, Jeanette and Lucy are going. We’re going to barbeque again since they have a grill at our place…play some cards and hang out at night since we have our own kitchen and living room, and during the day go to the beach and SURF!!!! It should be a fun weekend!!

Sorry for the book!! I’m gonna work on updates more often!! But I hope you are all well back in the states!! I miss you all and can’t wait to keep you posted about Down Under!! I’d love to hear updates about what’s going on back home too, e-mail me if you’d like darst006@umn.edu.

Cheers to a good week!!
Mallory

How you going?!

Brisbane is known as the river city because the river winds right through the middle of the city. QUT’s Gardens Point Campus is right where the river bends and is in the main downtown district. Gardens Point also has a botanical garden right next to the campus with beautiful flowers and trees that makes the city and campus absolutely beautiful and unique. I’ve been taking a lot of time just walking around and exploring by myself. It’s been very nice to just take everything in while walking around listening to my ipod and taking lots of pictures (lol with no one in them).

My favorite place so far in the city is South Bank which is just across the river from Gardens Point Campus. Over on Southbank is the Queensland state library which is gorgeous and has great places that look out over the river and towards the city where I plan on doing a good deal of studying once school starts. Most of all the State Library has completely free internet!!! While only being here just under a week, I’ve realized how much our lives are run and entertained over the internet. In Brisbane you don’t have unlimited internet access. In my apartment and even on campus you are only allotted a certain amount of megabytes of downloads…which I’ve found is taken up extremely fast by using skype and watching shows online. So, I’m going to have to learn to use the internet sparingly during my time here…I went through $10 in 4 days which my Australian roommates found insane!!

The best part of Southbank is the architecture of flowers and plants, river walk, and cute shops and restaurants that line it. Southbank quickly has become one of my favorite places to walk around because of the awesome restaurants that are there all with individual patios and street tables that all overlook the city and river. If I could eat out at a different restaurant each night there I would. The people watching there is also great! They have a outdoor theater there too where different events take place but there’s always break dancers, bands, or other groups meeting there and I enjoy sitting and watching them practice their performances.

Saturday I slept in and then went for a run and grocery shopping at Woolworths just a block away from my apartment. I went there with an idea of what I wanted and what I thought would be a quick run to the store turned into an hour long event! Between finding where everything was in the store and deciding what I wanted and finding good deals I had probably circled the store 10 times! Ingredients for PB&J sandwiches, noodles and sauce, caesar dressing and lettuce, a pack of Oreos, milk, and yogurt, and $50 later I ventured home. Hopefully now I can start eating on a regular schedule.

Sunday I woke up and went to mass at the Catholic church about a 10min. walk from my apartment. St. Brigid’s in Red Hill is the coolest thing, it sits on top of a hill that overlooks the entire city and the big red brick building was built in 1912 and has a definite character to it. It was different from church back home on the U of M campus that’s for sure! There was a large amount of older people a few families but I was definitely one of the few if not the only single young adult in the place. Going to church felt really good but was also a little tough. It definitely made me miss home a bit, and I did catch myself a little teary eyed during mass, missing sitting next to family and friends at church. After church was done I spent the day reading out in the sun looking over the suburbs by my apartment. While spending a good chunk of the day alone I got a bit choked up thinking about home and missing people and things but, I think my time spent in church asking to find a community and a foundation in Australia to feel more comfortable was answered and my friend Brian from Florida called and wanted to meet up.

We met up on campus and took a walk through the old government house on Gardens Point Campus at QUT. It was a really cool building that in the middle had a small café serving tea and desserts so we grabbed a table and ordered some. We ordered an Australian dessert called Lamington which is a white cake with chocolate around the outside and coconut sprinkled around the whole thing. We also got a black tea that was amazing!! It was so good!! I plan on eating lots of it before coming home with a recipe for it hopefully!

After we finished tea and Lamington we headed over to Nicole(from NY) and Danielle’s (also a Florida gator) house. This was my favorite night in Australia so far! We just hung out made some pasta and got to know one another. Ben their other roommate from Germany I got to know very well also and he is one of the biggest sweethearts!! I also hit it off extremely well with their other roommate from Canada, Nick. Me and Nick gave each other crap all night long about being from MN and Canada and made one another laugh all night long. After heading to the bus stop at 9:30 and waiting 20min. for the last bus of the night to take me back home I found out that Nick “accidentally” gave me the wrong time for me to catch my last bus. Needless to say I spent the night there on the couch. Me and Nick stayed up until 4:00 talking about life, college, politics, home, and Australia. I got a little bit of sleep and in the morning we went downtown and got pancakes for breakfast, his treat!

Slowly I’m forming a group of great friends in Australia and I’ve only been here a week. I’m looking forward to starting school next week and getting into a bit more of a regular routine and hopefully meeting more people on campus. This week I have a river dinner cruise on Tuesday with all the international students which will be a blast and then Friday-Sunday I have a trip to North Stradbroke Island (Ben and Danielle are both going) and I’m excited to take my first surf lessons!!!
I hope everyone and everything back home is well!! I love you all, miss you all, and thanks so much for all of the love and support you’re showing me!

Cheers to a wonderful week!
Mallory

I have arrived!!!!!!

G’Day Mates!!

