June.

Well. Here I am, back in England. After the craziest 5 months of my life. Now all the surprises have been done and dusted, I can post this about my last month in Australia.

June started with me coming home from 4 days away in Cairns (the highlight of my Aussie adventure, which you can read here), with exactly 4 weeks left.

Priya, Tarrena and I got free tickets to an event in the city; a Jungle party, where we got some free Leis. There was also a baby crocodile and a python for you to hold and get pictures with. The snake I had no problem with, it was so interesting, and they don't feel at all how you imagine they would. The baby croc on the other hand was a little different. Whilst I knew that if I didn't hold one, i'd regret it, I was still a little nervous! The scary thing was that they prefer to be held against your body where it's warm - which also means bringing it's jaws closer to your face! We were assured that she wouldn't bite but you never know.

Loving the snake - not so loving the crocodile!

One day I actually made it into the city for the first time in ages. I went to some souvenir shops and then met up with Priya and Dillon to go to the Immigration Museum. I'm not a massive museum person so this wasn't of massive interest to me, but it was free and it beats sitting in my flat all day. After that we went to Hosier Lane, where the walls and street floor are covered in graffiti. It looks awesome.

Hosier Lane (apologies for the terrible quality - I've had to cellotape my phone together...)

With it being the end of the semester, a lot of people started to leave after the second week of June, so there were many opportunities to get well and truly smashed. These were the last opportunities i'd have to finish off my liver here so I gave it a good go.

We also went for a day trip to the Grampians National Park. We got a bit lost as it's pretty big, but once we found a spot we went for a walk, took some pictures and then sat down for a barbie. It was absolutely freezing so after a few trips to sit in the car to warm up, the chicken was ready. After the feast we headed back to the car and drove back to Melbourne.

Me being a starfish with the amazing view of the Grampians.

Kiri and I went for a day out in the city. First we went for a wander round the winter market and I tried and failed with my haggling skills. After some food we then went to Hosier Lane (it was nice to see it in daylight this time) and got a lot of pictures of the street art. The next stop was St Paul's Cathedral where we lit some candles. It then started throwing it down outside so we called it a day and made our way home.

Hosier Lane street art.

On my last full day Tarrena and I went to the Melbourne Sea Life aquarium and I went into some souvenir shops to get the last of my gifts for people back home.

For my last meal before making my way to the airport, me and my friends all went to 8 Bit for a burger. Tarrena and Priya started to get a little upset but I didn't start to tear up until it was time to go to the airport.

After what is quite possibly the best 5 months of my life, I made my way to the airport to be reunited with everyone I left behind in February. I'm not going to go into some massive soppy paragraph about how much I will miss my Melbourne friends (1. because I could go on for hours and 2. because I will most likely start crying again and 3. because I already kind of went on a rant about it). All i'm going to say is I really really hope it isn't goodbye, and it's just see you later.

After a gruelling 24+ hours of travelling back to the other side of the world, I walked out of security and saw Mum and Dad waiting for me. After a few hugs, I turned around and saw my sister, who I wasn't supposed to see until that night. I'll just let you see for yourself in the video:

ᗩᑎᑎᗩᗷEᒪ♥

May.

The penultimate month of my Australian adventure is finally here. This unfortunately means that funds are growing slim and the workload has caught up to me after 3 months of partying, so i'm afraid this wasn't the most exciting of months.

To start May off Priya, Tarrena and I went on a bar crawl in the city of Melbourne. In total we went to 3 bars and 1 nightclub. Somehow I acquired a sombrero that I was very protective over for the rest of the night.

Quick selfie before the bar crawl!

This month we had quite a few nights in (our livers seriously needed a bit of a break). So we had a pamper party, and on another occasion we had a taco night.

I look about 12 in this photo...

As part of one of my modules this semester, we needed to put on a live music event. We threw a Beatles inspired afternoon at a retirement village and even hired a Beatles tribute band to play. The music was brilliant and before the end of the event people were up dancing. When it had finished, people came up to us and thanked us for a great event and said they loved it.

Everyone dancing to Twist & Shout!

So one of mine and Priya's guilty pleasures is to visit Max Brenner, a chocolate bar. Unfortunately this is located right next to our gym (and a Nandos), so walking to the bus stop after a good gym sesh takes enormous self control on our part, and isn't always successful, hence how I got this picture. What you're looking at is 2 double chocolate cookies wth vanilla ice cream sandwiched between them, then on the side is melted chocolate and a little pot of sprinkles. It was amazing, but I made the schoolboy error of pouring the chocolate on the ice cream, not realising that the chocolate would go cold. Classic Annabel.

During the last weekend in May, I went to another AFL game, then straight after went to an indoor music festival in the city. It was okay, to be honest it was just like any old night out. After getting home at 2am I had 2 hours to make sure all my packing was done before I needed to leave for the airport to go to Cairns with Priya, Dillon and Nikole for 4 days.

So when this post goes up i'll have just got back from Cairns. I'll be writing an individual post of my adventures up north in a few days. Here's to my last month in Aussie land!

