Seattle Bound

I'm currently in flight to Seattle right now. This summer has been crazy ever since I returned from Cancun. I moved into Katherine's parents house on Johns Island and got a job serving at Red's in Bohicket Marina. My sister, Taylor, graduated as the Valedictorian of her class last weekend. This past weekend, I spent all day Saturday at the Hamilton's beach house on Sullivan's Island and sunday I went to my sister, Morgan's voice recital and she absolutely blows me away every time I hear her sing. While in Charlotte I was able to see my friends Dori, Rachael, Brandon, Michael and Matthew which is always incredible to see them and catch up on all of their lives.

Right now I'm flying to Seattle and then on to Spokane to spend some time with Dad and Donna and we are making a trip to Vancouver for 4 days or so which I'm very pumped about. I will keep you guys posted on my trip to Washington and possibly add pictures from my new camera that I'm getting in the next few days

Starting a New Chapter

As of today I have finished my last day of classes at PHCC in Florida. Now I just have to write a paper and take 4 finals on Monday and I will be completely finished! I'm so ready for Monday to be over! Tuesday-Thursday the packers and movers will be here to get everything together to finish my mom's move to Asheville. We close on the house on Thursday and leave for Cancun on Friday. I'm so excited about laying on the beach for a week with my mom and sister. My sister, Taylor, is the entire reason for our trip...we are celebrating her being Valedictorian of her high school!! Which is amazing accomplishment that everyone who knows her is super stoked about. In almost two weeks I will be moving to Charleston. I have been searching for apartments and I'm looking forward to getting there to check all of them out in person so I can get settled into my city. I'm hoping Charleston will be my home for the next few years atleast until I start clinical rotations. I'm very ready to begin this new chapter and be closer to my entire support system that I have missed so dearly over the past 9 months.

March 6th

Today I had orientation for all of the study abroad students and I skipped out early because I decided to go to the doctor because I've had a terrible cough and haven't been able to breathe and basically have just been miserable. My experience at the doctor was not painful at all. I walked in at 10 til 11:00 and they told me to sit down and they could see me in 10 minutes. I went back and talked to the doctor about my symptoms and she said alright well i'm going to give you a prescription for this and i went to the pharmacy and they gave it to me in about 5 minutes. I was very pleased!

March 5th

This morning I met everyone up at Uni to register for courses and I decided to take Anatomy, Sport Law and Society, Marine Environment, and Gender in Australia. After registration Rob and I went and dropped everything off at his apartment and then he came with me to Bondi and we laid out on the beach for a while and then we came in and showered. Then we went to dinner at Bungabar where we just shared a couple appetizers which were really good and then we grabbed some gelato and then walked on the beach. It was a really nice night.

March 4th

Woke up this morning at 8am and packed up all of my stuff because I was leaving Coogee Sands Hotel and moving into my apartment in Bondi. On the bus ride over to Bondi I was having hesitations because I didn't want to be that far away from everyone else in our orientation group because they were all living in Coogee but once we rounded the corner on Bondi Rd all the hesitations went out the door because Bondi Beach is absolutely beautiful. I live right off of the main road in Bondi and I'm only a minute walk from the beach. Once we got to my apartment Merlin and I didnt have the swipe card and we were trying to use my keys to get in the main door and having no luck and then a girl who ended up being my roommate Rachel came down and let us in and helped me carry all of my bags into the apartment. My apartment was a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be and I got really lucky and ended up being in the double room by myself because one of the girls had already moved out to Coogee because she didn't want to be soo far away from school. After I unpacked my roommates Rachel and Spring and I went and grabbed lunch at little restaurant up the road. After lunch I went to go meet my orientation group up at Bondi Junction to get mobiles (cell phones) and other things that we needed for our apartments.

Blue Mtns

On March 3rd, Merlin took our group on a bus up to a wildlife park where we got to see koalas and take a picture with one and then at another part of the park we got to play with kangaroos and feed them. I just sat down beside a couple of them and would talk and play with them. They have such great personalities and I thought it was so awesome how the personalities came out so strongly through their body language. After the wildlife park we drove up to the Blue Mtns and went on a 2 hr hike. At one point on the walk we went up 4 at a time on this rock and laid down and peered over the rock down at the drop off. At this moment I just took a deep breath and tried to savor every second of that amazing landscape and the overwhelming feeling that took over me.

March 2- 2nd day of orientation

We woke up and got ready. Merlin had an information session for us to tell some really important things to know about Australia. Then we grabbed a bus to the city. Got off and walked through the Paddys Market to Darling Harbour. We saw the Real World house along the way. Then we boarded a jet boat to ride out onto the habour. The boat ride out of the harbour was slow but when we were about to go underneathe the bridge it kind of hit me that I was actually in Sydney. The rest of the boat ride consisted of twist and turns and was insanely fun. After heading back into the harbour we grabbed lunch at Blackbirds and Rob ordered kangaroo and I figured I had to atleast try it. Its kind of sad to say that I've eaten it. But they overpopulate Australia. I was told there is 2 kangaroos for every one person in Australia so over 40 million. It tasted like steak too...After lunch we grabbed a monorail to Sydney Tower which is the tallest building in Sydney and we were able to look out over the entire city and get a grasp of where everything was located. Afterward we took this virtual tour of Australia and thats when I realized that I really should go to the outback. Maybe just for a weekend with a group friends to camp out underneathe the stars. Who knows when I will be back here so I should def go while I'm here. After our adventures in the city we headed back to the hotel to change and then headed down to the beach for an hour or so. Then we all showered and ate at this amazing Thai food place on Coogee Bay Ave. Then we bought some wine and went back to the hotel to drink and watch/learn the game of cricket. Then we went to Leora and Samara's house for a party.