Home Away From Home: Southbank Campus Apartments

I have officially been in Australia for 4 months, with zero internet in my room. None of my loves from America have seen any further than Apartment 603-- Vince, Mikey and Geoff's Room, as there apartment is the only place I have been able to use internet to Skype and show the place off. Therefore, this photo blog is the best I can do. Most of these photos are stolen from the lovely Geoff Goral. His photography skills are killer so I have taken the liberty to just steal them without permission. =]
Oh, and I also stole some of his captions. Because I should be writing a paper. and I am lazy. So please, credit this whole blog as if Geoff wrote it. Because that's basically what is happening right now. Anything in quotes was written by him :) THANKS GEOFF for helping me be a lazy butt by already doing this blog. :)

The lovely Southbank Campus Apartments. Where each and every one of my lovely friends live <3 onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiyZ3v0HAqqZFi4UQmO0P-vOiT0d6F0R_r4QrTagyUrKRi3rOqbCWB4_cxBdtVeEoddosYYMvxudTnDTnXJ0ns1CqbyaperpzOOTkrUnxXnDa5MWww9VnmO_o8rRU2bhk_M7esSItdPLM/s1600/DSC_6375.jpg">The third floor has a deck with a pool overlooking the William Jolly Bridge and the Brisbane CBD. It has BBQs and tables, and it's pretty common for us to spend time out there. Whether it's the middle of the day and we are just jumping in a swim, or we have gotten all dolled up to go out and enjoy a few rooftop drinks, the deck is one of my favorite things here. We are able to put
speakers out of my friend Daniel's apartment windows to listen to music while we enjoy our time socializing!


"Our apartments are set just across the street from the Cultural Center, which is comprised of the Modern Art Museum, State Library, Natural History Museum, and the Performing Arts Center. This whole complex is set on the south side of the river, alongside the boardwalk and Streets Beach. To get to the city it take about a 10 minute walk across any one of the bridges that go over the river. After that it’s about 10 more minutes to get to campus or “Uni” as they
say here."


























Counter clockwise from top left: Our game room and lounge, laundry room where they charge $3 a load, The Joint; our coffee shop at the corner of our building. And finally, the lobby.

Now. For my REAL home away from home...
Welcome to 603, the messiest, busiest, funnest, most frustrating room in the place. This is NOT where I live, well, not technically at least. I live in 203, which is 4 floors below this wonderful place. People come and go all day long as they please. It is more common to find more people who DO NOT live in this apartment than it is to find those who DO. The guys always leave a flip flop in the door when they leave, giving me liberty to waltz up there whenever I please. They always come home to find people hanging out who don't live there. They also play host to all our friends, and THEREFORE, their apartment is in a constant state of post-get-together conditions, meaning dirty dishes, trash, and random belongings. But we know how the Aussies operate: no worries mate! But seriously.. this place can get DISGUSTING.

There’s a reason the beds are out on the floor. We often have slumber parties where up to a dozen people will just bring mattresses, blankets, and pillows, and we’ll watch movies together all night. These photos were taken after one such event.

They have a really nice balcony that overlooks the city. Love <3 onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmvcHjjgDXxFQgovWNLt6xBZJ7WJDgXP11-AJaOCDr2p3769UKAU1b3SfZAaWbO8EbnkMmbIIpIf3IkwsnZIgJdYBSUMTRBn1dOIY_M_ap1U_PPLw1iOt0rop1jQ3If5cyVrJlyog8CcQ/s1600/DSC_6278.jpg">
Oh, yeah, and then there is my apartment. It is super clean. and I am never in it. Except my room, which I am in a lot. Here are pictures :)

My bedroom. My desk. The living room. The kitchen. The balcony. View from the balcony (lame).

Hope you enjoyed the tour! :)

Trip to Noosa

A few weekends back, pretty much all of SBCA (a group of 17 of us) took a trip to Noosa, a coastal town a couple hours North of Brisbane in the Sunshine Coast region. We took the train to Nambour, and hopped on a bus to Noosa, making a pit stop at the Eumundi Markets. The Eumundi Markets are fairly famous bi weekly farmers markets in the town of Eumundi. The markets were full of fresh produce, clothing, jewelry, and all that fun stuff. I don't think I have ever seen so many booths in my life.


After leaving Eumundi, we headed to Noosa and went straight to the beach, and then checked into our hotel. The hotel was nothing like I expected-- it was SO nice. It was two levels plus a loft, 2 bedrooms, laundry, 3 TVS, and a full kitchen. It was such a relief after sleeping in nothing but hostels when traveling! After we checked in, we went back to Main Beach and hung out for a bit, and then headed back to the hotel again, stopping by Dominos to pick up some pizza! We had a little family dinner (Megan, Geoff, Mikey and I) and then Hagen and Kagan came over to use our kitchen, along with Jen.

It was originally just 5 of us staying in the hotel, but after an issue for a bunch of the other Americans at another hostel, everyone but 5 people ended up staying in our hotel. Because we had everyone right there, we all decided it would be better to just stay in and hang out at the hotel, and we made use out of the pool, sauna and hot tub facilities at the hotel!

The following day we had to check out, as we were only staying the night. We headed to Sunshine Beach, another beach a few bus stops down from Main Beach. I think most of us enjoyed this beach a bit better than the first day, as it was much less crowded. The whole group spent a few hours just laying on the beach and chatting, and around 3 pm, Geoff, Megan, Mikey and I headed to the bus stop. We ended up getting to the train station just a few minutes before our train left to head back to Brisbane, so it worked out perfectly. The train we caught was the nicest train ever! Or I suppose, just much nicer than anything we were used to. We were able to spread out in really comfortable swiveling chairs and relax on our train ride back home :)

Noosa is one of my favorite places I have visited so far. It was much more chill and much less touristy than most of the places I have been. We all had wished we had given ourselves one more day to spend there, rather than just staying one night.

Noosaville.

Mikey and Megan in a cubby space in our hotel room.

Mikey and Geoff attempting to catch fish with their hands.

Megan. Mikey.

Sunshine Beach.

Sunset on Main Beach.


Sailboat.

Megan enjoying a redbear on our fancy train back to Brisbane.


xx

AFL Game

Mikey’s family came to visit two weekends ago to celebrate his birthday, and I was able to meet them all! His mom, dad, and two brothers came, with his youngest one, Scott, staying at the apartments with us. It was so much fun meeting them all. Because Mikey’s brother was here, a group of us decided to go see an AFL game -- Austrian Football League. Australian rules football, or ‘footy’ is a game I still don’t quite understand. It is a bit of a mix of soccer and football. The players can kick, throw, bounce or run with the ball, and to score, it is thrown through a smaller sized goal post. The game was the Brisbane Lions vs. the Western Bulldogs, and it was such a blast. After the game was over, Scott bought an AFL ball, and everyone was allowed to run on the field and play for a bit.

The Gabba-- where the Brisbane Lions play.

Geoff. Scott. Mikey in the stands.

AFL.

Bahahaha.

AFL.

A bunch of fans out on the field after the game.

Mikey and Scott wrestling on the field.

Geoff. Aliey.

Mikey. Geoff. Aliey.

The Crew.

Geoff. Aliey. Donny. Lauren. Amy. Lisa. Me. Val. Jen. Kagan. Hagen.

xx