ᗩᑎᑎᗩᗷEᒪ♥

Living in Leeds//Melbourne

I've been living in Melbourne for over 2 months now, and during my time here so far, i've noticed quite a few cultural differences between some things here compared to back home.

The Melbourne city skyline from Albert Park.

People here are so lovely! The lady serving me in K-Mart (my new favourite shop) greeted me with a "Hi, how are you? How is your day going?". As I recall I was once in Wilko's in Leeds and all the sales assistant said to me was "Bag?". I know it's different in different stores but just the people in general are so friendly. You could be sat on a tram next to a stranger and the next thing you know you're having a little chat. It's made me start to feel a bit like my Mum because she talks to blooming everyone.

Aussie's are extremely laid back. They're just so chilled about everything. When i'm walking around town no one is really rushing to get anywhere. Usually this would bug me with people walking slow but it's nice to be in a big city where everyone is so chilled out. There was one exception when I was getting off a tram a couple of weeks ago and a man pushed me out of the way to get on and I retaliated by going "oh well excuse you" and everyone just stopped and looked at me. Maybe that's not the way they deal with situations here or maybe everyone just wanted a bit of drama to watch.

No one says 'thank you' to the bus driver. To get around on public transport in Melbourne, you need a 'MyKi' card which you can top up. It's similar to an M-Card in Leeds. This means that on trains, trams and buses you don't give cash to the driver or buy a ticket, you just make sure your card is topped up and swipe away. I'm assuming that people don't say 'thank you' to the bus driver here because there's no interaction with them when you get on. In 2 months i've only heard 2 people say it to the driver. Back home if you didn't thank the driver you'd get death stares from everyone, it's just not right.

The Drop Bears. I'm letting you in on Australia's biggest secret here. Every foreigner that comes to Aus, will undoubtedly hear about the Drop Bears from an Aussie resident. They're carnivorous bears that drop out of trees and pretty much maul your face off. Ways to avoid them are to smother your armpits with Vegemite, only speak English around them, and obviously, don't walk underneath trees. If you fell for that then you're as stupid as I was. Of course it's a hoax. Australians like to trick new travellers with this tall tale.

The Aussie's abandoned coppers. In 1991 Australia stopped using copper coins, which is great because I don't have a bunch of 1c or 2c coins jamming up my purse. However in stores products will still be on sale for prices like $12.99 etc, and it'll just be rounded up. I don't really know why they still do this as it doesn't make a lot of sense - surely it would just be easier to keep everything in multiples of 5c now?

No one replies to 'Y'alright?'. Back in Leeds this is just how we greet each other, but i've found that when you greet someone in that way here, they just look at you blankly. Maybe it's because they think i'm genuinely asking if they're okay and if it's just in passing to a stranger or someone I don't know well, it could seem quite strange. Instead, here they say "how're you going?". They also sometimes say "too easy" instead of "okay".

These are just little things i've noticed during my 2 months here, other people might think differently about these things but this is just what i've observed!

𝕒𝕟𝕟𝕒𝕓𝕖𝕝

Onwards & upwards.

I'm not going to be blogging here every single day, but a lot of people have asked me to keep them updated with what i'm getting up to and this is probably the easiest (and cheapest) way to do that.
After my mini meltdown yesterday, there wasn't really a way for anything to get worse.
(I lie, I could've lost my luggage and money and basically had nothing). So when I woke up on my second day I had a bit of a more positive outlook on my time here. I'm missing my family a hell of a lot, and after a few phone calls with each of them this morning (last night for them), I got myself up and dressed and went outside. It was a bit overcast yesterday, so when I went out on today to see blue sky and sunshine, it automatically made me feel a lot better. It still feels bizarre than i'm wandering around in shorts and sunglasses in February, however.
I've still to visit the Vodafone shop again as my mobile data isn't working, which is why I need to keep going to University to use their WIFI. I still need to buy a WIFI router for my room, and pillows. Last night I used a pillowcase stuffed with my clothes. I also need to figure out how to work the air con in my room. Last night it came on at 3am and as I only have a bedsheets (they don't really have duvet's here) I was bloody freezing, so I need a blanket. I also need to call Halifax to transfer my money here which is a complete and total pain in the arse. You know the FRIENDS episode where Chandler listens to a tape during the night to help him stop smoking? "You are a strong independent woman...", I keep replaying that to myself in my head.

My new University!

Tonight i'm meeting up with a couple of girls from my University back in Leeds, and I can't wait to have a real conversation with someone and have someone to socialise with.
Tomorrow a girl i've been chatting with on Facebook from France is moving into my building, so that's another opportunity to meet someone else. Then on Tuesday I have my orientation.
I just feel like after a rather depressing post yesterday, I needed to let everyone know back home that i'm doing okay now. The homesickness is still here, but I suppose that will fade with time.
I'm starting to feel like i'm a mix between Samwise Gamgee and Bilbo Baggins.

Why be in piss-wet through freezing Leeds when you can be in sunny, beautiful Melbourne?
I'm starting to get excited again about all of the opportunities I will have here. Once i'm in my new room next week and i've unpacked properly I feel like everything will start to fall into place.
𝕒𝕟𝕟𝕒𝕓𝕖𝕝