Since Sydney life has been busy here in Brisbane, numerous birthday parties, sporting events, exams and the beginning of the end. Keep reading on for a quick catch up of what I've been up to....
More Birthdays
As I mentioned, there have been countless birthday celebrations lately with more to come next month. Most of them have been friends' 21st. It seems like everyone turned 21 at the same time. It makes me wonder what was going on in the world about 21 years and 9 months ago. Counting all of the birthdays including mine, is actually impossible to do. I'd say with certainty that there have been at least 10.
In Australia, it's pretty standard for a person's 21st birthday celebration to be put on by the family. At Josh's (you should know this guy by now) 21st a few people gave speeches about how awesome he is and how much he has grown blah blah blah... The interesting thing is that I was put on the spot and asked to go up there as well to say a few words. I was happy to do so because he really is a cool person, and so is (Jeff, Christian, Jenni, Nick, Anthony, Mitch and Line - some of the folks who also had a birthday)
Sporting Events
In an effort to go to at least one game of each of the major sports teams in Brisbane, I went to two games in June. The first was a Rugby Union game between the Queensland Reds VS. Melbourne Rebels on June 1, 2013. One of my bosses game me four free tickets to them game, so I brought along my boy Chaston (American), Connor (Australian) and Joe (Australian). The condition for Connor and Joe to come was that they had to explain the game. They tried, but I actually don't really care about sports all that much so yeah don't ask me to explain. It was a really good night hanging out with them partly because the Reds won but mostly because they're just cool. Here's a short video of the game...
The final match was an AFL (Australian Football League) match between the Brisbane Lions and Geelong Cats (Victoria). Mandy and I went along with Josh and the crew. At the start of the game I was really tired and I didn't think that I was going to make it all the way through especially because the Lions were down so much. Then something crazy happened... Brisbane started catching up and eventually won!
This was crazy for a couple of reasons:
- Geelong was ranked like 2nd or 3rd while Brisbane was ranked somewhere between in the teens our of a total of 18 teams in the league.
- They came back from a record breaking 50+ points
- Most of the people we came with were rooting for Geelong (Mandy and I stayed true to Brisbane)
It was a good time as well and at the end we got to walk onto the field and throw around a ball.
Exams
Since the last post back in mid-May living the "uni-life" without much "uni-work". For a period of about two weeks I had to buckle down. All within a couple of days of each other, I have two hefty research papers due and an final exam. That may sound kinda light but it was far from it. I slaved in the 24hr QUT library finding sources, creating a virtual business, solving real-life issues from the Australian Red Cross and organizing information for my Australian Culture and Society Class. All of that went well. Later that month I had a few more exams. I'd say they went well enough. It wasn't like I had to do extraordinarily well. In fact, I all had to do was PASS the class. It's hard to wrap your mind around that when you're used to striving for A's and B's. When it was all over, I was all smiles and I felt like a huge burden was lifted.
Beginning of the End
In June people started headed home. Admittedly it was a bit sad, but this awesome experience had to come to an end a some point. There were a few events organized to get everyone together for a proper goodbye.
One of the nights there was a big going away party at The Down Under Bar. It was a good way to get lots of people together before the headed off. It was a white t-shirt party where everyone signed each other's shirt.
Another was a Quest party boat river cruise with an after party at a rented out spot. There was tons of pizza, cheaper drinks and good company.
The final one was an event put on by QUT's Study Abroad and Exchange office held at the Stock Exchange Hotel. This event was nice because it gave us a chance to say thanks to those who helped make our experience at QUT so great ALSO there was plenty of free food a complementary drink and great company.
One of the nights there was a big going away party at The Down Under Bar. It was a good way to get lots of people together before the headed off. It was a white t-shirt party where everyone signed each other's shirt.
Another was a Quest party boat river cruise with an after party at a rented out spot. There was tons of pizza, cheaper drinks and good company.
The final one was an event put on by QUT's Study Abroad and Exchange office held at the Stock Exchange Hotel. This event was nice because it gave us a chance to say thanks to those who helped make our experience at QUT so great ALSO there was plenty of free food a complementary drink and great company.
One of our own left in June as well, Emily (USC). Before she left, she wanted to go to the Gold Coast one last time to say goodbye to the beach. We (Mandy, Emily and I) ended up at Burleigh Heads as none of us had been there. It was a very nice area that was a bit more relaxed than Surfers Paradise. This was about the only traveling that I did this month.
Because Landon was headed off on his trip around Australian for a few weeks, we took our final picture together at our home base of Urbanest.
Until next time...
Kyron S. Whitfield