The last couple of weeks haven't been too exciting.

Last Friday Becca, Karisse, and I went to QBar. Its a bar on the 77th floor of the Q1 building down by Surfer's. The bar was really nice, kind of expensive, but well worth it. It was fun getting dressed up :)On Sunday Karisse and I were planning on going shopping. Then we realized that Sunday was ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) Day. So everything was closed. So we went shopping on Monday instead. All I had planned on buying was groceries and some gifts. Well I didn't end up getting any of the gifts, but I did get groceries :)

The weather here is still gorgeous. Its starting to get a little cooler at night, but its still been in the mid- to high-70s during the day.

That's it for now. Keeping it short and sweet this week.

Hope all is well

Cheers

Sarah

Lions Game Day

Ok so here's the story. Its a long one and I hope you enjoy it.

There was an event put on by the Village to go to an AFL game on Saturday the 17th in Brisbane. With the ticket we would get a drink and food voucher, plus a 2 for 1 meal at a restaurant. Becca and I decided to go, so we bought our tickets from the RA earlier in the week. By Friday afternoon we still hadn't heard anything about getting our tickets. Then Friday night around 8:30 an RA posted a message on Facebook saying that we could pick up our tickets. Well, I didn't see the message until 9:15 and the office closes at 9, so we didn't get our tickets that night. So Saturday around noon we went to the office to get our tickets. We get down there and the office is closed. So we call the RA on duty. She comes down and we get our tickets, but she doesn't know anything about the food and drink vouchers.

We found out that the Brisbane reserve team was playing at 3:30, so we decided to go to that game. We left our apartment around 2:30 and got a bus to the train station. Our train ride into Brisbane was around an hour long. We got off the train in Brisbane and went to the bus stop. We were so confused trying to figure out which bus to take to the stadium. We eventually figured it out and got on the bus. It was only about a 5 min bus ride from the train station to the stadium. We got to the stadium around 4:00.

I had looked on a map to see where in Brisbane the stadium was. When I was looking, I found a street named 'Princess St'. It was only about 3 blocks from the stadium so Becca and I walked over there so I could take a picture of the street sign :) After I got my picture we walked back to the stadium and looked around at the Lions shop. Finally we went into the stadium.

Now before we had left we asked the RA where we could pick up our vouchers. He told us to go to the Match Day Office. So that is what we did when we got into the stadium. They told us to go to the ticket office by Gate 9. Well we found gate 9, but the ticket office was outside the stadium. So we went outside to get our vouchers. The guy at the desk then told us that only our RA, who bought the tickets, could pick up the envelope with the vouchers in it. So we tried getting his number, so that he could tell them to give us our vouchers. Then the guy tells us that the RA's ID needs to be shown just to get the envelope. So we gave up on that and went back inside to watch the Lions Reserves team play.

We watched the game for a while and then I realized that I needed to find an ATM to get some money. So we asked one of the workers and she told us to go to this counter. So we go over there and my card doesn't work. The lady said that a lot of international cards don't work there. So she said that there was an ATM at one of the shops across the street. So we went outside the stadium again. We walked across the street to a gas station and I got some money. Then Becca and I decided that we were hungry, so we walked to the 7-11 to get something to eat. There wasn't anything good to eat there, so we went to get some pizza from Dominoes, which was basically right next door.

We ordered a pizza that only cost us $8. When we got our pizza we had no where to eat it. So we went next door to the laundry mat and ate in there. Once we finished our pizza we went back to the stadium and watched more of the Reserve's game. Finally by 7:00, 3 hours after we got there, the RA shows up and we get our vouchers. But of course we aren't hungry then since we just ate a pizza.

We watched the game for a while then. At half time we decided to use our vouchers. So we both got fries and a drink. We went back and watched the second half of the game, which was a lot better than the first half. The game got over around 9:30. The Lions ended up winning the game 101-79!!!

After the game Becca and I decided to walk to McDonalds to get an ice cream cone. We got there and were super excited because ice cream cones are only $.50! Once we had our ice cream we walked to where all the busses were and saw a sign saying "Walk to south bank", which is where the train station was. So we start walking and decide to follow this girl in front of us. Eventually she turned into a dark alley and we decided not to follow her there. So we just kept walking straight. We found an information sign and there were some people standing around it. When i went to look at the sign, they asked where we were going. We told them we were going to the train station. They said we were going the right way and gave us some directions, so we kept going the right way. Finally we made it to the train station.

When we got on the train it was already full so we had to stand. We stood for the whole ride back. When we got off the train we found the rest of the group from the Village. The RA said they were going to take a bus into town, then take another bus to the university. When we got to the bus stop in town around 12:15, we found out that the next bus wasn't supposed to come until 1. So our RA called a friend of his to take two people back to the Village to get their cars, so that they could pick everyone else up. There was extra room, so Becca and I got in that first car.

The driver of that car was a very funny guy and he was telling us a story about how he was driving at night and almost hit a kangaroo. He said 'it went Hop Hop on the road' lol Becca and I laughed so hard at this, but apparently no one else in the car thought it was that funny. We finally made it home around 12:45.

We told this whole story to Karisse once we made it home. She laughed. So i hope this story makes everyone smile :)

It was a crazy day. Filled with frustration, excitement, more frustration, an exciting football game, and some laughs.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Cheers

Sarah

Easter

What a week! This past Thursday me, Becca, and David went out to diner with Karisse and her parents. They took us to the awesome steak house. All the cuts of meat are set up in a class case and when you order, you go up there and pick the cut you want, you tell them how you want it done and what kind of sauce you want on it. It was absolutely amazing!! It was nice to get to sit down for a nice meal and talk with everyone.

On Friday I went to the Good Friday service in the morning. I found out that there is a church that meets in the auditorium of the high school right next door to my apartment. It was a great service. There was a lot of music which i really liked. During the service I realized that that was the first time that I had gone to church without my family. It made me kind of sad, but I'm glad I went. After I got back from the service Becca and I went to the beach. It was an absolutely beautiful day! We spent a while sitting on the beach then we went to the Q1 building. It is the tallest residential building in the world. On the 77th floor there is an observation deck. We spent some time up there and the view was amazing. Becca and I bought passes so that we can go back as often as we want for free :) We will be going back at night sometime to see the city lights.

Saturday Becca's parents came. It was nice to meet them. They left for their trip that afternoon.

On Sunday I went to church again. It was another nice service. I met some people that run the church and I am definitely going to be returning. The rest of that day was pretty laid back. I watched some TV and a couple of movies.

This week we are on Easter Break. I like to think of it as spring break, but since its technically fall here they just call in their mid-semester break.

I hope everyone had a good Easter!

Cheers!

Sarah