It’s official I’m in Australia!! The plane ride was pretty killer!! I was fine transferring from MN to Denver then to LA, but the last leg got really long!!! It was about 13 hours and I only slept for maybe 2 of the 13…could not sleep sitting up. The worst part was my butt and back started to kill and my back is still bugging me a bit. On my flight there was a huge group of high school athletes from all over the US that were coming to Australia to play football (American) against Aussies. The whole time in the LA airport and on the plane ride over I could tell they were keeping their eyes on me and surprisingly when we landed in Brisbane one of them approached me and asked me my name and talked to me for a while. Needless to say when he found out I was in collage he made sure to introduce me to the rest of his buddies as “this is Mallory she’s in college”.

I was so excited to find all of my bags had made it to Australia! I was picked up at the airport by someone from the university along with 5 other students attending universities in Brisbane. Two were Badgers that are attending a different “Uni” (that’s what they call universities) in the area but we had fun taunting each other and talking about missing the badger gopher game in the new stadium. I also met a girl from NY, Nicole, who was also going to QUT.

I was dropped off at my apartment at 7:15am and had a lot of time to kill before I could get my keys. Luckily, I ran into a maintenance person who then stored my bags for me in the reception area and I went out to find my first Australian Coffee. My apartment has a coffee shop built right in so I went there and a really nice guy gave me some of the low down about the area and made me my first Australian espresso which is served in a glass not a mug.

9:00am came quick and I checked in and got my keys. I knocked on the door and no one answered so I walked in to find no one. I opened my door and began to unpack when I heard the door next to me open and I met my first roommate Dyani (D-on-e) an Aussie who was here with her boyfriend Troy. I learned that the rest of my roommates also all Aussies were home for the break between semesters and would return soon. Lium, the single male roommate I met soon thereafter and a few days later I met Brittany and still have not met the 4^th, Michelle.

Dyani was great! She had to head to work in the city so she let me tag along to show me where the mall area was so I could go get a pillow, comforter, towels, etc. I went to “target” to get everything; which resembles our Targets in America by the bullseye and types of things they have, but that’s it. After a very long time in target trying to both figure out where everything was and make sure I was getting an ok deal I headed back home on the bus with the biggest reusable tote bag I’ve ever seen that I had to purchase for $2.00.

By the time I got home from Target it was around 4:00 and I was exhausted from Jet leg and starving. I went down the street to our “main street” type of thing and grabbed a Subway….which was interesting ordering. I got up to the counter and since there on metric I didn’t know if they call it a 6 inch or what!!!?? So I ordered a half sandwich to which the sandwich artist looked at me funny, and when I ordered oil on my sub she said ummm….we don’t have that! Oh and here they don’t have $5 footlongs, they have $7. I headed home to eat my sub and watch the Bachelorette in my room. I ended up falling asleep part way through between commercial breaks….5:00pm!!!

The next day I had orientation at 9:15 down on the Gardens Point Campus downtown. I quickly realized how stubborn I really am in being independent after I left at 8:30 to catch my 10 min. bus ride and got lost and arrived half hour late for orientation. I eventually made it there but I couldn’t find the bus stop I needed to go to and for the longest time refused to just ask someone where it was!! But once I arrived orientation went well. I ran into Nicole, the girl I met at the airport and a familiar face and also met Brian, a Florida Gator, who I quickly became close with. I was excited to get all the classes I wanted, a marketing research class, buyer behavior, global business, and an e-marketing class. After orientation me Brian and Nicole headed downtown for our first Australian dinner out at a place called Jo Jos…we got pizza!! Haha

Overall, I made it here safe and slowly I’m getting adjusted and settled. I miss some of the conveniences of home already, but otherwise Australia and Brisbane are gorgeous!

More to come soon!!

-Mallory

Gettin'Ready to go half way around the world!

It's official....I got the plane ticket, a place to live, and a Blog set up!!! Australia here I come!!!

The time I have left in the states is getting shorter and shorter but there's lots of exciting things happening before I leave. I wrapped up my internship at the Grand Avenue Business Association Tuesday and my last day working in the Carlson Undergrad Office is Wednesday. My good friend Nat gets back from Spain the 1st and is coming up to the cities to stay with me through the 4th. Then my other friends Rachel and Jordan (also my roommates when I get back on campus in the Spring) are coming up to the cities on Friday, also to stay through the 4th. Friday we're all going to move stuff into our brand new-never been lived in-apartment which will be awesome!!

For the 4th my family goes for our annual pontoon boat trip with the Elfstroms all day long. It will be a nice send off before I leave and is always hilarious! Nat will be joining us and so will some of the Elfstrom boy's gf's and friends!

Then after all that I need to pack and get everything ready to leave the Oakdale, MN, and the U.S. to go DOWN UNDER!!! The trip will take close to 24 hours to get there; I'll take a flight from Minneapolis to Denver, Denver to LA, and then the final leg....a 14 hour flight from LA to Brisbane!!

In Brisbane, I'll be attending the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and taking a lot of marketing classes as well as some international business. My residence will be just outside campus at the Kelvin Grove Urban Village where I'll be getting 4 random mixed gender roommates.

I hope you take a chance to follow me on my adventure while I'm abroad and share in the excitement and stories I'll have to share. Thanks for all of your pre-departure support and remember to keep me in your prayers during all of my travels.

Take Care!
Mallory